02.08.2010
Quietly standing on a country road in the middle of this farming community is a Buddhist church, likely unnoticed by most passers-by.
It’s at 3945 W. 6900 North in Honeyville, just about a mile west of the freeway exit on Interstate 15.
Member Yoneko Aoki said her small congregation is a comfortable place for Box Elder County Buddhists to go to church.
“We’ve had it for years and years,” she said.
Now, with only 50 members, mid-week services are held just 10 times a year, with no Sunday service offered. The congregation shares the same minister, Rev. Jerry Hirano, with larger and more active congregations in Ogden and Salt Lake City.
But Aoki said her church wasn’t always so quiet.
“We used to have more and we used to even have a Sunday school,” she said. “But the young people, they get married and not many people come back on the farm. The young people go away to school and they don’t come back.”
A two-story building bought by the church in 1931 was formerly a factory for the Utah Idaho Sugar Co., according to information in “Buddhist Churches of America: A Legacy of the First 100 Years.”
The congregation was a branch of the Intermountain Buddhist Church in Salt Lake City until 1943. It then became a branch of the Ogden Buddhist Church until 1971 when it became independent.
During World War II, the two-story building was partitioned into apartments for Japanese evacuees who were allowed to leave relocation camps to live in the church.
The chapel was added in 1962. It also was used for a Japanese language school.
Other activities that have taken place in the Honeyville church include a Dharma school, Young Buddhist Association and Fujinkai, a Japanese women’s group.
“We have a good-sized building,” Aoki said. “We used to have quite a few activities out there. … But as the church got smaller and smaller and the members got older and older, there weren’t as many activities.”
Aoki saida Buddhist church in Corinne also was active for a number of years. When that church was disbanded a number of years ago, members there joined with those at the Honeyville church for services.
“We have people from Brigham City, Thatcher, Tremonton and all over the county that come to our church,” she said. “We all know each other. It’s not bad at all.”
And although services are held only 10 times a year, she said members don’t get lonely.
“We’re a church of our own but we don’t just socialize with just the people there,” she said. “We socialize with those who are where we live.”
Mike Monson, a minister’s assistant at the Ogden Buddhist Church, said the Honeyville Buddhist Church will one day die as its members get too old to attend.
He said at that time, the building will revert back to the larger church and likely will be sold.
Source: Standard-Examiner
