Bulletin No 2539 The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Founded 1912

27th November 2014 Rotary International Club No 62 www.edinburghrotary.org RIBI District 1020

OFFICERSPresidentS. Vice PresidentJ. Vice PresidentHon. SecretaryAsst. SecretaryHon. TreasurerImm. P. President

John PatersonJackie GrigorJohn WilliamsIan StarkeyPP Robin WilsonEwart ShieldsAlistair Beattie

COUNCILDougal Drysdale Brian SmellieHugh Lees Drew WightmanRonnie MacDonald Ian Spence

CONVENERSAlmoner PP Dick AllanArchivist PP Neville BeltonArts Patsy GilliesBulletin Editor Ian SpenceClub Service Hugh LeesCom. & Voc. ServicesFundraising

Dougal DrysdalePP Graeme Forbes

Health & Safety Ross HunterHouse & Entertainment Jasvir SinghInternational Service David SimpsonMembership Colin MackayNetworking (France) Linda GilmorePR and Marketing Carol DuffusSocial Media Ian StarkeySports Alan HatelyThe Rotary Foundation Mohindra DhallVulnerable Persons Heather ShanksWebmaster Malcolm ShanksYouth Service Jackie Grigor

HONORARY MEMBERSHRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh KG, KTRt.Hon. Donald Wilson, Lord Provost of The City of EdinburghSir Peter Heatly CBE, DLDr Norman Irons CBE, DLAlex Wilkie

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, Thursday 20th November 2014Welcome

President John welcomed members, visiting Rotarians and guests to the meeting of the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, notably the speaker, our Rotary Scholar, Koji Matsumoto, who would be giving us “The History of Japanese Christianity”.

Thought for the DayGeorge Sutherland shared his thoughts on November, the Remembrance Month, including the day of the Two Minute Silence. It is not just World War One and World War Two that we remember, but also wars in Korea, the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, and countless Minor Conflicts, many of which are not well known. Since World War Two there has only been one year without British Servicemen on active duty and, therefore, wounded, maimed, disfigured or mentally disturbed. It is difficult to think of a country that has not suffered from some sort of conflict and of course there have been many millions of civilian victims, not only of formal wars but also in the horrors in the Middle East today. All victims of someone’s evil.

Secretary’s Announcements*Firstly, I am very grateful to the Assistant Secretary, PP Robin Wilson for deputising for me at the last two meetings. I am also grateful to him and several other members, Ian Spence, Malcolm Shanks, Dougal Drysdale and Jeff Gibb amongst them, who undertook some of my duties whilst I was away in foreign lands. I was, of course, thinking of Rotary virtually constantly (!), but it was good to know that administrative matters were in good hands during my absence.*Next Thursday is the Club's Annual Special General Meeting, which has already been formally intimated. The business is to receive and approve the examined accounts of the Club and its Jubilee Charity Fund; to nominate and elect incoming officers of the Club for the Rotary Year 2015/16; and to elect voting delegates to the annual RIBI Conference in Belfast in April 2015.*The night before, on Wednesday 26th November, we have a Club Visit to the Rotary Club of Lanark, which meets in the Crown Tavern at 5.30 for 6pm. Anyone wishing to go should inform SVP Jackie Grigor by Friday 21st November at the latest: she is hoping to co-ordinate transport to Lanark in 2-3 cars,

know, either directly or via e-mail, by the end of this week, please. The puddings are £10 each and all proceeds from their sale will go this year to the Stroke Association.*The Club Christmas Lunch is on Thursday 18th December. If you would like to come, with or without guests, please let me know as soon as possible. The cost is £25 per head, payable to the Treasurer in advance, if possible, please.

President’s Announcements*President John said that he and Assistant Secretary Robin, Treasurer Ewart and Mohindra Dhall had attended the recent Meeting of City Area Clubs, at which District events for next year had been highlighted.*Some of you may like to know that the new Queensferry Crossing will be the subject of the talk at the Edinburgh Breakfast Club on 9th

December.*The Braids Club it still running its Currency Exchange (raising money for Beds for Tanzania). I am happy to pass on any spare paper currency.*In James Glass’s absence with a bug. I have to inform you that the Speaker at

depending on the number of members involved.*If anyone wishes to purchase Christmas Puddings through the annual Rotary initiative, they should let Olive Geddes

the Golf Club Dinner on 5th December will be Peter Clark, the Immediate Past Captain of Luffness New Golf Club.

FUTURE SPEAKERS:4th December – Vincent Lunny: “ The Scottish Football Association”11th December – Steve Dayman: “Meningitis Now”.18th December – Christmas Lunch: President’s Speaker.

RECEPTION GROUPS:27th November Group 10Jeff Gibb, Jim Mackenzie, Brian Smellie.4th December Group 11Robin Wilson, Eric Turnbull, Marc Su.11th December Group 1Maureen Newman, David Boyd, A.N.Other

NUMBERS AT ROTARY LAST WEEK: Members 53, Visiting Rotarians 1,Guests 2, (Total 56)

VISITING ROTARIAN: - Shirley-Pat Chamberlain, PP Williams Lake Daybreak, Canada;

GUESTS: – Ian Hewitt (Tom Gray); Koji Matsumoto (Rotary Scholar and Speaker)

MEMBERS’ BIRTHDAYS:25th November: Katie RidlandThis was also the birthday, in 1835, in Dunfermline, of the great, and entirely self-made, industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who would almost certainly have been a Rotarian, had such existed in his lifetime.

DATES TO NOTE:Saturday 29th November – St Andrews Ceilidh, Edinburgh City Chambers, 7.00 pm – midnight.Thursday 4th December - Golf Club AGM in the hotel after the lunchtime meeting.Friday 5th December – Golf Club Annual Dinner at Bruntsfield (7.00 for 7.45 pm)Thursday 18th December - The Rotary Club of Edinburgh Christmas Lunch at this hotel.

OUR HONORARY MEMBER:Sir Peter Heatly, with his son, also Peter, and great grandson Finlay, watching the fireworks display from his room in Thorburn Manor.

Visiting SpeakerPresident John introduced Koji Matsumoto to the Club. As our own Rotary Scholar from Saga Nagasaki in Japan, he is attending a Counselling Studies Course at Edinburgh University, which he hopes will serve him well when he returns to help his parents run an orphanage in Nagasaki, He is particularly interested in the Psychology of traumatised children.

Koji then addressed the Club on the “Hidden Christians” of Japan.

He said that his province, Nagasaki, is well known for the tragic memory of the atomic bomb during the second world war. However, Nagasaki has many unique characteristics that foreign people do not know. As you may know, most of Japanese people are followers of Shintoism and Buddhism, however it is said that 1% of believers are Christian. By prefecture, Nagasaki has the highest percentage of Christianity (3.6%), and the fourth largest number of Christians in Japan live there.Christianity was firstly brought to Japan in 1549 by a Roman Catholic missionary from Spain. Francis Xavier and his crew drifted to Japanese southern island, which is called Tanegashima. After the first missionary arrived in Japan, Christianity was positively accepted by Japanese authorities (Shogun). A few decades later, Japanese authorities became to feel afraid of the power of Christianity in Japan. Many local people converted to Christianity and some missionaries from overseas campaigned toward local people out of authorities` control. Therefore, Japanese authorities started to suppress and ban Christianity around 1600.

However, religious Christians never changed their belief and practised Christianity underground, coming to be called “Hidden Christians” (Kakure Kirishitan). After 1870’s, when Japanese government removed the ban on Christianity, foreign missionaries returned to Japan and they found communities of Hidden Christians that had survived and inherited the practice of Christianity in secret. European culture, including Christianity, had been introduced on a personal basis and remained intact.

Koji Matsumoto with President John

At the beginning of his talk, Koji showed an excerpt of a video about Hidden Christians in Nagasaki. Interested Rotarians can view the video in full on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkw7UeX_p74.

Vote of Thanks:Malcolm Shanks gave a warm vote of thanks to Koji, who had told the fascinating story of the Hidden Christians of Japan. He said that we all looked forward to getting to know him further.

Final Toast:President John closed the meeting, in the usual way, with the toast to “Rotary the world over”