I wonder if Nichiren Buddhist knows the recent history of SGI-UK

Meeting on August 1, 1999:

On August 1 a meeting was held for headquarters level leaders and above from throughout the SGI-UK. Mr. Kaneda from Italy was appointed "special advisor to UK." During the meeting there was no mention of the practice of the Daishonin's Buddhism. The overall theme was "back to basics; you naughty children, you have gone off the rails." "Back to basics," in this case, means fight the Nikken sect, contribute to the kosen-rufu fund, and get more members.

Mr. Kitano (SGI advisor to the SGI-UK, similar to Mr. Wada for the SGI-USA) talked for one-and-a-half hours about the temple issue. It was, according to one Reassessment Group attendee,

"…dismal, depressing, uninspiring, and with no talk of vision, future, and joy. He kept on repeating that it was always people from within the organisation that tried to destroy it, which I realised he was aiming at all of us in who took part in the Reassessment Process (which is well over 500 people!)"

There has been no mention of Focus Groups since. It is like it never happened. It was announced that a restructuring of the SGI-UK leadership would take place, with another level of leadership to be added at the top, including the re-appointment of many older leaders, some who had previously resigned. It many cases those against the Focus Groups have been rewarded with Directorships. Ricky Baynes, who had been supportive of the process all along, was silent, as were Kazuo Fuji and Sue Thornton. No one has contacted those involved in the process.

Since then, various members have asked questions and received the following answers:

1. Question to Mr. Kitano: Why did he come to England and only meet with and listen to those who complained about and opposed the Reassessment?

Answer: I was not swayed by what they said, because I already had made up my mind before I came.>

"Any further questions? Of course not.

What the IRG wanted was nothing outlandish - in many ways, it sounds like SGI Ghana. In Ghana, back in the late 1980s (before SGI's excommunication by the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood, in other words), the SGI members submitted a charter for their Ghana organization, in line with Ghana's laws for religious organizations. In short, Ghana (the country) required that, within religions, the people of Ghana had to elect their leaders AND have in place grievance procedures whereby their ELECTED leaders could be removed if necessary.

Ikeda responded by excommunicating the Ghana membership. I'm not even sure he had the authority to do so, given that these were Nichiren Shoshu members (as were all the lay members at this time)!

That reminds me - I meant to go check Nichiren Shoshu's response...unfortunately, it's very difficult to find anything by Nichiren Shoshu. The father of Nichiren practice in Ghana, Joseph Asomani, though, makes it very clear that, not only was Nichiren Shoshu more receptive to Ghana's members after Ikeda excommunicated them for demanding a say in the leadership of their own organization (how unforgivable!), but that practicing with the Hokkeko is so much more relaxed and so much less stressful than with the SGI: J. Asomani

It's easily believable. I felt so stressed while I was in SGI." BlancheFromage