Profiles

Makihiko (Mack) Arase is a Japanese Presbyterian minister and a hymn writer and pastors Den’en Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Kanagawa and teaches liturgics, preaching practicum, and church music at Japan Biblical Theological Seminary in Tokyo. He has been on the executive committee of the Hymn Society in Japan since its founding and also serves on the editorial board of Worship and Music, a quarterly magazine published by the United Church of Christ in Japan. As the representative of Sambika Kobo, an ecumenical hymn creation workshop, he enjoys making new songs of worship. His texts are included in Sambika Kobo, Let a Tiny Stone Shout Out: Imagining New Japanese Hymns, and several other small hymnals. He graduated from Sophia University (BL) and Tokyo Union Theological Seminary (MDiv) and also studied at Memphis Theological Seminary. Recently he chaired a joint research program sponsored by the Japan Christian Academy with the results published in the book Possibilities of the Post-Corona Church (2023).