ASIAMERICA MINISTRIES in

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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REMEMBERING THE PAST, CELEBRATING THE PRESENT, VISUALIZING THE FUTURE

In 1973, Asian Episcopalian clergy and lay leaders, with the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Winston Ching as first Asiamerica Missioner, gathered in San Francisco, California and organized their work into the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry (EAM). Over time, EAM has evolved into a three-fold ministry: ministry to Asian immigrants in the United States; ministry to Asian-Americans or Americans born and raised in the United States of Asian ancestry; and ministry of bridge-building to churches in Asia, especially those belonging to the worldwide Anglican Communion and those in concordat with The Episcopal Church.

In 2013, the Asiamerica Ministries Network in The Episcopal Church, with the leadership of the Rev. Canon Dr. Winfred Vergara, the second Asiamerica Missioner, celebrated its 40th anniversary and “remembered its past,celebrated its present, and visualized its future.”

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The next EAM Consultation will be held in Seoul, Korea, from September 29 to October 5, 2015. It is set to coincide with the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Anglican Church in Korea, and the theme is “Celebrating Our Partnerships; Uniting Our Missions.” The Consultation hopes to put into practice the lessons learned in America and to set into motion a closer, broader, and deeper partnership with Asia.

This article narrates the immigration history of Asians in the United States; the beginnings of Asiamerica Ministry in The Episcopal Church; and the lessons learned and the challenges faced by Asiamerican Episcopalians as they continue to work toward growth and diversity in American church and society.

HISTORY OF ASIAMERICA IMMIGRATION

The first Asians who set foot on American soil were Filipinos, at a time when the Philippines was a colony of Spain. Filipinos served as crewmen on Spanish galleons, plying their trade from Manila to Acapulco. Practically slaves and maltreated by their masters, a dozen or so Manila men or “Luzon Indios” as the Spaniards called them, jumped ship and settled in the bayous of Louisiana, establishing the Malong Village, circa 1573–1587. Narrative accounts from historian Marina Espina say that they engaged in the shrimp drying industry and intermarried with the local Cajuns and Native Americans. According to oral history, their descendants participated in the War of 1812, fighting the British under the command of French buccaneer, Jean Lafitte. Nothing has been written about them in American history textbooks.

Chinese immigration

While the early Filipinos were “accidental migrants,” the first intentional Asian immigrants came from China. In 1849, James W. Marshall, an American contractor who was constructing a sawmill for John Sutter at Coloma in Sacramento Valley, California, accidentally struck gold. The

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news of the “Gold Mountain” (Gam Saan in Cantonese) spread like wildfire in Kwangtung Province in southeast China, inspiring a few hundred Chinese adventurers to make their way to California. In 1851, a group of 2,716 Chinese braved the rough ocean to get to America. By 1852, that figure increased nearly tenfold, to 20,026.

While Chinese adventurers came to California with “Gam Saan on their minds,” their American recruiters had different plans for the Chinese, namely to hire them as cheap labor to perform dynamite blasting for the mining industry. The recruiters decided that the Chinese physique and agility were perfect for the job. Blasting mountains with dynamite was a very risky endeavor, however, and many Chinese lost lives and limbs.

When the “gold fever” subsided and the mining industry stabilized, Chinese laborers moved to other industries, such as agriculture, trade, and manufacture, with a large number helping to build the transcontinental railroads, which also required dynamite blasting.

Japanese immigration

The Chinese immigration was followed by immigration from Japan. Japanese Americans, known collectively as the Nikkei (“of Japanese lineage”), are perhaps the only ethnic group in the United States who couched their immigration history and evolution in terms of generational groups. This is largely due to the fact that, while other Asian immigrations were open-ended and ongoing, Japanese immigration began in 1885 and practically stopped in 1924. Many Japanese Americans of today are offspring of those early immigrants. Most of the Japanese who entered the United States after 1924 were tourists, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and brides of American citizens, rather than immigrant families or groups.

HISTORY OF ASIAMEICA IMMIGRATION

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The following are descriptions of each generation of Japanese Americans: (1) Issei, the first generation of Japanese immigrants, arrived between 1885 and 1924. Many of them became naturalized U.S. citizens. (2) Nisei, the second generation, were American-born Japanese and offspring of Issei. Nisei who were sent to Japan to be educated were known as Kibei. (3) Sansei, the third generation, were children of Nisei; and (4) Yonsei the fourth generation, were progeny of Sansei.

The Issei were young, unmarried sojourners who dreamt of making money and then returning home to Japan. They first settled in Hawaii and worked on pineapple plantations. A large number also moved to California, Oregon, and Washington – and only few returned to Japan. The Issei lived a migrant life, finding abundant work in agriculture, small businesses, domestic service, lumber mills, and canneries, as well as on the railroads. Many also found employment in the mining industry, partly due to the halt of Chinese immigration resulting from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. With their natural talent in agriculture, Japanese immigrants gravitated toward farming. By 1910, many agricultural workers in California were Japanese. After the devastating earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, some Japanese survivors regrouped and migrated to other states as far as Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado.

Korean immigration

The Japanese immigrants were followed by the Koreans. Korean immigration to America occurred during the time when China and Japan were competing for dominance in Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Japan emerged victorious when it defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and then proceeded to invade and occupy Korea. The Koreans

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resisted the Japanese invasion but were no match for the Japanese military forces who then occupied the peninsula.

Japanese colonization of Korea, instead of promoting its avowed “Korean welfare and prosperity,” destroyed Korean culture and national consciousness. The Japanese overhauled the Korean school system, replaced Korean language classes, and expunged Korean history and culture from school curricula. The Japanese colonizers also stripped Koreans of their land, confiscated crops for Japanese consumption, and prohibited Koreans from engaging in commerce.

With Japanese domination weighing heavily on them, Koreans considered the news that jobs awaited them in Hawaii to be “honey in the rock,” a divine answer to their cry for deliverance. From the standpoint of Hawaiian sugar plantation owners, however, the arrival of Korean immigrants was meant to neutralize Japanese laborers who were beginning to show discontent. In a move reminiscent of the theory of “divide and rule,” white Hawaiian planters exploited the anti-Japanese sentiments of Koreans to undercut the threat of Japanese labor strikes.

Korean immigration was also tinged with religious connection. Recruitment of cheap Korean labor was carried out by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association through the American missionary movement in Korea. Horace Allen, the American ambassador to Korea, and William Deshler, the chief recruiter, engaged the services of Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries to entice their Korean church members to go to Hawaii in order to “become better Christians and be blessed with prosperity.” Posters and newspaper advertisements portrayed Hawaii in the biblical image of “a land flowing with milk and honey and rice,” a compelling incentive to Koreans suffering under Japanese control of their homeland.

In 1902, a total of 121 Koreans arrived in Honolulu. Over the next two years, they were joined by more than 7,000. This trend came to a halt when the Japanese government (in firm control of the Korean colony and obviously in response to bad report from the Japanese in Hawaii), prohibited Koreans from going to America. This ban was lifted when the United States and Japan signed the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 1907. In this agreement,

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Japan agreed not to issue passports for Japanese citizens wishing to work in the continental United States, thus effectively eliminating new Japanese immigration to America. In exchange, the United States agreed to accept the presence of Japanese immigrants – and their Korean colonials – already residing in America, as well as settled agriculturists, and to permit the entry of the immigrants’ wives, children, and parents.

The Korean War that took place in the aftermath of World War II divided the Korean Peninsula into North and South, the North going Communist and the South going under the protectorate of the United States. This precipitated the next wave of Korean immigration to America. Many Korean women took advantage of the War Brides Act of 1945. Approximately 150,000 Korean orphans, left parentless by both World War II and the Korean War, also came to the United States and were adopted by American families. Korean professionals, businesspeople, and students likewise followed.

Intentional Filipino immigration

Although Filipino feet were the first to have stepped on American soil, as stated earlier, it was not until the turn of the 20th century that intentional Filipino immigration to the United States really happened. In June 12, 1898, the Filipino people, after 300 years under Spanish colonial rule, succeeded in their revolution for independence and declared the first Philippine Republic. It proved short-lived, however, because instead of surrendering to Filipino revolutionaries, the Spanish colonial government ceded the Philippine Islands to the American government for $20 million. Overnight, the colonization of the Philippines changed from Spanish hands to American hands. It was in the context of Americanization of the Philippines that Filipino immigration to the United States happened.

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Filipino immigrants came in four waves. The first wave Filipino immigrants were two distinct groups – scholars and laborers; the second wave immigrants were U.S. Navy personnel and war brides; the third wave immigrants were professionals and their families; and the fourth wave immigrants were Filipino veterans of World War II who fought alongside the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE).

The first wave Filipino immigrants (1906–1940) came as “nationals” of the United States. The students, called “fountain pen boys,” came as scholars to prestigious American universities to be trained in American democracy. Many of them went back to become leaders of the Philippine government, while others remained as pioneers in various professions. The laborers came to work in sugar cane and pineapple plantations in Hawaii and farmlands in California, and others as cannery workers in Alaska. By 1930, there were 45,208 Filipinos in the United States.

The second wave Filipino immigrants (1946–1960) came to the United States in the aftermath of World War II. Noted for their gallantry and valor when fighting alongside the American soldiers against the Japanese Imperial Army, the Filipinos earned the favor of triumphant America. As a result, many of the Filipinos were received by Americans as “little brown brothers” and many Filipinas became war brides of American GIs. Unlike the first wave laborers who had to endure the heat of the sun in Hawaiian and Californian farmlands, second wave immigrants settled in American urban areas, finding jobs as Navy crewmen, cooks, taxi drivers, waiters, and maids.

The third wave Filipino immigrants (1965–1990) came to the United States in surging numbers following the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, which increased the immigration quota for professionals and skilled workers needed for the revitalized American economy. In an instant, the term “brain

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drain” was added to Philippine vocabulary as doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, nurses, teachers, and clergymen immigrated to the United States with “green cards and green bucks” in their minds. The declaration by Marcos of martial law in the Philippines on September 21, 1972 further exacerbated the flight of professionals and political activists seeking asylum in the United States.

The fourth wave Filipino immigrants (1990–2000), though small compared to the other waves, are worthy of mention because they represent the Filipino cry for American justice. They were the remnants of the 142,000 soldiers of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) who heeded President Franklin Roosevelt’s call to serve under General Douglas MacArthur and to repel the Japanese Imperial Army. Recognized for their valor and gallantry, they were promised U.S. citizenship, with all its rights and privileges, but it took over 50 years for that promise to be fulfilled. In 1990, around 26,000 aging and disabled Filipino veterans came to the U.S. to receive their American passports. At the ceremony in San Francisco, they were verbally recognized for their role in the U.S. victory against Japan in World War II, but in contrast to mainstream American veterans who receive full pension and other benefits, they were only given Social Security supplemental checks, barely enough for their food and lodging in overcrowded housing.

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South Asian immigration

At the risk of categorizing this vast plurality and diversity into one term, “South Asians,” we now move into the history of immigrants from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. While history notes that “a traveler from Madras (South India) visited the United States as early as 1790,” it was not until the last quarter of the 20th century that South Asian immigrants came in large numbers to America.

Asian Indians are currently the largest South Asian subgroup in the United States and third largest of the pan-Asians, after the Chinese and Filipinos. Pakistanis are the second largest South Asian group, while Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, and Bhutanese follow far behind.

What is distinctive about South Asian, and particularly Asian-Indian, immigration history is the fact that they generally immigrated to the U.S. for career advancement and scholarship needs rather than for economic or political reasons. Significant South Indian groups also did not come directly from India but from the Caribbean Islands, where they were indentured laborers, and when U.S. immigration was allowed, they proceeded to the U.S. mainland.

Between 1890 and 1900, only 696 Asian Indians entered the country as immigrants. But in 1902, Indian students from (then) British-controlled India came to U.S. universities to pursue courses in engineering, medicine, agriculture, and manufacturing. The years 1907 to 1910 saw the greatest number of Indian student arrivals. From the 1970s onward, many more South Asians came and established their careers and became successful, particularly with the advent of the computer industry era. Today, Indo-Americans occupy relatively the same level of economic of success as do Jewish Americans. Asian Indians, and generally South Asians, also are some of the most religiously diverse Asian immigrant population: they are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Christians.

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Southeast Asian immigration

Finally, and again at the risk of categorizing these diverse ethnic groups into one term, “Southeast Asians,” we conclude with the history of immigration from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos, as well as from the Hmong and Burmese communities. The immigration history of these populations is distinctive in that most entered the United States as war refugees and ended up as settled and upwardly mobile immigrant communities.

What is the difference between immigrants and refugees? The main difference lies in the circumstances surrounding their departure from their countries of origin and their arrival to their host countries. Immigrants customarily leave their homeland on a voluntary basis and have a choice as to where they are going to settle. In contrast, refugees generally flee their countries for fear of genocide, military or political reprisal, ethnic violence, or cultural persecution, or due to war dislocation.

Refugees have little or no time to prepare for their journey and seldom know where they will end up. A refugee’s exile is resolved in one of three ways: (1) local integration into another country willing to accept the refugee, (2) voluntary repatriation back in the home country, and (3) permanent resettlement in a third country.

Of all countries in the world, the United States has become the beacon for the world’s refugees, often because of its involvement in wars and conflicts that have generated refugee problems. For instance, by virtue of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, the United States opened its doors to 400,000 refugees, primarily from Europe. In the 1950s, the Refugee Relief Act admitted 214,000 refugees, including 2,800 Chinese fleeing communism.

In the 1970s, following the end of the Vietnam War and the atrocities in Kampuchea, the United States began permanently resettling Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Hmong, and other Southeast Asian refugees. By 1975, the U.S. had admitted over 130,400 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. The Refugee Act of 1980 increased the quota to 50,000 per year. By 1998, 1,342,532 Southeast Asian refugees had been admitted and resettled in various places in the United States. As former refugees became U.S. citizens,

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they often petitioned to have their families and relatives join them through the Family Reunification Act.

How have the Vietnamese and Southeast Asian refugees generally been received by mainstream America? The blow-by-blow coverage on American television of the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the dramatic helicopter rescue of the South Vietnamese war survivors from the U.S. Embassy grounds, immortalized in the Broadway musical “Miss Saigon,” awakened American compassion to the plight of the war victims and refugees. Upon their arrival in Camp Pendleton, California, the first Vietnamese immigrants were immediately flown in U.S. military aircraft to reception centers. There, they underwent interviews and physical examination, were given identification cards, and were registered with volunteer agencies who took charge of their resettlement processing. With their basic needs met, refugees were given free lessons on American culture and taught the English language. Thereafter, they were resettled, mostly in California, Texas, Washington, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Minnesota. They were provided with food stamps and reasonable welfare checks and given references for jobs and employment. Volunteers and members of religious organizations became hosts to many refugee families.

The Hmong and the Karen refugee groups are worthy of further mention, as their arrival in the United States had political and religious significance, respectively. The Hmong are a tribal group from the highlands of Laos, China, and Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, many of them were conscripted by the CIA as spies, soldiers, and allies. It is said that, had the Hmong not cut the Vietnamese supply on the Ho Chi Min Trail, the Americans would have lost the war earlier. After the Vietnam War, the Hmong were in danger of possible retaliation and persecution by the Viet Cong and were resettled in the United States, mostly in Minnesota.

Like the Hmong population who lived in the jungles, the Karen people are also hill tribes from the Burma-Thailand border. They compose some 5 million people or approximately 7 percent of the total population of Burma (Myanmar), a predominantly Buddhist country. Because they were clamoring to become an independent state and because they are Christians,

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the Karen became the target of persecution by the central Myanmar government. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Karen Burmese became refugees in Thailand and were resettled by their host countries – notably Australia and the United States – partly because of this religious overtone.

Many Southeast Asian refugees in the U.S. managed to survive and adjust to the new culture in a way and at a rate faster than the earlier Asian immigrants. Over a relatively short period, they built successful communities such as “Vietnam towns” in Orange County and Silicon Valley in California, a “Cambodia town” in Olympia, a “Laotian town” in Fresno, and a “Hmong town” in St. Paul. While it is true that many Southeast Asian refugees managed to survive, it is also true that a lot more of them, especially the less-educated first-generation Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmong, suffer from poverty. They also experienced diseases such as “sudden unexplained death syndrome,” possibly as a result of past trauma of war and violence.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND ASIAMERICA

The Episcopal Church is the first Anglican Province established outside of the British Isles, and it was born and nurtured in the cradle of American Independence. The Church of England, which the early English settlers established in the colonies, was drawn into the American Revolution of 1776. As American independence was achieved, the U.S. Anglicans assembled in Philadelphia in 1789 and unified all

American Anglicans into a single national church – the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA (PECUSA). They adopted a constitution and revised the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer by removing the prayer for the English monarch. Samuel Seabury was subsequently ordained in Scotland as the first American Bishop of the independent American church in the independent American nation.

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The Episcopal Church in Asia

As a part of the young and emergent new nation, The Episcopal Church became involved in the American missionary enterprises in Asia. Particularly in the Philippines, Korea, Okinawa, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, American Protestant missions came alongside American political and military imperialism. Motivated by “manifest destiny” and “the white man’s burden,” missionaries accompanied military and political agents in Asia so they could evangelize; establish missionary outposts; and build missionary dioceses, hospitals, seminaries, and colleges.

The Episcopal Church made particular missionary successes in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Micronesia. The Episcopal missionary district, which began at the advent of American neocolonialism in the Philippines, eventually grew and developed into an independent province, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP). The church in Taiwan became a significant

diocese in Province VIII of The Episcopal Church, and the Church in Micronesia (Guam and Saipan) joined the Diocese of Hawaii.

Today, The Episcopal Church is present in over 17 countries all over the world and has truly become a global church.

The Episcopal Church also made ecumenical alliances with Asian indigenous churches such as the Iglesia Filipina Independiente in the Philippines and the Mar Thoma Church in India. Charles Henry Brent, the first Episcopal missionary bishop in the Philippines was one of the pioneers of the World Council of Churches and the Philippine

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ecumenical movement. The Church of South India and the Church of North India were “uniting churches” of former Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations and products of ecumenical ventures in unity.

How did Asians navigate into The Episcopal Church? As Filipino and Taiwanese Episcopalians and concordat partners immigrated to the United States, they sought the familiarity of The Episcopal Church that they knew back home. And because The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Anglicans from such countries as Japan, Korea, China, India, Hong Kong, and Singapore also looked to The Episcopal Church as the equivalent of the Anglican Church back home.

The beginning of Asian ministry in North America

In the North American context, the earliest recorded Asiamerican Episcopal church dates back to 1870, when a Chinese railroad worker named Ah Foo was converted by the American Tract Society. Although he was baptized in the Presbyterian Church, for some reason, he decided to serve as a lay missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.

Fired up with zeal for the gospel, Ah Foo evangelized to his friends working on the transcontinental railroads in Nevada. In 1870, he organized the Good Shepherd Chinese Church in Carson City, Nevada. In 1874, he founded another mission in Virginia City, Nevada. With funds collected from his fellow railroad workers and a grant from a Caucasian sympathizer from New York, Ah Foo constructed the House of Prayer Chapel. He translated the Episcopal liturgy into Chinese, led Bible study, and provided pastoral care among the Chinese workers.

Ah Foo grew the Chinese congregation to about 150 members. Unfortunately, the chapel was destroyed in the great fire in Virginia City in 1875. The loss of the chapel, the lack of moral support from the mainstream Anglo diocese, and the emerging hostility of the nativists against Chinese immigrants greatly discouraged Ah Foo. Finally, as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was

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implemented, Ah Foo disbanded the congregation and left the area, and the fledgling Chinese Episcopal mission came to an abrupt end.

The revival of Asian ministry by the Japanese

After 1882, there was no recorded Asian presence in The Episcopal Church until 1895, when the Rev. Masaichi Tai, the first Japanese priest ordained in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Communion in Japan), was sent to California by the Rt. Rev. John McCain, missionary bishop of Kwanto Province in Japan.

Tai started his ministry among Japanese laborers, meeting them at his living quarters in 421 Powell Street, San Francisco. Overcome by homesickness, Tai returned to Japan in 1896 and was replaced by the Rev. Kumazo Mikami. Mikami served at Advent Episcopal Church and succeeded in evangelizing and presenting at least five candidates for confirmation in the Diocese of California. He resigned in 1899 and was replaced by the Rev. Daijiro Yoshimura, who became the first canonically resident Japanese priest in the Diocese of California and the United States.

With the assistance of Mary Patterson, a former missionary in the Nagano Prefecture, Yoshimura

was able to convince the diocese to provide a new worship space at 1001 Pine Street, San Francisco. Because of her familiarity with Japanese language and culture, Patterson effectively advocated for the Japanese mission and served as a bridge between Japanese clergy and the diocese. The fledgling Japanese congregation was officially recognized as an Episcopal mission in 1902. In 1915, under the administration of Deacon Paul Murakami, the first Japanese graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), the mission became Christ Church Sei Ko Kai, registering a membership of 25 adults and 20 children, with a budget of around $500.

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Christ Church in San Francisco is the acknowledged mother church of other Japanese churches, such as St. Mary’s Mission, Los Angeles, in 1907; St. Peter’s Mission, Seattle, in 1912; Epiphany Mission, Portland, Oregon, in 1935; and St. George’s Mission, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1938.

Most of these Japanese Episcopal churches flourished for many years. In 1941, the U.S. joined the Pacific War, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese-Episcopal churches were abandoned, as many Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps in remote places of the country. After the war, those returning from internment camps revived their churches, but the vitality was adversely affected by the negative experiences of American war hysteria. One of those who figured as heroes among the internees was the Rev. Hiram Hisanori Kano, the Japanese Episcopal priest who ministered to his fellow Japanese in their internment camp as well as to German prisoners of war. Kano’s legacy was celebrated in the Diocese of Nebraska where he served, and his name is being considered for inclusion in the “Holy Women, Holy Women” liturgical calendar.

Chinese missions in 1900

After the untimely demise of the first Chinese mission in Nevada City in 1874, a new Chinese mission was started in San Francisco in 1905. Organized by Emma Drant, a deaconess from Hawaii who was tutored in Cantonese, this mission grew into a sizable congregation.

In 1906, the great earthquake of San Francisco left 4,000 residents dead, over 300,000 homeless, and 80 percent of the city destroyed. The Chinese congregation evacuated to Oakland as the city underwent redevelopment. When the city’s restoration was over, only half of the original congregation

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND ASIAMERICA

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returned to San Francisco, while the other half remained in Oakland. The congregation that returned to San Francisco was named True Sunshine Church, and the one that remained in Oakland was named Our Saviour’s Church.

From San Francisco and Oakland, Chinese congregational development moved to Los Angeles (St. Gabriel’s Church); Seattle (Holy Apostles Church); Manhattan, New York (Our Savior, Chinatown); Flushing, New York (St. George’s Church); Brooklyn, New York (St. Peter’s Church); and the Chinese mission in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston, among others.

Korean and Filipino missions

The Korean Episcopal Ministry in Hawaii was first planned in 1906 and became visible in 1907 with the establishment of St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish in Honolulu, which ministered among Korean immigrants. St. Luke’s Korean Ministry had its years of fecundity, but by the latter part of the 20th century it had evolved into a multicultural church, as with most parishes in Hawaii. Many original Korean members of St. Luke’s and their offspring also moved to the U.S. mainland and would later help establish Korean missions in California, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.

Most Filipinos who came to the U.S. in the early 1900s as farm workers in Hawaii and California were Ilocano males of Roman Catholic background. There was no attempt by The Episcopal Church to reach out to them until after the Concordat of Full Communion with the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in 1961 and the formation of the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry in 1973.

Establishment of Episcopal Asiamerica ministry

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 relatively eradicated the overt and structural racism and hostility of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the anti-miscegenation laws against Filipinos, and the Japanese internment camps. It also increased the quotas of immigrants from Asia. As the United States rose as a superpower, it became a magnet for many immigrants from Asia seeking

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a better future and escaping the grinding poverty in their home countries. As Asian immigrants began to settle in the U.S., they sought spiritual communities. It was a perfect environment for Christian evangelism and church growth.

At the time, the few Episcopal Asiamerican churches, which were mainly Chinese and Japanese, not only were recuperating from the nightmares of their past but also were struggling to find their places in the largely white American mainstream. Meanwhile, the unparalleled positive impact of the American civil rights movement led to the emergence of advocacies among the black, Native American, and Hispanic caucuses within the mainstream Episcopal Church. Asian Episcopalians were few and far between.

So it was providential that, in 1973, Canon James Pun was called to serve as priest of True Sunshine Church in San Francisco. He had just come from Hong Kong and understood the sense of isolation of Asian clergy. He saw the need for a national Chinese ministry in The Episcopal Church to reach out to the increasing number of Chinese immigrants moving into the various parts of the country from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Pun began to communicate his sense of loneliness, reaching out to other Asian clergy.

In their first meeting, in March 1973, the Rev. Canon John H.M. Yamasaki, rector of St. Mary’s Japanese Church in Los Angeles and representative of Province VIII to the Executive Council of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, affirmed the sentiment of James Pun and proposed

an ad hoc committee to study the matter. It was agreed that Asian clergy should not only serve as chaplains to Asian Episcopalians but also develop a strategy to enable mission and evangelism among the Asian peoples who were immigrating in record numbers to the United States. It was imperative that a national plan to develop “Asian and Pacific Island Ministries” be recommended to The Episcopal Church.

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The members of the ad hoc committee were the Rev. Canon John Yamasaki, who took the recommendation to the Executive Council and then to the General

Convention of the Episcopal Church; the Venerable Lincoln Eng, then rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Beaverton, Oregon, and executive secretary of the ad hoc committee; the Rev. Winston Ching, vicar of St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco and chair of the ad hoc committee. Other members included Betty Lee, a lay leader from the Diocese of California; the Rev. Victor Wei, then executive administrator of the Diocese of California; and Canon James Pun.

The ad hoc committee drafted and finalized the resolution and submitted it to the 64th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which met in Louisville, Kentucky, September 29–October 11, 1973. The resolution called for the establishment of “Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry in order to deepen and strengthen the existing ministries of the Episcopal Church involved with Asian and Pacific Island peoples as well as to establish new ones.” The word “Asiamerica” was invented to include both American-born and foreign-born (immigrant) persons of Asian ancestry.

The response of the General Convention was overwhelming. The resolution was unanimously adopted with a corresponding initial budget of $50,000 to fund the development of Asian ministries and to hire a staff officer. At the first meeting of the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry in San Francisco, following the General Convention, Canon James Pun declared, “I only asked for a bicycle; but they gave us a bus and hired a driver!”

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Congregational development and advocacy

The Episcopal Asiamerica historical experience demonstrates the truism that congregational development and political advocacy are inextricably intertwined. Where there is hostility and a lack of advocates for their inclusion, immigrant faith communities do not survive, as in the case of the first Chinese Episcopal church (Ah Foo) during the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the many Japanese churches during the Japanese internment era. But where there is hospitality and advocacy for their inclusion, as in the establishment of Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry, immigrant churches survive and flourish.

The correlation of congregational development and political advocacy is acutely true with Asian immigrant churches in the United States. Asian immigrants are generally passive-aggressive and do not show their displeasure openly. Their wheels seldom squeak, they hide their tears, and they are experts in self-deprecation. In churches, they do not often self-volunteer but are quick to comply with ministry when asked to serve. They vote with their feet; that is, when they sense hospitality and welcome, they stay, but when they sense hostility and racism, they quietly leave. With the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment and Filipino anti-miscegenation laws, these reactions to the attitudes of the mainstream church are understandable.

This is another way of saying that, in many cases, the Asian immigrants would gladly have joined the mainstream white and black Episcopal churches. But having ethnic Asiamerican churches provided them with a safety net to work out their faith in their own languages and cultures, and it shielded them from rebuff by the mainstream and dominant American churches.

Since its establishment by General Convention in 1973, the Asiamerica Ministries office has been actively involved in planting, strengthening, and expanding ministries of The Episcopal Church among Asians and Pacific Islanders. On the West Coast, the Dioceses of Hawaii, California, El Camino Real, San Joaquin, San Diego, Los Angeles, Olympia, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado have been active. On the East Coast, the dioceses of New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Newark, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts,

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and Maryland have been active. In the midland, the dioceses of Chicago; Fond Du Lac; Georgia; Forth Worth, Texas; and Minnesota have been active.

In its earlier years, the Episcopal Church Venture in Mission had provided “seed grants” for the planting of congregations. In the ensuing years, grants have been given for translations of the Book of Common Prayer into Asian languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong.

Models of Asiamerica congregational development

The development of congregations serving Asiamerican communities has taken many forms, depending on local contexts. The following are some models of Asiamerican congregational development.

Classic Ethnic Church: This congregation grows to acquire a building for worship and is staffed by at least one priest. It features a clearly defined ethnic or cultural identity, financial independence, and adequate building and property. The True Sunshine Episcopal Church in San Francisco for instance, started as a Chinese mission congregation in 1905 and attained parish status in 1973. This is the case for many Asiamerican ethnic parishes, such as Church of our Savior, Chinatown, New York; Church of Our Savior, Oakland; One in Christ Church in Chicago; and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Flushing, New York .

Rented or Shared Facility: Two separate congregations share a common facility, oftentimes with an Anglo congregation “owning” the building and an ethnic church renting it. This feature is less expensive for the ethnic congregation and is a help to the Anglo congregation who earns from the rental. It also allows for an “intercultural fellowship.” St. Benedict’s Filipino Church, established in 1988, first rented the facilities of St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in West Covina, California. In 1991, they moved to Holy Trinity in Alhambra, California and became “yoked” or “merged” with the Anglo church.

Yoked or Merged Church: A new Asiamerican congregation is yoked to a declining Euro-American congregation when a single ethnic priest is

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serving both constituencies under one church name or identity. Although the priest is Asiamerican, the ownership and control of the building often belong to the declining congregation. Thus, the ethnic priest has the difficult task of navigating leadership in both congregations, often without having proficient English. After a certain period, either the “merging” is dissolved or the ethnic group outgrows the declining Anglo congregation. Examples of merging are St. Francis (Korea-Anglo) in Norwalk, California; Holy Child-St. John’s (Filipino-Anglo) in Wilmington, California; Holy Child-St. Martin’s (Filipino-Anglo) in Daly City, California; and Trinity-St. Benedict’s (Filipino-Anglo) in Alhambra, California.

Fellowship: This is a loose affiliation in which participants are members of existing parishes or congregations in nearby parishes or dioceses. The primary focus is language or cultural fellowship. This model has low-cost maintenance, as participants gather only weekly or monthly and without organizational structure. An example of this model is the Metropolitan Filipino Fellowship (MFM), which meets in Good Shepherd Church in Manhattan, New York.

Open-Ended Fellowship: Similar to fellowship, the feature of this ministry is providing activities that draw together ethnic communities coming from various regions. Faith formation, spiritual development, and pastoral care happen in host congregations coordinated by a regional lay or clergy missioner. An example of this model is the Metropolitan

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Japanese Ministry (MJM), which currently meets at St. James Church in Scarsdale, New York.

Asian Congregation in a Mainstream Parish: In this model, an Asiamerican congregation flourishes in the context of a mainline parish led by a non-Asian rector. The ethnic group is often led by a church growth ethnic curate who grows the congregation in both finances and membership, often more than the traditional congregation. An example of this model is the Chinese congregation of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Flushing, New York.

Asiamerican-led Bilingual, Trilingual Church: This model has an Asiamerican clergy who speaks English and/or Spanish aside from his/her ethnic language and is assigned to a congregation to develop bilingual/trilingual services. An example of this model is St. Luke’s Church in the Diocese of Arizona (Tagalog-Spanish-English).

Asiamerican-led Bicultural, Multiethnic, or Pan-Asian Ministry: An Asiamerican rector or priest-in-charge develops a multiracial English-speaking congregation and provides several Asian language services in one single parish or mission. This “one church, many cultures” model has a vestry or bishop’s committee that represents the various ethnic groups and services. An example of this model is St. James Episcopal Church in Elmhurst, New York, and St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Foster City, California.

Covenant Churches: In this model, two or more churches have clergy leaders who sign a joint covenant of mutual encouragement and sharing of resources for administration, pastoral care, and evangelism, and they rent

ASIAMERICA MINISTRIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

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a common facility for neighborhood outreach. An example of this model is Holy Child (Filipino) and St. Joseph’s (Anglo) churches in Milpitas (Silicon Valley), California.

Concordat and Ecumenical Parish: In this scenario, a congregation is established and maintained by a clergy of the Episcopal Church but draws membership from concordat or ecumenical churches. Examples of this model are St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Woodridge in the Diocese of Newark (Episcopal and Church of South India) and St. Paul’s Church in Honolulu, Hawaii (Episcopal and Iglesia Filipina Independiente).

THE EAM COUNCIL AND THE DIOCESAN COMMISSIONS

To assist the Asiamerica Missioner who is employed by the Episcopal Church Center based in New York City, the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry Council (EAMC) was formed in 1955. The EAMC serves as “partners-in-mission, advisory council, and advocate” to the Asiamerica Missioner in connecting and coordinating the national consultations and the various ethnic convocations.

Members of the EAMC are the elected conveners of the EAM ethnic convocations, the EAM Youth & Young Adults, and the EAM Advocates. At one point, the council also included liaisons from dioceses, diocesan commissions, the Executive Council, EAM Women, and representatives from the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and the Mar Thoma Church, but no longer, due to decreasing funding. The Asiamerica Missioner and the Partnership Officer for Asia and the Pacific are ex-officio members.

In addition to the EAMC, several dioceses have also formed diocesan commissions that further assist the Asiamerica Missioner in coordinating congregational development and advocacy in their specific dioceses.

ASIAMERICA MINISTRIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

For his installation as the second Asiamerica Missioner in 2004, the Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara wrote an article, “Asiamerica Ministries in the 21st Century,” in which he predicted that “the 21st century is going to be the Asia-

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America Century.” By that, he meant that Asia will join the United States of America as a partner in the global search for a truly free, humane, just, and peaceful world community. The Asia-America Century will alter the way we do politics, religion, and theology.

Here is an excerpt from Vergara’s article:

“My faith statement is not without basis. Thirty years ago, as a Filipino missionary priest serving in the Anglican Church of Singapore, I listened to a lecture from a noted economist, Gunnar Myrdal, author of a celebrate book, The Asian Drama. When asked why he wrote Asian Drama and not African Drama or European Drama, he replied, ‘I got impressed with this idea that the destiny of humankind will come to be decided in Asia because it is such a tremendously large part of humanity.’

“That Asia and Asians dominate the geographic and demographic milieu is a statement of fact. Asia covers 29.4 percent of the Earth’s land area and has a population of almost two-thirds of the world’s seven billion people. Together, China’s and India’s populations alone are estimated to be almost three billion. The majority languages of the world are Mandarin, Hindi, English, and Spanish in that hierarchical order.

“China and India also complement each other (yin yang) as the via media of Asian pragmatism and wisdom tradition. Chinese pragmatism is exemplified by Deng Xiaoping who opened China to globalization. As China’s foremost leader in 1978–1992, Deng instituted China’s ‘open door’ policy and introduced free enterprise into China socialist economy with such words ‘It doesn’t matter if they are black cats or white cats, so long as they catch mice, they are good cats.’ India’s wisdom tradition is exemplified by one of its many sages, Mahatma Gandhi, who saw God in everything. ‘To a hungry person, God appears in a loaf of bread,’ he said.

“Today, both China and India are leading the world in reaping the fruits of globalization. China with its manufacturing industry

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saturates the world’s retail shops with its products. India, with its developed computer industry, has become indispensable. It is a fact that when Silicon Valley in California had its computer glut in Y2K (Year 2000), the savvy American computer engineers turned to their counterparts in Bangalore, the technopolis of India. “It is my belief that whenever something new happens in the external world, what follows is something new in the internal world. Religion often precedes science but sometimes it is the other way around. The spirit often precedes the flesh but sometimes it is the other way around.

“In the Christian world, whenever there is a spiritual awakening, there also follows material prosperity. As a nation seeks the kingdom of God, “all these things are added” (Matthew 6:33). But sometimes the reverse is true. When the world awakens to the truth and expresses it in arts and literature, the church also experiences revival of its own understanding of God. The Church often prophesies to Society but sometimes the reverse is true; Society also prophesies to the Church. Church is oftentimes the avant-garde for social change; sometimes the opposite is true; Society can also lead the Church to change. There are prophets in both sides.

“One example was the renaissance and the religious reformation in Europe. When Italian arts awakened to the works of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Donatello, Botticelli, and the Medici family, the religious realm of Europe also brought the German Reformation of Martin Luther and the English Reformation of Henry VIII.

“It is my belief that the Asia-America Century will bring forth a new revival of humanities and the arts as well as new doing of theology. … In the words of David Bundy [librarian at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California], ‘The most important discourses in theology and ministry in America in the 21st century will be happening not across the Atlantic but across the Pacific.’”

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CHALLENGES FACING ASIAMERICA MINISTRIES

In June of 2013, The Episcopal Church celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries with the theme, “Remember the Past, Celebrate the Present, and Visualize the Future.” It was in 1973 when the first missioner, the Rev. Dr. Winston Ching, founded the infrastructure on which the Asian ministries would be established. It was in 2004 when the second missioner, the Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara, strengthened the foundations and enabled ministries to flourish. As the Bible says, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who gives the growth. We remembered the life and works of the pioneers, including Ah Foo of Nevada and the Rev. Hiram Hisanori Kano, the first Japanese American priest ordained in the United States who served as priest, pastor, and evangelist in the Japanese internment camps.

Today, there are more than 100 churches and ministries in The Episcopal Church that identify themselves as ethnic Asian, pan-Asian, or Asian-led multicultural. In some dioceses, there are diocesan Asian commissions whose tasks are to assist the bishops in understanding the needs and hopes of the Asian community, to promote collegiality among Asian clergy and lay leaders, and to advise the Asiamerica Missioner on program priorities.

Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries also features the following programsand activities:

1. Planting new churches and strengthening existing ones;

2. Leadership training through consultations and convocations;

3. Collegial fellowships through EAM diocesan commissions;

4. The Asiamerica Virtual Classroom;

5. EAM-EDS (Episcopal Divinity School) Partnership Doctor of Ministry Course;

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6. Asia-America Theological Exchange Forum with the Partnership Office for Asia and the Pacific (Canon Peter Ng, Officer);

7. Hmong and Southeast Asia Church Planting Enterprise (the Rev. Toua Vang, Hmong Missioner); and

8. Asiamerica Mission to End Modern Slavery (AMEMS) (based in Queens, New York, with Ms. Bern Ellorin, Consultant).

In his message at the 40th EAM anniversary celebration held in San Francisco in 2013, Missioner Vergara summarized the endeavors of Asiamerica Ministries into three: ARISE, which stands for Asiamerica Renewal In Strategic Evangelization; AFIRE for Asiamerica Focus on Immigrant Rights and Education; and ATONE for Asiamerica Theology Online Networking and Exchange.

One lesson we learned from Christian mission in America is that congregational development and leadership advocacy are inextricably intertwined. If the church welcomes and advocates for immigrants, the church will flourish. But if the church is hostile and apathetic to immigrants, the church will decline. The Asiamerica Ministries Network will continue to promote mutual responsibility and interdependence in pursuing the Christian mission of reconciliation, drawing wisdom from the past and celebrating the present gains.

From September 30 to October 5, 2015, the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries Consultation will be held in Seoul, Korea. It is set to coincide with the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Anglican Church of Korea, and the theme is “Celebrating Our Partnership, Uniting Our Missions.” Asiamerica Ministries will continue to hold both congregational development and advocacy in expanding its mission and relational reach in North America, Asia, and the world.

Asiamerica Ministry Office815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017

212.922.5344Contact: The Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara, Missioner

wvergara@episcopalchurch.org