A visiting delegation of the Japan Religious Committee for the World Federation, a Japan-based inter-faith organization, poses for a group photo with Bishop Larry Silva in Honolulu’s Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace after a prayer service for world peace Dec. 5. (HCH photo | Anna Weaver)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace reverberated with Buddhist, Shinto and Christian chanting Dec. 5 as nearly 100 members of a visiting Japanese delegation dedicated to praying for world peace began its 40th anniversary conference in Hawaii.
Bishop Larry Silva greeted the Japan Religious Committee for the World Federation, a Japan-based inter-faith organization, at the start of the 45-minute prayer service.
“Peace be with you,” Bishop Silva told the visitors, mostly Japanese Buddhist and Shinto priests and monks, welcoming them to the church named after the Queen of Peace, Mary, the mother of the Prince of Peace.
“As the ancient ideal of peace becomes more and more difficult to live out,” he said, “what a joy it is to gather to make peace more than a dream.”
“It is extremely important that the bonds of peace be forged,” Bishop Silva said. “It is essential that we turn to God and our spiritual sources.”
“May the spirit of welcome and unity and mutual respect be with us,” he said.
Bishop Silva then said a prayer for peace, asking God “that we be instruments of peace” following the examples of St. Damien and St. Marianne.
“Let us spark that ideal of peace that is in all of our hearts,” he said.
Following the bishop were two priests from the Archdiocese of Nagasaki, Japan, who faced the altar and tabernacle and chanted prayers in Latin and Japanese. Nagasaki is where the first Catholic missionaries arrived in Japan in the 1500s and is the second city the U.S. targeted with an atomic bomb near the end of World War II.
A Shinto priest was next. Also facing the tabernacle, he simply bowed deeply several times, clapped once and prayed in silence.
The Buddhists, who made up nearly half of those present, followed. Wearing stoles over black robes, some with shaven heads, they all stood closely together, also facing forward, and chanted in tight unison a long and sonorous prayer that ended with a bow.
The second priest Shinto priest bowed, clapped and chanted from a scroll. He was followed by a small group identified as “New Religion” who offered a short chant.
Delegates of the Japan Religious Committee for the World Federation began in 1982 to visit Hawaii every December as the Hawaii Peace Prayer Mission to pray at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7 for the war dead and for world peace. This year marks their 37th Pearl Harbor pilgrimage. The group has been hosted annually by the Japanese Catholic Community of Hawaii.
This year, the cathedral’s general administrator, Alika Cullen introduced each segment of the service with the help of a translator.
The group states as its goal that “all religious leaders and believers from Japan and the U.S, as well as the supporters of our annual mission, can come together in the spirit of cooperation to offer our prayer of peace and deepen our understanding of each other.”
That thought was reflected in the short prayer ending the service, recited first in Japanese, then in English.
“May we all live together peacefully in this home that we share, and may our planet become a shining beacon of love, compassion and sincerity for all,” the delegates said. “May the infinite grace of God enable each of us to work toward the building of a lasting peace in the world.”
