From April 2-4, The Diocese of West Missouri hosted the 2025 Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Episcopal Clergy and Lay Leadership Retreat at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City. The retreat, which centered around the theme “Sharing Our Stories,” saw 59 AAPI clergy and lay leaders come together from all over, including Maine, Texas, Hawai’i, and Guam. Members gathered to network, discern, and focus on identity issues, and how the church can empower and strengthen AAPI Episcopalians.
Bishop Bruce and Bishop Allen Shin from The Episcopal Diocese of New York co-founded this group and held the first gathering in person in Los Angeles in 2017, then online during the pandemic.
“I think one of the hallmarks of this gathering is that people make friends in different parts of the country, and when they come up against something, those friendships are what sustain them,” Bishop Bruce told ENS in a phone interview. “There’s something to be said about having somebody that has a lot of your same life experiences. … If there’s a difficulty in church or elsewhere, it’s somebody that you can talk to who can relate to what you’re going through.”
Bishop Shin also spoke to ENS about the need to highlight areas that aren’t typically thought of.
“I think it’s extremely important to include this essential work in areas we wouldn’t normally think of, because otherwise that Asian American person in Arkansas or here in Kansas City will be disconnected, isolated and lonely with no support network and no community.”
You can learn more about Asiamerica Ministries by visiting The Episcopal Church’s website.
Quotes taken from the Episcopal News Service.
