Sunday, August 02, 2009

2009 Special Conference in Brazil (3)

  Today was the first day of "2009 Special Conference for World Peace" which was held at Fanchal Lecture Hall in Sao Paulo that was from 1 to 7 p.m. According to my memory, there were 2,965 attendees from 16 countries.

  The participants from the United States were allotted a relatively front seat with participants from Europe and Canada. A person next to me was a very nice man and propagator from Scotland and he shared his impressive story about how he was introduced to Seicho-No-Ie when his family members in Brazil were also introduced to SNI.

  I was able to meet very familiar people whom I was concerned about including Rev. Akinori Jo, a former stationed minister in Europe whom I constantly contacted with when I was at International Headquarters, a woman who was in London, whom I once interviewed for a Japanese magazine, and Rev. Enio Masaki Hara, a former President of Youth and Young Adult Association of SNI Brazil.

  The theme of Special Conference was as follows:

   Learning from the Natural World View of Native Americans
        (1) North America
        (2) Central and South America

   Learning from the Natural World View of
         the Major Traditional World Religions
        (1) Judaic and Christianity
        (2) Islam
        (3) Buddhism and Hinduism

  Today, we studied the three themes from above, Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi's lecture, which was consisted of his answers to the questions submitted beforehand, and Mrs. Junko Taniguchi's lecture.

  One of the four questions submitted to President Masanobu Taniguchi was Irene Revilla's following questions:
---------------------------------------------------
As a parent of two young adults I listen to them discussing events that are happening around them. This generation of youth have a sense of doom surrounding them as the world is full of economic problems and natural changes. As the President of SNI do you believe that our movement can progress realistically to create more positively in this 21st century and why do you feel this way?
----------------------------------------------------

   You will have a summary of Rev. Taniguchi's answer in the SNI-Online which will be sent out about two month's later.

   The primary language at this Conference was Portuguese. Rev. and Mrs. Masanobu Taniguchi's lectures and presentations done by other than Portuguese, consecutive interpretation was conducted. When presenters speak Portuguese, they were simultaneously interpreted into Japanese, English, and Spanish.

   Material for each presentation was distributed in advance, I was able to listen to the English presentations without Japanese interpretation. When presented in Portuguese, I chose a Japanese interpretation in some case and a English interpretation in other case.

   Those who were engaged in interpretation are not professional translators, nevertheless all of their performance were excellent! I understand that how challenging to interpret those material and to prepare that in a short time, they've definitely done wonderful jobs.

   I was overwhelmed by their impassioned, cheerful, sincere, and honest atmosphere. All of them are the great SNI leaders. Especially, I was so impressed by the participants from Britain but all Brazilians who surrounded writing down memos all the while Rev. and Mrs. Masanobu Taniguchi's lectures. Of course, I jotted down their lecturers as much as possible because I am responsible to conveying what they taught us.

   Tomorrow, we will have the second day program, ordained (assistant) ministers meeting led by Rev. Masanobu Taniguchi, and welcome party for the President sponsored by SNI Brazil Headquarters.

Tetsuya Abe
 
 

No comments: