On April 25, Tenrikyo Young Men’s Association held its monthly meeting at the association headquarters. It was attended by some 200 leaders including chairmen of directly supervised chapters and diocese chapters.
The meeting started with President Daisuke Nakayama giving the opening address. First, he announced the new slogan for the lead-up to the association’s 100th anniversary, which will be observed in two years’ time: “Work with your mind—open up the world.” He went on to say: “The pre-anniversary activities are intended to return to the founding spirit of the Young Men’s Association and carry out the activities while setting our sights on the future, 10 or even 20 years down the road. Aiming at having every association member keep in mind the joy of faith and go out to sprinkle the fragrance of the teachings, I would like all of us to address squarely the dual tasks of spreading and inquiring into the teachings.”
Following the president’s opening address, Association Chairman Masanao Nakayama explained the main points of the pre-anniversary activities and talked about the specifics of planned activities and events. He then went on to give a detailed explanation about the important catch phrases that are designed to help members carry out their dual tasks of spreading and inquiring into the teachings in the lead-up to the 100th anniversary. These catch phrases are “sprinkling the fragrance from heart to heart” and “implementing the Joyous Life in the course of daily living.” Concerning missionary work, Chairman Nakayama emphasized, “Rather than carrying out our activities with temporary enthusiasm, I would like all of us to go out and sprinkle the fragrance of the teachings with the intention of creating opportunities to engage in salvation work.” Regarding the efforts to inquire into the teachings, he focused his attention on the parent-child and husband-wife relationships in explaining the importance of implementing the Joyous Life each day, starting with people close by, and he encouraged the audience to be mindful of practicing filial piety to parents and building a harmonious husband-wife relationship in every aspect of daily life.” He also talked about the future prospect of the association’s pre-anniversary activities, saying “It is important that association members not just make an effort to stay connected to their respective churches but also make progress in their spiritual growth, thereby becoming Yoboku who bring the people on whom they sprinkled the fragrance to their churches and proactively carry out salvation work.”
The association headquarters announced that the pre-anniversary activities will start in November 2016. Concerning the missionary activities, the association will designate the second Sunday of each month leading up to the association’s 100th anniversary as Arakitoryo Nioigake Day, encouraging all association members to engage in missionary work. Furthermore, it was announced that all directly supervised chapters will hold the 100th Anniversary Pre-Convention Rally intended for all members between November 2016 and October 2017. In preparation for the association’s 100th anniversary, the association headquarters committee members will make visits to all directly supervised chapters between May and June 2016 and to all diocese chapters between August and October 2016.