Come join us as we worship the living God at West Tokyo Union Church! We will be gathering in-person on the campus of Japan Lutheran Seminary in Mitaka. Please come worship with us and stay for a time of fellowship. If you are coming, please bring a finger food or snack to share during the fellowship hour.
Special Thanks to Rev. Claudia Genung-Yamamoto for today's message. Rev. Claudia is a United Methodist missionary and currently serves as the senior pastor of Yokohama Union Church. She is also chaplain at Yokohama Christian School, a ministry of YUC with about 30 children from toddlers through 5th grade. She served as pastor at WTUC from 1993 to 2011 while also working as an editor for a Christian newsletter with the National Christian Council in Japan (NCC-J), where her husband, Toshi, served as General Secretary. Claudia and Toshi moved from Kobe to Yokohama nearly two years ago. In Kobe, she served at a Kyodan church in the Toyohiko Kagawa Center before becoming senior pastor of Kobe Union Church. Toshi, meanwhile, was Dean of Chaplains and Professor of Christianity at Kwansei Gakuin University. He is now retired but remains active as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Asian Rural Institute (ARI), President of the National YMCA in Japan, and pastor once a month at a Kyodan (UCCJ) church in Hachioji. He also serves on several NGO boards.
Claudia is originally from California and first came to Japan in 1976 as an exchange student, where she met Toshi. From 1980–82, she served as a live-in missionary at Bott Home, an orphanage in Machida. Claudia and Toshi married in 1983, and she completed her field education at ICU Church from 1983–84. Both graduated from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, and were ordained as clergy in the United Methodist Church. The couple has two sons. Their older son, Kai, was born in Hawaii in 1991 and now works as an occupational therapist in Los Angeles. He is engaged to be married in February 2026. Their younger son, Koh, was born in Fuchu in 1997 during Claudia’s pastorate at WTUC. He was married three years ago and now serves as pastor of a Lutheran church in Paris, Tennessee.
They still have one of their cats, Comet, that they got from an event at ASIJ when they were still living near the school.Comet is 22 years old and still genki.