FAMILY DAY or KAZOKU NO HI on Sunday, the 25th of September 2016 was the 38th annual gathering of all Christians of the 10 parishes in the whole of Ibaraki prefecture where the SSCC Congregation is serving. It was the first time that we had the Family Day on Sunday since we usually have had the celebration on the 3rd of November, a holiday. We changed the date because there is another event on the diocesan level scheduled for November 3rd . The Sunday celebration, however, gave more chances for many people to participate in the celebration.
A large attendance of people participated on the Family Day. Archbishop of Tokyo, Peter Okada Takeo (74) presided. Ten priests concelebrated. Two deacons and two seminarians joined the celebration. In addition, there was a group of people, undergoing drug rehabilitation, who attended the celebration. None of them was Catholic.
The Mass started at 10:30, followed by lunch and many kinds of performances from the different parishes. It was an international gathering for there were quite a number of people of different nationality, such as Philippine, Indonesian, Latin American, and Vietnamese. After all, the Church of Japan is multicultural.
Our usually small parish communities were very happy to participate in a large congregation at the Eucharist and Benediction. Interweaving nationality, culture and language was very evident during the family day.
09/26/2016