Welcome to The Gathering – a Space for Asian Pacific American Spirituality
What’s next?
“Why Las Posadas is important to AAPI Christians” - Video Conversation
A video conversation with leaders of the Program Group on Hispanic Ministries and The Gathering on the meaning of Las Posadas: https://youtu.be/kXPRjupf9x8
The Gathering joins the Diocesan Gran Posada
The Gathering community is invited to attend the Diocesan Posada on Saturday, December 10, 2022, 5 PM at St. Paul’s Commons.
We grieve together and we resolve to respond together
Dear Friends of The Gathering,
This has been a challenging season for all of us. For Asian Pacific Americans (APA), it has been especially tense with recent spikes in public violent attacks on our elders, and now the shooting rampage in Atlanta that targeted Asian women, killing eight beloved humans. We grieve for them and with their families. We condemn and lament the racism that continues to be expressed through violence.
We also resolve, as The Gathering, to offer a safe space to encourage APA Christians to care for one another by sharing our stories, engaging in education, and advocating for change. Right now, we urge you to intentionally find ways to practice self-care, connect with others, amplify efforts in our community toward change, dig deep in prayer, and respond in action. In the coming week and beyond, let us continue to forge partnerships and act on ways toward meaningful change as we continue to build God's Beloved Community.
To all of our non-APA allies and friends, we are full of gratitude for you. Thank you for your supportive prayers, words, presence, and your desire to do more. And to our POC siblings, let us continue to build deep solidarity. This past year has further taught us that we must continue to be co-laborers in the struggle for justice with the Black and Brown communities. We see you and join you in your pain.
We invite anyone who seeks a sacred and safe space to join us at our next Gathering Spot to connect with others and pray together. We'll meet next Wednesday, March 24, 5-6 pm PST. Please register here.
We also invite you to join us now in praying these prayers:
A prayer for all to pray specifically at this time:
Gracious and Holy God, we are all made in your image. We lament the racism that infects our hearts that causes us to forget that. Please comfort our Asian siblings who are the targets of not only micro-agressions but open aggression and most recently brutal murder. Comfort those who mourn the loss of their loved ones. Protect our Asian siblings who continue to live in fear. Heal us from our indifference to their pain. Give us the courage to stand in solidarity with them and denounce these actions. Give us the strength to live into our baptismal covenant of respecting the dignity of every human being. All this we ask through Jesus Christ, the one who came to help us know you and your love for us all. Amen. -- Prayer offered by the Rt. Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Los Angeles
A prayer for all:
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. – Prayer for the Human Family (Book of Common Prayer, p. 815)
May we walk with compassion for ourselves and for others, all as God's created Beloveds.
Faithfully,
The Rev. Peter Huang and The Gathering leadership team
Our Statement in Solidarity with the Black Community
The Gathering: A Space for Asian Pacific American Spirituality stands with the Black community in your anger and heartbreak over the murder of George Floyd and countless others whose names never reached public knowledge. We are a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and as Asian Pacific American (APA) Christians and allies, we are committed to racial justice and reconciliation.
We see you as equals, equally vulnerable, equally human, and equally wonderful in God’s eyes. We walk with you in an effort to wake up those who have fallen asleep to the profound injustices in your community and other communities of color. We will listen and be present to you. Your lives, your stories, your pain, and your dreams matter to us.
We deeply regret that the APA community has not always treated you and other communities of color with dignity and respect. We have often been silently complicit in the face of racial injustice, so we commit to examining our own racial prejudices and wrongdoings and educating our circles on anti-racism. We seek meaningful change in solidarity with the Black community by dismantling the unjust systems of economic, social, and racial inequality.
We believe that God, who is every color imaginable and unimaginable, created us in our diversity so that we may together reflect the image of God. Because we are called as followers of Jesus to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being, we proclaim in word and deed that #BlackLivesMatter.
Your dignity is our dignity. Your justice is our justice. Your liberation is our liberation.
Who we are
We are a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles that provides opportunities for Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) to gather together to tell our stories, learn from one another, engage in initiatives for peace and social justice, and talk about spirituality in the APA context.
Asian Pacific Americans have often been invisible to our churches, whether in involvement or invitation. APAs are diverse. Some are recent immigrants with documents or without, others have been Americans for many generations; from East, South, Southeast, and Western Asia, as well as the islands of the Pacific; many are intermarried within Asian ethnic groups as well to people from other races. The Gathering is a space for all of this diversity.
We also welcome non-APAs to join us, to learn about our spirituality and to take concrete steps to grow the multicultural church.
And you don’t have to be Episcopalian! We welcome seekers, people from other denominations and faith traditions to share this space and all that will emerge from it.
We hope to see you soon!
The Rev. Peter Huang, Sharon Crandall, Mel Soriano, and The Gathering planning team
“This ministry was created in response to the growing number of Asian Americans who are looking for something more — a deeper connection to God with others who understand the challenges of navigating this world as an Asian American.”
— Bishop Diane JARDINE Bruce, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles
July 2019 “The Gathering in the OC” summer party at the residence of Bishop Diane and Canon Stephen Bruce
Where to find us
The Gathering meets over panel conversations on topics related to Asian spirituality and advocacy as well as social events, local pilgrimages and art & music events.
We also offer Asian Immersion Experiences to help our church leaders better understand our diverse Asian cultures.
We’d love to come share with your church leadership about how to connect with the Asians in your community. Please invite us!
“At every Gathering event regardless of the topic, I meet people who feel just like me. We gather and share stories over food and discuss topics relevant to the day, but the true beauty of this ministry is simply ‘the gathering.’ The Gathering feels like safe space for me to live into my true self. It is a place of healing and transformation.”
— Sharon Matsushige Crandall, The Gathering Planning Team Member
February 2019 at the Japanese American National Museum, Day of Remembrance of Executive Order 9066 which led to the mass incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent.