About usCONCEPT
ST MARY MAGDALA SOCIETY
Margaret, wife of the Pastor Philip Luttio of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Takashi-cho Toyohashi, started the Bible Study for ladies of
the parish in the mid 1980s. On the retirement of the Luttio’s in 1989,
Ivan Cosby, an Aichi University professor assumed responsibility for teaching
the group. He used to attend the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Takashi-cho
and, together with Pastor Philip would take a Bible Study group at the
Toyohashi University of Technology 豊橋技術科学大学. When the Luttios retired back
to the United States, in 1989, Reverend Cosby assumed responsibility for
teaching the group, and is still doing so.
The Bible Study Group used to meet weekly during the university lecture
term at various locations in Toyohashi-shi’s Takashi-cho. To distinguish
it from other Bible Study Groups in the town, such as the Hanada Bible
Study Group 花田聖書研究会 and the Minami Sakae Bible Study Group 南栄聖書研究会 it became
known as the Takashi Bible Study Group 高師聖書研究会. On the retirement of Reverend
Cosby back to England in 2016, the Takashi Bible Study Group 高師聖書研究会has
been meeting fortnightly on line initially on Skype, then on Zoom. On account
of the change in circumstances, the name Takashi Bible Group
高師聖書研究会 has become anachronistic. Hence, the name was changed in 2024 to:
The St Mary Magdala Society 聖マグダラのマリア会.
THE CHURCH OF IRELAND (TRADITIONAL RITE)
This Church is the direct descendant of that branch of the Christian Church
that spread westwards, initially from Alexandria across North Africa (Cyrene,
Africa, Mauritania). It then followed along the trade route between Narbonne and Bordeaux (French Aquitaine), reaching Ireland in the mid 4th century Much later and anchronisticly, this hermitic Church was erroneously known as the Celtic Church. The Celtic civilisation is not Christian. When they came into contact with, and converted to th aforementioned Church whose character and form was that of the Coptic Desert Fathers. This hermitic Church spread to Iona (AD 597,) thence southward to Northumbria (AD 632) and to Cornwall in England.
During the 6th and 7th centuries individual saints brought the Gospel to the continent of Europe to what is now Bremen (North Germany,) Salzburg (Austria) and Bobbio (North Italy) to name but three of many other Christian places they founded.
The Alexandrian Church was noted for its spirituality, life of prayer, and hermitic monasticism, which originated with the Desert Fathers: St.Paul, St. Anthony and St. Simeon et al. Tangible evidence of the importance attached to scriptural evangelism are the Church’s Scriptural Crosses, and beautifully illustrated Gospels, the most famous of which are the ‘Books of Durrow (c. AD 650,) Lindisfarne (c. AD 700), and Kells (c. AD 850).
For four hundred years, from mid 12th to mid 16th century, this extention of the Alexandrian Church was systematically drawn into the Church of Rome. However, during the Reformation, contemporaneously with the Church of England and the Church in Wales, the this ancient Church in Ireland these Churches re-align themselves as closely as possible to conform to what is known of the 1st century‘Apostolic’ Church. The ‘reformed Church in Ireland amalgamated with the ‘reformed’ Church of England to become the Church of England and Ireland. Largely for political reasons the Irish element of that Church was disestablished in 1870 to become the Church of Ireland. In 1990 the majority of that Church opted to compromised on upholding biblical values and teaching where it did not conform to ‘western’ secular values. The only authentic inheritor and ‘continuum’ of the Church of Ireland as it was at disestablishment, is the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) whose constitution and laws and canons are those of the Church of Ireland as of 1967, retaining thereby unlike the Churches of England and Ireland respectively, retains the authentic Anglican tradition.
When the Reverend Cosby was subsequently ordained into the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite,) that Church established the St Mary Magdala Chapel in Toyohashi, which assumed responsibility, in addition to other Bible Study Groups, for the Takashi Bible Study Group. Because, high priority was given to accountabity, The Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) was itself affiliated to the Nippon Kirisuto Sei Ko Kai 日本 キリスト聖公会,which had been established by Bishop Raphael Kajiwara, who provided episcopal oversight for the St Mary Magdala Chapel. The Chapel used and conformed to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and to the Irish Book of Common Prayer prior to the 1993 edition for English worship and to the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Book of Common Prayer for its Japanese worship. Additionaly, close liaison was maintained in the first instance with the rector and members of the congregation of the Anglican Church in Toyohashi 日本聖公会, 豐橋 昇天教会. The Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) is itself currently a member Church of the Traditional Anglican Communion 伝統的な英国国教会の聖体拝領. The Nippon Kirisuto Sei Ko Kai 日本キリスト聖公会 also was a member until this Church was disbanded by Bishop Kajiwara.
The purpose of the St. Mary Magdala Chapel, in the first instance, was to provide a place of worship for English speaking Christian residents in the region roughly between Gifu, (Nagoya,) Gamagori, Shinshiro, and Hamamatsu, who wished to worship in their native tongue. The Chapel also served as a haven for those who were not Christian, where they were welcome to observe and, to a greater or less extent, participate in worship without feeling either that they had to attend or belong to a particular Church to experience Christian worship, or even needed to know much about Christianity. Those wishing to become a Christian, would be guided and encouraged to seek baptism in an appropriate Church to which they had access. If that were not possible, the Rector of St Mary Magdala Chapel would baptize and issue a
‘Certificate of Baptism.’
Of all the Churches of Western Christendom, THE CHURCH OF IRELAND (TRADITIONAL RITE), in terms of its historical heritage if not necessarily in its manner of worship, is perhaps the one western Church closest to the ASSYRIAN CHURCH. This is the Church that spread initially to Edessa, thence to what is now Persia and Iraq (Mesopotamia.) As well as extending southward into India, this Church, on account of its use of the Syriac language spread eastwards to Bactria (Bokhara and Afghanistan). From there, via the Hephthalite Huns, Christianity spread eventually to China, where the Persian missionary, Alopen, arrived in AD 635, only three years after the Alexandrian Church reached Northumbria in England. Under the patronage of the Tang dynasty Emperor Tai Tszong 太宗皇帝 (AD 627-649) and his successors, this branch of the Church (known at the time as ‘Jing Jiao 景教 (‘Bight Teaching’) spread widely over much of China until the 10th century, (See the Alopen Stone.) It was this Church (nowadays referred to as the ‘Assyrian’ Church) that eventually reached Western Japan briefly in the 13th century.
Although the Church of Ireland (Traditional Rite) continues to exist it is, being greatly reduced numerically, in effect a nominal Church. One of its functions still is to be accountable for the wellbeing of the ‘St. Mary no Magdala Society’ and to oversee the teaching provided for that society.
REVEREND IVAN COSBY
1945, Born, ‘Hatch’ Street, Dublin.
1954-59, Aravon Preparatory School, Bray (Co. Wicklow)
1959-64, Eton College, Windsor
1965-69, University of Dublin (Trinity College)
1970 Bachelor of Arts (Moderator) in History & Political Science
1970-77 Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (London, Hong Kong, Malaysia)
1974 Master of Arts (University of Dublin)
1978-79 London (British Field Sports Society)
1979-2016 Aichi University, (Toyohashi/Nagoya)
1983 Associate Professor (Aichi University)
1992 Ordained (年被祝聖)
1996 Professor [English Language] (Aichi University)
2016 Emeritus Professor (Aichi University)
