Bishop Hiromichi Kato managed to get a message out to say that he is OK
The bishop of a diocese in northern part of Japan devastated by yesteday’s earthquake and tsunami, is said to be safe but uncontactable.
Bishop Hiromichi Kato managed to get a message out to say that he is OK, but according Rikkyo University professor Rev.Prof. Renta Nishihara no one has managed to contact him directly.
Prof. Nishihara added that Bp Kato had revealed many churches of Tohoku , including the cathedral suffered the heavy damage.
This news comes as Japan wakes the morning after one of the country’s largest ever earthquakes that has killed more than 400 people and 215,000 to flee their homes.
Throughout the night messages of support and offers of help for Anglican Communion in Japan have come from around the rest of the Communion.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said that the Episcopal Church is praying with and for the people of Japan as that nation “seeks the lost and begins to bury the dead.
“May they rest in peace, and may all those who mourn find comfort,” she said. “We know the aftermath will be long and difficult, and we assure you of our solidarity. We are grateful that most other parts of the Pacific have withstood the passage of the first tsunami. May we all be reminded that we live on a fragile earth, in continual process of creation and destruction, and that we share a common responsibility for healing wherever we are able.”
Those thoughts were echoed by Anglican Church of Canada Archbishop Fred Hiltz who wrote to Archbishop Uematsu, saying that “we hold before God all those who are engaged in the relief efforts as well as you and all who are ministering to the needs of a stricken, grieving nation.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams sent a message of condolence to Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu of the Nippon Sei Ko Kei, the Anglican Church in Japan, expressing support and prayers for the Japanese people.
Messages of condolence and support also made their way between Anglicans at all levels. Members of the International Anglican Women’s Network from earthquake-hit New Zealand, the Philippines, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East and sent messages to their Japanese sisters letting them know they were thinking and praying for them and their country.
One said: “We add our sincere prayers to you all in Japan and all the inflicted areas. We pray to our Lord that Tsunami does not spread to other parts… Our thoughts and hearts are with you at these difficult times… but nothing, nothing is impossible in the eyes of God. We will continue to pray for one and all and we also send sympathies to all those that are bereaved.”