Initiation in Aimai (Ambiguity): A Cultural Perspective from Japan
2013; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 95; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2163-6214
Autores Tópico(s)Christian Theology and Mission
ResumoLike many other Anglican churches today, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK, the Anglican Communion in Japan) has an original prayer book written in Japanese. Historically, like other provinces in the Communion, an Anglican prayer book meant vernacular version of 1662 Book of Common Prayer, with some modification for adaptation. All the prayer books published in Japan had been along this line until the 1959 Prayer Book. It was the first prayer book of NSKK which can claim to be really original; it incorporated many new perspectives that emerged from the twentieth-century liturgical movement, and was among the first efforts in trend toward prayer book revision in the Communion. Some foreign scholars were quite critical of the 1959 Prayer Book because it deviated from the Anglican tradition of the 1662 BCP, until their provinces started revisions of the same sort. The 1959 Prayer Book was well loved by many people, and it took more than thirty years to see the next revision.1The current NSKK Prayer Book was published in 1990. This prayer book has many new characteristics, but the most drastic change for peoples eyes was the language used for the liturgy. In the 1959 Prayer Book, the liturgical language was traditional Japanese, while notes and rubrics were in contemporary (colloquial) Japanese. But the 1990 Prayer Book uses contemporary language for both the liturgies and the notes and rubrics, and many people have hesitated to recite sentences in contemporary Japanese in the liturgy. Other new elements, including the introduction of the greeting in the peace, likewise prompted objections. This negative impression of the liturgical language and gesture of the 1990 Prayer Book was so strong that it took some time before people noticed the new features implemented in the liturgies. This focus on the language and gesture used in the liturgies may mean that not enough attention was paid to the revolutionaiy nature of the 1959 Prayer Book when it was introduced as well.Theologically, the 1990 Prayer Book revision is based on a shift from penitential feeling to an emphasis on thanksgiving, as well as clear sense of the church as community and as people who participate in the missio Dei in the world.21 will try to show one example of such theological changes in the revision from the initiation service, especially about the second point.The 1959 Prayer Book was revolutionary in the initiation rites. It combined the traditional three different rites of infant baptism, private baptism, and adult baptism into one single rite. This need arose from Japan's cultural circumstances, where Christians are in the minority and adult baptism is more popular. But the theology of baptism itself was not basically changed.The 1990 Prayer Book's initiation rites, however, made an intrinsic revision. The revision commission consulted several contemporary prayer books, such as the 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church and the 1980 Alternative Service Book of the Church of England, as well as the text of Hippolytus. As result, the rite is based on baptismal ecclesiology which emphasizes that the church is community of all the baptized. In other words, the rite puts more emphasis on incorporating the newly baptized into the church than on the personal conversion of the newly baptized Christian.One cultural adaptation in the 1990 Prayer Book is the new rite introduced at the beginning of the Initiation section, called A Liturgy for Becoming Catechumen, candidate for baptism. This was one of the appendices in the 1959 Prayer Book, but it is now part of the initiation. Though its use is not mandatory, this rite clearly shows that initiation is process, which begins by ones willingness to be baptized. This initial step in becoming Christian is important for the church in Japan, where very few people in the society have been baptized. It is big hurdle for people who feel sympathy to Christianity to decide to be baptized. …
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