Music and Worship

By Jody Fuller

How have you seen God at work in your ministry over the year?

The Worship & Music Ministry Team coordinates and oversees the necessary arrangements for the public worship services and the music program of the church. To carry out this work we depend on the many dedicated volunteers who give generously of their time and talent. Ushers welcome worshipers to every service. Beautiful flowers are arranged weekly to grace our chancel. The sacraments of communion and baptism are prepared with care. Music and singing that uplifts our souls is offered by the Sanctuary choir, Union Praise Team, organists and guest instrumentalists. The audiovisual team ensures that our sound and visual components in worship and in our regular Livestream worship work smoothly every Sunday. In the face of each volunteer is a deep love for God, for one another, and for our beloved TUC.

List the activities and the engagement of your ministry this past year.

ALTAR GUILD - Dima Kato, Leader
2023 was a dynamic year for the Altar Guild. The return to in-person worship and serving the Communion in individual cups for an ever-larger congregation prompted us to learn new ways of preparation of the Holy Sacrament. This also required greater team work, more dedication and longer preparation and clearing up after the service. We were blessed by the passion and dedication of Charles Cook and Nobuko Sato, with the dedication, reliability and experience of Jody Fuller, Anita Gesling and Laurel Yamashita, with the faithfulness and commitment of Yannick Plomteux, with the kind helpfulness of Jennifer Luvanda and we are overjoyed that the Lord has sent us new dedicated members: Naomi Tokuda, Madeleine Newman, Joey Chang and Maiko Itani.
We are having training sessions for the new members and we are preparing a new manual with practical guidelines for all our activities throughout the year.

We praise and thank the Lord for His guidance and support
and we thank all who worked and supported the Altar Guild throughout 2023.

Altar Guild members: Jody Fuller, Charles Cook, Nobuko Sato, Yuko Horiuchi, Laurel Yamashita, Yannick Plomteux, Nobuko Gaine, Naomi Tokuda, Maiko Itani, Suresh Kukde, Madeleine Newman, Joey Chang, Jennifer Luvanda
Altar Guild supporters: Anita Gesling, April Morito, Kako Kinoshita

AV TEAM - Technology Lead - Jonathan Oh, Coordinating Lead - Ayumi Ito
We are happy to serve the people of God at Tokyo Union Church, supporting the in-person and online worship experiences. We are seeing continued growth and improvements in the AV team, particularly in developing the confidence of our team members, and we are seeing more creative productions and improvement in our operations. In addition to our team improvements, we have undergone a huge redevelopment of our production workflow with the new VMix production system, giving us incredible flexibility and simplicity in operations. Through continued training and fellowship gatherings, we hope that the AV team is a fun and creative group that enjoys glorifying God by serving the TUC community. We continue to ask for your prayers and support and welcome new members to join the team!

Here are the team members who served during the 2023 year: (AV) Joey Chang, Chien Hsu, Ayumi Ito, Jimu, Risa Kikura, Ren Kubo, Isaac Lee, Maddy Newman, Jonathan Oh, Rance del Rosario, Brad Schmidt, Matt Ushida, Remi Yamazaki (Livestream Hosting) Nee Lam, Jonathan Oh, Vanessa Sihite

FLOWER GUILD - Akiko Adachi, Leader
Flowers were displayed weekly in the sanctuary with special flowers on Christmas and Easter. Active members of the flower guild are Pastor Hector, Tomoko Sakurai, Chika Eto, Hisae Iwasaki. Naomi Kanaiwa and Akiko Adachi.

SANCTUARY CHOIR- Yuka Omi, Director
The Sanctuary Choir serves regularly in worship from September to July.
In the current schedule, the choir sings at 8:30 and 11:00 on the 1st Sunday of the month, and 11:00 on the 3rd 4th 5th Sundays. We also sing at Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday services. On Good Friday, a small group from SC sang Crucifixus.
In 2023, we resumed in person Choir Sundays which was stopped during the covid pandemic.. In June, we presented selections of faith and hope from the work of contemporary American composer Dan Forrest. In December, we presented part 1 of the Messiah by Handel.
We are grateful to have some new members.

UNION PRAISE TEAM - Remi Yamazaki, Director
UPT maintains the core mission of prayerful contemporary/gospel praise and worship and last year saw significant changes in leadership and structure.

Prior co-music directors Lorene and Madoka with co-leader Brad built a strong, diverse group with a focus not only on music but also on spiritual health, prayer and community. Lorene stepped out into other ministries, and UPT had a wonderful time together at the Manse to thank her for her service.
Remi stepped in as music director in September 2023 and was able to build off of this foundation. Apart from increased gospel repertoire and new musicians/soloists, the biggest changes have been structural. New structures include a digital log of repertoire/arrangements and policies, closer collaboration with Pastors, and audition-based membership. In addition, UPT is officially open to non-Christians (with support structures in place to help non-Christian members understand song meanings). This makes UPT both a minister and a ministry.

UPT/AV collaboration has been especially close due to overlapping membership of the respective group leaders, (Remi and Ayumi), as well as several other members. This collaboration will continue to deepen with joint audio trainings/rehearsals as technical requirements for UPT increase.
By God’s grace, UPT continues to grow in membership, musicality and repertoire. One unexpected change is the growing involvement of children in UPT. UPT is officially open to ages 13 and up, but four children of UPT members under this age have also joined. Next steps for UPT will be to prayerfully decide how to move forward with this wonderful gift, and to continue to set up infrastructures for prayer and spiritual health appropriate for the growing number of members.

USHER TEAM - Sam Donkor, Leader
The year 2023, started in a happy way. A team of 30 members but with few who are active.
All team members were strong and healthy. Ushering was smooth till the middle of the year.
From there things changed and it was difficult to get ushers. I called on my young son to assist me and he has been a regular usher and an inspiration to the team. Although it was not easy, the few who were helping were very dedicated.
I am grateful to the entire usher team and to the following members who served regularly and often: Larry Mojumdar, Arai Tazuko,Theo Bannor, Maki Yamamoto, Mike and Atsuko Tsunashima, Becky and Toshihiro Agatsuma, Jody Fuller
A dedicated member of the team, Winnie Langelaar, returned to her country of Canada after a long stay in Japan.
It will interest you to know that although we are few, the team is strong and will always be there for the church. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:17)

TAIZE WORSHIP (Leader - Nancy Pierson-Umezu)
Taizé-style worship services were a regular part of Sunday worship on the 4th Sunday of each month through April 2023. While we no longer use Taizé on Sunday morning, we continue to have Taizé services for Lent, Advent, and other special times. We thank Nancy Pierson-Umezu, coordinator and singer for Taizé worship, and all the singers and instrumental musicians who support this special worship service. We also thank Pastor Steve for his active role as singer and guitarist.