Michael Sepidoza Campos: Learning and Teaching at the Frontiers of Faith Communities

by Michael Sepidoza Campos, PSR GTU Ph.D. Student, Interdisciplinary Studies
Honolulu, Hawai’i • 12-20 June 2007

During the early summer, I had the opportunity to return to Hawai’i and minister with various church communities. The visit was prompted in part by an invitation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu to teach at the O’ahu Catechetical and Pastoral Enrichment Conference. The gathering brought together 60+ religious workers for fellowship and theological enrichment. Configured after the Pastoral Plan for Adult Formation of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the conference addressed six dimensions of adult catechesis: “knowledge of faith, liturgical life, moral formation, prayer, communal life and missionary spirit.”

Given the catechetical thrust of the conference, I offered a course that fostered a “conversational pedagogy” on Christology, incorporating issues of diversity, economic justice and political self-determination that were pertinent to the life of the local church. The purpose of the class was simple: to discover the roots of our Christological assumptions and so locate the specificity of local voices within these broader faith narratives. Image and music bridged Jesus’ incarnations through shifting historical, political and theological paradigms. The interactions considered and critiqued the relevance of theological language; we affirmed contemporary efforts to discern the Christian narrative within prevailing economic, gender, and ecological inequities. My encounter with fellow ministers gently encouraged fellowship, reinvigorating our vocation, hope and vision for the islands’ Catholic community.

Beyond the conference, my trip opened conversations with church leaders who comprise the PANA Institute’s broader Network on Religion and Justice. Through the hospitality of Rev. Jonipher Kwong of the Ohana Metropolitan Community Church, we premiered and hosted a discussion of In God’s House, a documentary highlighting the lives of Asian/Pacific Island people of faith who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The event drew nearly 20 people from various Honolulu churches. Mrs. Susan Roth of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries offered an articulate observation of the tenuous spaces occupied by LGBT faithful within churches that struggle to affirm their inclusion. Several attendees further remarked how tensions surrounding gender, faith and ethnicity among API faithful in the Bay Area stood in contrast from their experience in Hawai’i. While API-LGBT people of faith have had to assert spaces of inclusion in church, these spaces were not implicitly tied to questions of ethnicity. As an attendee maintained, the mixed—or hapa—cultures of the islands saw difference not as a stumbling block but a necessary ingredient to ecclesial integration. Indeed, the evening’s gathering brought together faithful people from a diversity of perspectives and religious traditions; truly an encounter of difference that allowed for abundance and learning.

Political concerns bled onto our faith conversations towards the end of the week as I learned that efforts were underway in the U.S. Senate to pressure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to account for the extra-judicial killings of church and labor leaders in the Philippines. Having worked closely with local Filipino activists on the issue, PANA’s Deborah Lee encouraged us to seek Senator Daniel K. Inouye’s support of the initiative. With the deft leadership of PSR alumnus, Rev. Wally Fukunaga, we brought these concerns before Ms. Barbara Sakamoto, staff representative of the senator. Ms. Sakamoto affirmed the tenuous involvement of U.S. aid in the extra-judicial killings of faith workers in the Philippines and so promised to personally express our concerns to Sen. Inouye who served in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The encounter intensified our resolve to pressure for accountability and transparency.

Though inundated with work, my brief return to Hawai’i opened forth opportunities to engage old and new friends in ministry. I traveled to teach, realizing later that learning assumed a committed engagement with denominational, gender, ethnic and political considerations. Teaching assumed a mutually transformative dynamic as I took stock of the various relationships that grounded my life. This broadened not only my understanding of “religious education,” but reconfigured the frontiers of my ministerial commitment. Rev. Fukunaga wisely observed that faith formation is never limited within the contours of church structures alone. The exigencies of the “real world” constitute the fiber of our faith. Relationships ground the loftiness of one’s ideals and so move one to action. Ministry thus enlivens a baptismal imperative to the broader faith community with whom we claim accountability. As a student, it is easy for me to forget the simplicity—and privilege—of this commitment. For thus having renewed these life-giving encounters, I am deeply grateful to the PSR community for having shared its financial resources [via a CAPSR scholarship] to open forth such spaces of conversation. Mahalo for your generosity.

Asian Faith Leaders To Speak Out in Support of Lesbian and Gay Families and Equality

PRESS CONFERENCE:

ASIAN FAITH LEADERS TO SPEAK OUT IN SUPPORT OF

LESBIAN AND GAY FAMILIES AND EQUALITY

Announcement of Support is a Historic First

SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2007 - Several prominent Asian American faithleaders in the Bay Area will announce their public support of lesbian and gay families and equality at a press conference in San Francisco Chinatown onThursday, May 31, 2007, from 10:30-11:30 am, at Chinese for Affirmative Action(17 Walter Lum Place, nearby Portsmouth Square), to coincide with end of APIHeritage Month and the start of LGBT Pride Month.

Confirmed speakers for theevent include: Rev. Calvin Chinn, Rev. Jeffrey Kuan, Rev. John Oda, Rev. DeborahLee, Rev. Michael Yoshii, and Rev. Elizabeth Leung. The event will mark the first time a coalition of Asian American faith leaders speaks out in support oflesbian and gay families and equality.

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Photos of the press conference by Andy Wong.

In God's House accepted at multiple film festivals!

Since its release in October 2006, In God's House: Asian American Lesbian and Gay Families in the Church has been screened in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Taiwan, Samoa, and Japan. We have received rave reviews and held captivating discussions for seminary students, API churches and communities, educators, and film festival audiences.

The film has recently been accepted in the Asian Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Frameline LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco, and the Aomori International LGBT Film Festival in Japan! We have a community screening coming up in Chinatown, San Francisco at the beginning of Pride month and we will be screening the film and conducting workshops at faith-based conferences in Asilomar, CA and Nashville, Tennessee this summer. Check out our screenings page for a screening near you and help us spread the word!