A Pilgrimage made by Japanese & American young adults

4th-20th August 2004

A project of the Religious Freedom Young Adult Network (RFYN)
(part-funded by the Fund for International Unitarian Universalism & the Japan Liaison Committee of the IARF).

In August 2004, young adults from IARF member organisations (Unitarian Universalists & Jewish Reconstructionists in the USA, and Shintoists & Buddhists in Japan) took part in an educational tour, or pilgrimage, visiting sites of spiritual interest in both countries.

The pilgrims with the High Priest of Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Guji Yukiyasu Yamamoto

Broad Aim - To promote respect & harmony between people of different spiritual & belief traditions, in order to ensure freedom of religion & belief in both present & future.

Purpose - To build bridges of international interfaith understanding between young adults of faith communities in Japan & the United States which belong to the International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF).

Some objectives:

• That the young adults would have enjoyable & profound experiences that will affect their future lives.
• That this project would encourage responsible national & international citizenship in today's world, based on the values inherent in the different belief traditions.
• That the participants would gain a deeper understanding of the value & implications of each other's faith traditions.
• That the participants would become more familiar with the objectives & work of the RFYN (Religious Freedom Young Adult Network), a programme of the IARF.
• That the young adults may be motivated to work actively for freedom of religion and belief.

Project outline
It took the form of an educational tour that began in Japan & ended in the US. Learning about each spiritual tradition took place through experiential learning & discussions.

There were 23 young adults - 11 from Japan & 12 from USA - and they came from selected spiritual traditions: Unitarian Universalists, Reconstructionist Jews, Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhists, Ittoen (a spiritual community) and Japanese Shinto groups - Tsubaki Grand Shrine & Konko Church of Izuo.

Account of the pilgrimage, with photos:

(CLICK ON BOLD TEXT TO SEE PICTURES)