The November Monthly Service of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters was performed on the 26th in the Main Sanctuary, with Successor-Designate Daisuke Nakayama serving as chief officiant on behalf of the Shinbashira.
In the Service prayer, Rev. Nakayama first expressed gratitude to God the Parent for teaching us about universal salvation step by step and nurturing all of us, God’s children, with boundless parental love over a long period of time while eagerly looking forward to our spiritual growth. Continuing, he said: “With only one month remaining before the end of the final year of the pre-anniversary activity period, all of us Service performers as well as church head ministers and other Yoboku will once again bring our minds closer to Jiba and continue to do our utmost in engaging in single-hearted salvation with an awareness that we are Oyasama’s instruments. We are determined to move forward on our journey of spiritual growth in ways that allow us to respond to Your parental love as befits the current season.”
The prayer was followed by the joyous performance of the Kagura Service and the Dance with Hand Movements. After the Service performance, Honbu-in Isafumi Tanaka took the podium to deliver the sermon.
In his sermon, Rev. Tanaka first spoke about the Service by referring to Tenrikyo texts including The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo. After noting how Oyasama urged the completion of the Service through Her fifty-year Divine Model, Rev. Tanaka shared his view that the performance of the Service is the way to respond to Oyasama’s parental heart and is something that Oyasama taught us followers to implement. Performing the Service during the “three years, one thousand days” period leading up to the 140th Anniversary of Oyasama is the most important way to respond to the parental love of Oyasama, he said.
In speaking about the frame of mind that followers ought to maintain in performing the Service, Rev. Tanaka pointed out three key aspects: “melting into the mind of God the Parent with a purified mind,” “joyously in high spirits,” and “together in unity of mind.” We followers are encouraged to earnestly perform the Service—which is something Oyasama spent fifty years teaching us for the cause of world salvation—with firm resolve and utmost sincerity, said Rev. Tanaka, adding that we ought to administer the Sazuke to those who are ill, thereby moving forward on the path of single-hearted salvation.
Toward the end of his sermon, Rev. Tanaka called on the listeners to continue to strive to achieve the goals they set for the pre-anniversary activities during the remaining period leading up to the upcoming anniversary so as to attain a higher level of spiritual growth that will bring joy and peace of mind to God the Parent and Oyasama on the day of the anniversary.