Christians’ solidarity for Japan

(March 14, 2011) Meanwhile Christians leaders from around the world are expressing their communities closeness with the people of Japan in their darkest hour. “I want to say immediately that our hearts and our prayers go out to all who have been affected and that we as a church will do what we can to offer practical as well as spiritual support at this time of great suffering and great anxiety for so many,” Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the spiritual head of Anglicans worldwide wrote in a message to the Anglican Archbishop Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu of Japan. The Catholic Churches of Germany and Austria have also expressed their closeness with Japan. The president of the German Bishops Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg im Breisgau, wrote to Archbishop Okada Peter Takeo, president of the Japanese Bishops Conference saying they would support the Japanese Church not only with prayers but also with financial means. In Austria, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, led over 1,400 volunteers at the Day of Liturgical Services on Saturday starting with prayers for and a commemoration of the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The Salvation Army has dispatched teams to the disaster zone where it is distributing basic necessities to survivors and assessing the scale of the damage.