Quite how the Rev. Claudia Genung (a surname of French Hugenot origin) fits everything into 24 hours is beyond all understanding.
Building on her role as pastor of West Tokyo Union Church in Mitaka, she is a prolific e-mailer, passing on last week the letter of "gratitude and solidarity" that her husband, the Rev. Toshi Yamamoto (general secretary of the National Christian Council in Japan), drafted from the Interfaith Peace Network in Japan to the Islamic Clerics Association in Iraq.
Along with the others of the NCC-J, which has 33 member churches and organizations, they wanted to express their appreciation of ICA for negotiating the release of the Japanese hostages in Iraq. "It's shocking to us that these young people are now being bullied in Japan -- supposedly a democratic country -- for their activism abroad."