Three weeks in Japan with USPG

Madeleine Cuckson, who has been co-ordinating our work with Ukrainian refugees, was awarded a place on a leadership programme for young people across the Anglican Communion by USPG. The residential part of the programme took place in Japan last month, and Madeleine has kindly written something for us about her experience.

Fr Nevsky

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This July I took part in a three week programme in rural Japan called the ‘Emerging Leaders Academy’ - a new annual youth leadership scheme run by the Anglican charity USPG. Our church’s relationship with USPG is strong, as they kindly provided 3 rounds of funding for the Ukraine aid programme connected to our church, which I have been running for the last couple of years.

As someone working directly with an Anglican church community, I was invited to join the trip - which brought together 8 individuals from Bangladesh to Brazil, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and me - a Brit representing Romania.

For the first two weeks of the programme we stayed at a place called the Asian Rural Institute, where we lived communally with about 40 others. The institute has been running for more than 50 years and acts as a one of a kind place in Japan, where intercultural exchanges are not so common.

Most people were from third world countries and had been invited to learn organic farming and other skills for rural workers at ARI, under the Christian inspired principle, ‘That We May Live Together’. We didn’t take classes with the others but we shared tasks like cooking, cleaning and simple farm chores.

During the three weeks, we took part in workshops on
- Servant leadership - (asking what makes a good leader/ how do we serve the people who we manage or give direction to)
- Participatory Learning in Action - (learning how to involve your community and the wider community in the activities your church or project is engaged in)
- Non-violent communication - (assessing your feelings and needs and that of someone else's in times of conflict to come to a sensitive resolution)
- Contextual theology

It’s my hope that with the support of continued monthly mentoring and group check-in sessions, me and the other participants will be able to apply what we have learnt to our individual contexts.

We were greeted very openly by NSKK (the Anglican church of Japan) and I’m so thankful for the wonderful church services we were a part of, and the rural Anglican communities which we were able to visit.

We finished our trip with a few days in Tokyo, where we explored the city and said our goodbyes after 3 weeks together, reflecting on the funny, thought provoking and challenging aspects of the programme.

I’m very thankful as well to our community, which contributed to the cost of my travel. It was an unforgettable experience and one that I’m very lucky to have had.