Activities

Missionary Groups and Sports and Cultural Exchange from Tenri

Since the completion of the Tenri Youth Hall in June 1998, the Oceania Centre has made a great effort to accomplish its aims by receiving many Tenrikyo groups that visited Australia for the purpose of missionary training, cultural or sports exchanges.

Among the groups for missionary training, Australia Study Tour Group from Tenrikyo Young Men’s Association (TYMA) stand out. This group started in May 1998 as a representative activity of “Australia Mission” set out by the Association as part of the activities commemorating its 80th Anniversary, and has still continued up to the present even after ten years have passed. The latest group visited Australia in March 2008. During the past ten years, 212 members in total participated in this tour in which they engaged in various activities including missionary work, Hinokishin, cultural exchanges, etc. In addition, other study tour groups were dispatched by TYMA Shikishima Chapter in December 1998 and March 2004 as well as by TYMA Asahi Chapter in May 2000.

From 1999 on, Tenri University Yoboku Association Australia Mission Group has visited Australia in August almost every year, making use of Japan’s long summer vacation. The group members have engaged in such activities as door-to-door missionary work, cultural exchanges with local schools, Hinokishin, etc. This year’s group was the 9th, which marked 59 members in total who participated in this program. Furthermore, Tenrikyo Language Institute English Course Study Tour Group visited Australia in November every year from 2003 to 2007 in which 62 students in total participated in the tour and engaged in door-to-door missionary work.

For cultural activities, we received three different groups for the purpose of “Gagaku” performances in Australia during 2005 and 2006: “Tono Gagaku Club” in August 2005; “Tenri University Gagaku Music Society” in July 2006; and “Kyokusui-kai Gagaku Ensemble” in September 2006. Staying at the Oceania Centre, each group held Gagaku concerts in many different venues within Australia.

For sports exchanges, the Oceania Centre received some groups including “Tenri High School Rugby Football Club” in July 2000.

“All Tenrikyo Hinokishin Day” is observed in Japan on 29 April (“Day of Showa” holiday) every year. We are taught that this is a special day in which we, followers living in the same community, come together at a designated time and place to combine our Hinokishin efforts in unity of mind, and, by outpouring our joy and gratitude, show our local community how wonderful this path is and how precious God’s providence is.

In the Oceania diocese, we hold this event as “Oceania Hinokishin Day” in different cities in the region every year since the beginning of the time when the Oceania Centre was established. The “Oceania Hinokishin Day” in 2008 was held from April to May in five cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Auckland, and 206 people in total participated spiritedly in Hinokishin.

The Oceania Centre carried out door-to-door missionary work for the first time in June 1999 in order to do Nioigake or “sprinkle the fragrance of the teaching” and spread the teachings of the Joyous Life to the local residents in the neighbourhood of the Centre and other regional areas as much as possible.

Since then, we regularly hold “Nioigake Day” every Tuesday. We distribute flyers and administer the Sazuke, the Divine Grant, to those suffering from illnesses.

Pilgrimage to Jiba

The first pilgrimage tour to Jiba after the establishment of the Oceania Centre was organised in April 1998 when the Oyasama’s 200th Birth Celebration Service was observed, and 13 followers returned to Jiba from Brisbane, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney.

Since then, the pilgrimage tour to Jiba has been conducted occasionally in April and October for such an occasion as “Inauguration Service for the Shinbashira”, “Tenrikyo Women’s Association’s 90th Anniversary” and so forth.

During the year of the 120th Anniversary of Oyasama, the Oceania Centre organised “Oceania Pilgrimage Tours to Jiba for Oyasama’s 120th Anniversary” four times a year in January, April, July and October so that as many followers in the Oceania diocese as possible could return to Jiba during the “Year of the Anniversary” and show the everliving Oyasama our spiritual maturity. Under the slogan: “200 people returning to Jiba from Oceania”, the Centre, the church, fellowships and followers in the diocese worked in unison to invite people to join the tours. As a result, the number of pilgrims from the Oceania region during the “Year of the Anniversary” was 175 people in total (161 from Australia and 13 from New Zealand) according to the Centre’s records. Unfortunately, we could not achieve our goal of 200 people, but the number of the pilgrims from the region became doubled when compared with that of those at the 110th Anniversary year (88 people in total: 77 from Australia and 11 from New Zealand).

Listening attentively to the voice from Jiba in the seasonable times in the future, the Oceania Centre will organise the pilgrimage tour to Jiba when needed so that as many people as possible will be able to return to Jiba from the region.

Missionary Visits

The Oceania Centre has conducted “Missionary Visits” since the establishment of the Centre.

The main purpose of these visits is not only to meet followers living in other regions which are located far from the Oceania Centre or the church, but also to find followers who have little contact with their respective church and to encourage them to grow spiritually by creating closer connections between them and their own church or the Oceania Centre. The first missionary visit was carried out to Darwin, Adelaide and Mt. Gambier in August 1998. Afterwards, the missionary visits were made on a regular basis to visit followers in Sydney and Perth in Australia, and in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Whangarei and Kerikeri in New Zealand.

This event has been carried out every year since the beginning of the establishment of the Centre for making rice cake to be offered at the New Year’s Day Service of the Centre. In recent years, many followers as well as the Centre’s Japanese class students participate in the event and enjoy the Japanese traditional culture together.