1. My name

Tomoko Ito

2. My Neighborhoods

I luckily live in the neighbourhoods that constantly reminds me of Genesis: North Shore’s beautiful mountains, the rivers, Burrard Inlet, various hiking trails, and the breathtaking view of the waterfront. As I work in Downtown Vancouver’s Financial District, I also call this my neighborhood.

3. How did you find Christ Church Cathedral (CCC)?

It took me so many years to truly encounter Christianity: I had been identifying myself as non-religious but spiritual while respecting the Christian values of love and forgiveness. I had never thought about becoming a Christian until I found CCC. A part of the reason is because I grew up in a sort of Buddhists/Shinto but moderately “religious” family. It was like fate that I came across the Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver in June, 2010 and discovered the fact that I was longing to find some kind of eternal connection to Love and Spirit at my unconscious level. As I love travelling to many different countries, one of my favourite things to do is to visit local churches as a tourist, so visiting churches was for me a sightseeing event for a long time until I entered into Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver. Before entering to the Cathedral, I had visited several different churches in downtown Vancouver and on the North Shore, but never went beyond the level of sightseeing. Then amazing things happened to me when I entered the Cathedral, I felt very at home and something clicked in me and made me feel that “this is it! this is what I am looking for.” It was something beyond words that I could articulate what I felt. I just felt it. Then soon after I felt that, I started to attend Sunday public service every Sunday (this is truly an amazing thing to me, I am the one who can easily lose my interest after doing things three times). And every time I visited the public service, I was touched by the music, by the sermons and by the people of the community: I really mean “every time.” I was attracted by invisible power of Anglicanism and visible beauty of Christ Church Cathedral and hospitality of the Cathedral community. I started to join Eucharist as a non-baptized stranger which I never dared to do before but I wanted to experience Holy Communion to find out whether I could truly feel that I could connect with Christianity. Experiencing Eucharist motivated me and grew my desire to become a part of the community and to experience, to practice, to know more and to understand more about Christianity and ultimately experience the Word of God. Naturally, I have become a member of the Cathedral in October, 2010. AND, I made a conscious decision to be baptized at Christ Church Cathedral in the beginning of the year 2011. I always appreciate and value the Cathedral’s openness and hospitality. I am deeply blessed that I found the Cathedral and to be a part ofthe Cathedral community!

4. What does Anglicanism mean to you?

Anglicanism encourages me not to be afraid but to challenge to know God instead of merely believing in God as an incomprehensible and immutable being just like negative theology suggests. Rather than mystifying God as some kind of divine almighty somewhere up there, or describing what is not God to explain what God is, Anglicanism allows me to challenge to explore what God is in order for me to experience God and nurture my relationship with God in everyday life that strengthens my faith in God. In a deep sense, Anglicanism’s true openness gives me new perspectives to see tangible and intangible things in life in various ways in this modern age that let me nurture not only my intellectual and spiritual aspect but also nurture the Spirit in me.

5. Something that people might not know about me.

I am currently enrolled in the certificate programme at the Vancouver School of Theology intending to cultivate my relationship with God. And my favourite Bible versions are the Jerusalem Bible and the King James Bible.

And another thing people might not know about me is that as I am quite new to CCC. I l enjoy encountering people of different cultural and social backgrounds. (Being a part of Welcoming/Hospitality team at the Cathedral gives me a tremendously priceless opportunity for that! Thanks!!) Plus, I am always curious about various linguistic aspects of different languages: unique accents, phrasal /words’ usages in discourse, etc. as well as syntax and semantics in various sociological discourse contexts (my major was linguistics at SFU!) since I view language as an excellent source of understanding social cultural richness which is part of our identity.