PANA Institute for Leadership Development

by Rev. Deborah Lee

On October 8, 2008, PANA hosted “Journeying Together Toward an Empowering and Transforming Ministry,” a consultation of Bay Area Asian American and Pacific Islander pastors and congregational leaders. A diverse group of fifty participants attended, representing a variety of API ethnicities, Catholic and Protestant denominations, and waves of immigration. We were honored with the presence of Rev. Lloyd Wake, Rev. Dave Rodriguez, and Rose Lee, who have each served in ministry for over 50 years, as well as many current GTU seminarians and new ministers. We were gifted to have historic Asian American congregations which have been in ministry in the Bay Area for well over a hundred years, as well as newer Cambodian, Filipino, Samoan and Tongan congregations serving primarily-immigrant communities today.

Professor of Constructive Theology Eleazar Fernandez gave the keynote address, which challenged us to recall our shared and distinctive Asian and Pacific Islander American narratives of global diaspora (“scattering”) and the experience of becoming racial-ethnic minorities once we arrived in the U.S. These experiences shaped by global forces, though often painful, can be a gift to the world if we undergo a process of transformation so that we may be mending healers. “Congregational leaders who carry the painful memories,” said Fernandez, “have a distinct calling to help our communities to not only remember, but to turn the painful memories of the past into movements of transformation today.”

Fernandez called it an “irony that churches born of diaspora experiences have forgotten their own history.” Remembering our diaspora and experiences of marginalization should inform the identity, vision, worship, ministries and practices of our faith communities. We who know the pain of being uprooted and being marginalized have been “gifted with a ‘diaspora heart,’” said Fernandez, “A heart that has named every place a home. A heart that can dream of a more just tomorrow and make way for others to have access to the table.”

During the second part of the day, participants engaged in an intergenerational experience of weaving together our own Asian and Pacific Islander American diaspora narratives. Borrowing from R2W methodology, participants shared “Social Biographies” of their congregations and ethnic communities, including their stories of diaspora and experiences here in the U.S. Journeying together, we were able to piece together the memories, connect the waves and identify the interweavings as we examined who we are, what we have become and where we are heading.

What did we hear in the stories? More than we can tell. But here are some highlights:

• Diaspora experiences do not end once we are here in the U.S., but continue to be scattered, e.g. Japanese American internment, resettlement, refugee resettlement experiences, and even the current economic foreclosures are experiences of diaspora within the diaspora.

• Global forces not only shape our diaspora experiences, but also have shaped divisions within our own ethnic/racial communities, e.g. the impact of colonization, WWII, denominational divisions.

• Political economy and the class dimension of our stories are important, though often omitted, aspects of our narrative to tell.

• Many of us are struggling with and asking the question: how do we keep the stories of diaspora alive? How do we convey them among the whole community and with the next generation?

• Being “Asian and Pacific Islander American” is more than just an identity; it is connected to our social and political history. How is our theology tied to our community’s social and political history?

A follow-up API Congregational Leaders Consultation/Retreat will take place March 25, 2009 in San Jose, CA, as we learn methods and ministry practices that inform our ministry and build capacity and leadership in our congregations.

The full text of Professor Fernandez’ keynote address, “Asian-Pacific Islander North Americans’ Diaspora Journey of Faith and Empowerment,” is available on the PANA website.