BLIA South Island 2018 Annual General Meeting
Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island held its 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 22nd September 2018 at Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island. The meeting was attended by BLIA South Island President Bernie, Advisor John Lai, Vice Presidents James Low and Lih-son Ding, other Committee Members and more than 50 BLIA members. FGS New Zealand Abbess Venerable Manshin, FGS South Island Minister-in-charge Venerable Jue Xi and FGS South Island Venerable Zhi Wu were invited as advising Venerables.
BLIA South Island President Bernie started the meeting by presenting a report on the activities undertaken by the Association in the past year. He made the presentation using power-point. Among the many BLIA South Island activities in the past year were the Dharma talks by FGS Head Abbot Venerable Hsin Bao and Vice Abbot Venerable Hui Zhao, medical seminars by Doctors, and talks by renowned artists, authors and chief editor. Bernie’s report was followed by presentation of reports by West-one Subchapter President Louisa Kuo, North-one Subchapter President Luping, Bi and English Subchapter President Sally Lim on their respective subchapter. BLIA South Island Treasurer also presented the financial report.
On other matters arising, the following matters were discussed and approved: (1) announcement of the results of the election of office bearers of BLIA South Island Subchapters for the year 2019, namely: West-one Subchapter President Louisa Kuo, Vice President Heidi Lee; North-one Subchapter President Cao Qian, Vice President Mei-Hwa Chen; English Subchapter President Sally Lim, Vice President Jessie Teoh, (2) to encourage members to take part in the Tree Planting Event at Eastside Bush on 3rd November 2018 organised by Christchurch City Council; (3) to mobilise members to promote ‘FGS South Island’s celebrating Buddha’s Enlightenment day and offering Laba Congee to public activities’ in the month of December 2018; (4) to launch the campaign to get 100 people to participate in the ‘FGS Volunteer reunion and Winter Solstice Festival and having glutinous rice balls’ event to be held on 22nd December 2018; (5) to encourage BLIA members and Christchurch public to attend the Dharma talk by FGS Hong Kong and Macau Abbess Venerable Yong Fu; (6) to encourage BLIA members to participate in the Australia Nan Tien Temple Water-land Dharma Function; (7) to mobilise BLIA members to actively plan and organise the 2019 Buddha’s Day Celebration; (8) to encourage BLIA members to practice singing song from the ‘Rhythm of the World’ collection before every monthly meeting and to sustain this practice; (9) to encourage BLIA members to take part in the 2019 New Year ‘Sutra Copying and Buddhism Examination’ activities; (10) to encourage BLIA members to participate in the Chinese New Year Re-union Dinner on 26th January 2019; and (11) to encourage every Subchapter to set up study group to actively study the ‘Complete Works of Venerable Master Hsing Yun’.
On this day, the meeting warmly welcomed the recently recruited members, both from the English speaking and the Chinese speaking sectors. Following this, BLIA members put up two performances, ‘Giving is the Power’ hand gensture and the Drama of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, bringing laughter to the audience who then rewarded them with rounds of applause.
In her address to the meeting, Venerable Abbess Manshin asked BLIA members to uphold the spirit of relentlessly contributing towards Humanistic Buddhism as practiced by Master Hsing Yun, but with a well-defined direction in order to accomplish more. Later, Abbess took the opportunity to share with the meeting the achievements of FGS New Zealand she highlighted in the seminar in FGS Headquarters in Kaohsiung Taiwan: (1) FGS New Zealand has continuously organised the ‘3G4G Festival of Cultural Sharing’ for the past 5 years, culminating in the participation of 6000 students last year; (2) BLIA South island has taken part for more than 20 years, without fail, in the New Zealand Red Cross Association’s ‘Meals on Wheels’ project; (3) FGS New Zealand has carried out the book distribution of Master Hsing Yun’s ‘366 Days with Wisdom’. The project enables the public to benefit from the wisdom of Master Hsing Yun; and (4) in 2017, Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Auckland organised the ‘Cherry Blossom Art Salon’ where more than 30 artists took part. The event received great critical acclaim from the public. This year around, 91 artists have registered as participants.
Venerable Abbess Manshin informed the meeting that she and Venerable Jue Xi will represent FGS New Zealand in attending the ‘5th World Buddhist Forum’ to be held in Fujian, China, and will present a 5000 worded paper titled ‘Changing Lives, Witnessing Miracles’ at the Forum. The paper will describe the results achieved by FGS New Zealand in its propagation of education via the way of Humanistic Buddhism. Abbess pointed out that, though small in size, FGS New Zealand possesses tremendous creativity. She hoped that more people with the same goal will join BLIA to fully develop and propagate Humanistic Buddhism so that Humanistic Buddhism can shine in New Zealand.