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ABOUT US 1 |
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Originally, back in 1977, we went under the name of the Shin Buddhist Association of Great Britain. In 2005 this was changed to the Pure Land Buddhist Fellowship. And, in 2012 when we went through our third incarnation, we became known as the Shin Buddhist Fellowship UK. The Shin Buddhist Association of Great Britain was founded by Jack Austin [1917-1993] and Rev Hisao Inagaki [1929-2021] in around about 1977. At that time, Jack was the Development Officer for the World Congress of Faiths, and Hisao sensei was Lecturer in Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University. Jack had corresponded with Rev Saizo Inagaki [1885-1981], Hisao's Father, and they arranged it for the Ven Kosho Otani, then the Monshu of the Nishi Hongwanji, to take part in a big interfaith conference held at the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1976. Following this event, in the August of that year the Monshu and his wife came to London, where he conferred Kikyoshiki on a number of people who were interested in Jodoshinshu, including Jack, Max Fisher and Jim Pym. In the early 1980's Jack's health deteriorated, and it was no longer possible for him to continue with the SBA meetings, and so it was dissolved. However, a small group, including Max and Jim, met regularly but informally at Hisao Inagaki's house. This was the foundation of the Pure Land Buddhist Fellowship, though the PLBF was never became an official organisation. To this day we hold firm to Jim Pym's asertation that we are an organism; not an organisation. Max Fisher was the first editor and publisher of the PLBF newsletter and it was he that expanded it to several folded A4 sheets. In those days it was still known as "PLBF News". After Max, Jim took over the editorship around about 1983, and he started to call it "Pure Land Notes", modeling it on the very successful "Zen Notes" published by the Zen Centre in New York. Jim continued to publish PLN until 2005 when, due in part to his relocation to Scotland, no newsletter or journal had been produced for a while. And so, with Jim's encouragement, I became the new compiler and editor of Pure Land Notes.
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