[Via Bartholomew's Notes on Religion]
Under the heading, 'Next UN Chief is Member of Pacifist Christian Group', Bartholomew has seemingly solved the riddle of what AsiaNews.it meant by,
A Christian, [Ban Ki-moon] is member of a "group without Church", a serious organisation that emerged in Japan at the beginning of last century. Its members, mostly intellectuals, make the Gospel a source of inspiration for their private and public life.
Bart writes:
Asia News, however, is almost certainly referring to the Mukyokai (“Non-church”) Movement. An article by Carlo Caldarola gives some background:
The Mukyokai, or non-Church Christians, constitute one of the best known Christian movements in Japan... Founded by Uchimura Kanzo (1861-1930) in reaction to Western denominationalism, this small (about 35,000 adherents) movement is considered to be the most genuine form of Japanese Christianity. The Mukyokai reject all formal Christian institutions, having no sacraments, liturgy, professional clergy, church buildings, national headquarters, or membership rolls. Instead, this non-churchism is based on independent Bible study groups centered on the traditional teacher-disciple (sensei-deshi) relationship. The teachers have no formal training in the Bible, setting up group when inspired to do so; the group thus disintegrates when its teacher dies or retires. Most of these teachers are regularly employed in outside occupations, often as high school teachers or university professors. The Mukyokai movement has attracted members from all social strata in Japan, but it is particularly appealing to the Japanese intelligentsia - scholars, university professors, graduate students, and professionals. (..)
So all my previous posts on the subject are hereby cancelled. Respect to Bart for working it out. And, on the whole, I'm reassured.
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