Toyohiko Kagawa 		April 24
Teacher, Evangelist, Japan
Toyohiko Kagawa was a great Japanese evangelist and social reformer. He came from a rich non-Christian family. He was born in 1888 and in the course of his education sought instruction in English from a Christian mission in the city of Tokushima. Luke’s Gospel was one of the books from which he was taught. He found the picture there of the love of Christ increasingly attractive. 
Kagawa was eventually baptised, an event which brought disinheritance by his family. For about four years he attended a Presbyterian theological college in Kobe, during which time he became painfully aware of the appalling social conditions under which so many of his countrymen and women lived. On Christmas Day 1909 he went to Shinkawa, a slum area of Kobe. There he lived in a room two metres square with no window. His daily food consisted of two bowls of rice gruel. Anything else given to him he gave away. He became the acknowledged guide and leader of the countless poor in that industrial city. He preached, taught and lived love, peace and social justice. “If we could learn to love one another,” he said, “it would be a solution to our problems.” But, he insisted, the way of love is the way of the cross. “The knowledge of the Love of God comes only by way of the Bloody Cross; he who fears to bear it cannot know the Love of Christ.”
In 1914, with help from some of the churches, he went to Princeton University in the United States of America, where he spent three years studying social problems. On his return to Japan in 1917 he devoted all his efforts to improving the conditions of the poor. He was on the government list of dangerous radicals, and for many years was watched constantly by the police. One of his major tasks was the formation of trade unions, which were at the time forbidden by Japanese law. This brought him into conflict with the authorities, and he was imprisoned in 1921 and again in 1922. Yet, when a huge earthquake levelled Yokohama and Tokyo in 1923, it was to Kagawa that the government turned to lead the work of reconstruction.
A pacifist from his youth, Kagawa founded the National Anti-War League in 1928, and was imprisoned again in 1940 because of an apology which he made to China for his country’s attack on it. During the Second World War he denounced both Japan and the Allies for their part in the conflict. Yet after its conclusion the government again sought his help in restoring the life of the nation, and he became a leader in Japanese moves towards democracy. Such was his fearlessness and strength of purpose, that when he was brought before the emperor he spent the whole time expounding the gospel of peace.
In the 1920s and 30s he was constantly involved in evangelism. He began the Kingdom-of-God Movement in 1930 and travelled extensively overseas to preach and teach. He became one of Japan’s outstanding writers both in fiction and religion. The claim of Christ upon his life, love and service was his guiding principle until his death on 23 April 1960.
For Liturgical Use
Toyohiko Kagawa was born in 1888 and came to know Christ at the age of fifteen. His prayer was, “O God, make me like Christ.” This prayer led him to live in poverty and to become a tireless worker for social justice, to found trade unions and a peace movement, to evangelise and to write books. His baptism led him into conflict with his family and with the Japanese government. Yet, twice the government called on him to lead the work of reconstruction after national disasters. His limitless love for others marked him out as one who was truly “like Christ”. He died in 1960.
Sentence
Has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to be the heirs of the kingdom?	James 2:5
Collects
Loving and merciful God,
you call us in Christ to bear each others’ burdens;
may the example of Toyohiko Kagawa encourage us
to commit ourselves to the service of others
and to strive tirelessly for justice,
that your commonwealth of love
may be enlarged;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Jesus, our guiding light,
rejected by your kin,
we thankfully remember your follower Toyohiko Kagawa,
servant to the poor,
peacemaker,
worker for the kingdom.
Psalms	72:1-4,12-14,19-20	 146
Readings
Amos 7:10-15		The Lord took me
Galatians 5:13-15		Love, the law of life
John 5:19-27		New life through God
Post Communion Sentence
Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. 	Matthew 25:40