Register now! Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (No. Cal.)

Register now for Perspectives on the World Christian Movement - Spring 2007 (Northern California)

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (PWCM), Worldwide Perspectives (WWP) and Encountering the World of Islam (EWI) are courses designed to provide a fresh understanding of Global Christianity and contemporary missions. Spring 2007 courses begin in mid-January 2007, so register now!

View website for more information and to register.

Download brochures for following sites (650K PDF):
▪ Davis
▪ Lodi
▪ Salinas-San Jose
▪ San Rafael
▪ San Ramon
▪ Sparks-Reno, NV

World Christian Conference (WCC) 2007 is Coming

Asian Americans need...
* A like-minded community of peers, leaders and mentors
* A sacred place where God shows up and they hear his voice
* An equipping forum to grapple with identity, purpose, and calling.

WCC 2007 is that community, that place, and that forum.

Date: February 16-19, 2007
Place: San Mateo Marriott
Plenary Speaker: Dr. Thom Wolf
Theme: Embolden by His Love, Empowered by the Spirit - Eph. 3:16-19
Register: Early January 2007 online

http://www.xanga.com/worldchristianconf
On-line information and registration here

Theme: Embolden by His Love, Empowered by the Spirit - Eph. 3:16-19

The Father's love surpasses knowledge and fills our hearts with His acceptance. Many of us have learned to heed God's call, but we find ourselves walking in fear and not in acceptance. Many of us have done our best to follow through in obedience, yet we still find ourselves tapping in the well of our own strength and not the Lord's. We've allowed the world's chatter regarding performance and results to oppress us when we step out in faith.

However, the Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesian church denies this oppression. Our Heavenly Father pours out love and a wealth of resources, particularly the Spirit, to empower and strengthen us. A deeply rooted, abiding and receiving of His love gives us the courage and security to say, "Yes, Lord!" and respond to His commands; the Spirit gives us confidence and the ability to continue in obedience in whatever God asks us to do.

In previous years of WCC, we've discovered that there's no greater joy and no sacrifice too great in following our Father. We've also discovered that we're immeasurably gifted for the glory of the Lord. Additionally, the Lord has set us free to push everything away so that we can walk with Him. And as we walk with God out of faith and obedience, we can be sure that He's the One whose tremendous love removes fear and replaces it with calm and peace. We no longer have to rely on ourselves because the Father's love has overcome weakness and fear to embolden and empower us by the Spirit!

New Book: Asian American Biblical Interpretation

Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian American Biblical Interpretation
Edited by Mary F. Foskett and Jeffrey Kah-Jin Kuan
ISBN: 9780827242548

Retail Price: $29.99
Web Discount Price: $23.99

Ways of Being, Ways of Reading is a collection of essays that address biblical interpretation and the Bible's role from an Asian North point of view. Beginning with the history of biblical interpretation in Asian countries and cultures, this impressive collection by noted contemporary scholars, address issues and themes such as cultural hermeneutics, the politics of identity, and what constitutes Asian American theology.

* * *
"Once in a while, I come across a book that strikes me as breaking new ground, because it creates a knowledge that does not belong to anyone and a knowledge that is hence potentially freer from disciplinary control in its development. Foskett and Kuan have put together a collection of essays that has precisely that possibility. Not only does Ways of Being, Ways of Reading demonstrate that biblical interpretation is a matter of ontological significance, it also provides in my mind a cultural basis for dispersing Asian American political influence." -Tat-siong Benny Liew, Pacific School of Religion

Contributors include: Devadasan N. Premnath, John Yueh-Han Yieh, Samuel Cheon, Philip P. Chia, Andrew Yueking Lee, Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan, Uriah Yong-Hwan Kim, Jean K. Kim, John Ahn, Mai-Anh Le Tran, Sze-Kar Wan, Gale A. Yee, Frank M. Yamada, Mary F. Foskett, and Henry W. Morisada Rietz

Report: Pacific Islanders Lagging Behind in Higher Educational Attainment

For Immediate Release
Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, melanydATuclaDOTedu
(310) 206-7738

In an economy that increasingly requires a college education to be successful in the labor market, Pacific Islanders have fallen behind and current admissions patterns will perpetuate this problem, according to an analysis conducted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the UC Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Initiative, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The analysis uses data released November 14, 2006 from the 2005 American Community Survey, iterated by race, Hispanic origin, ancestry and age released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, along with previously released data.

Major Findings include:

* Among those 25 years and older, single-race Pacific Islanders are only about half as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have at least a bachelor's degree (15% versus 30%). The gap is even wider when compared to Asians (49% with a bachelor's or more advanced degree).

* Pacific Islander levels of educational attainment (15%) are similar to African Americans, in which 17% have at least a bachelor's or more advanced degree.

* Pacific Islanders in Hawai'i have lower educational attainment than those in the other 49 states.

* Among Pacific Islanders, Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians have the lowest percentages with a college degree.

* Prospects for future educational attainment are bleak. Slightly less than a third (29%) of Pacific Islanders between the ages of 18 and 24 are enrolled in a college or university, a rate comparable to African Americans (29%). In contrast, the college enrollment figures are 39% for non-Hispanic whites and 57% for Asians.

* Public schools are failing to prepare Pacific Islander students for high school and college levels. The lack of culturally-appropriate programs and a hostile educational environment contribute to social alienation and a high dropout rate among Pacific Islander youths.

The full nine-page report, Pacific Islanders Lagging Behind in Higher Educational Attainment, which includes graphs and tables, is available free for viewing and downloading on the web site of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Please click here to download the report (PDF).

ISAAC at AAR/SBL 2006 meeting

ISAAC Board lunch with DJ Chuang 2
Originally uploaded by tsengsrus.

Four members of the ISAAC Board attended the American Academy of Religion- Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Washington DC on Nov 18-21, 2006. At this meeting, ISAAC

1. Co-hosted the Korean North American Theology group extra-session.

2. Hosted a breakfast with evangelical Asian American scholars (seminary and religious studies faculty).

3. Co-hosted with PANA and the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia a dinner with Asian and Asian North American scholars.

4. Identified potential research grants opportunities.

It was an exciting experience - ISAAC was affirmed warmly by the community of religion and theology scholars. We hope that we will be able to strengthen greater efforts to study Asian American Christianity (and other religions) in the future.

The next AAR/SBL meeting will be held in San Diego, California on the weekend before Thanksgiving, 2007. See you there!

- Tim Tseng

Report: Philippine human rights concerns registered with State Department, embassy

[Episcopal News Service, Nov. 9, 2006] Concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines and the extra-judicial killings which have claimed the lives of journalists, human rights workers and religious activists -- including the recent killing of former Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church -- have been registered, by church officials, with the Philippine Embassy and the State Department in Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries, and the Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara, national missioner for Asian American Ministries, represented outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, and the new Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, while visiting the Philippine Embassy and the State Department November 2-3.

"We told Ambassador Willy Gaa at the Philippine Embassy that we were there as a courtesy to let him know of the deep concern among U.S. denominations over the deplorable number of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, and that we are supporting our partner churches there as they prepare to document these human rights violations," said Grieves, who will visit partners in Manila in December to coordinate the church's support of their efforts. "The Episcopal Church is fully engaging this issue."

Gaa, who promised to relate the matter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, noted that the Philippine Human Rights Report of the ecumenical churches should also be submitted to the Melo Commission of the Philippine Government, which is in charge of investigating the killings.

Jefferts Schori, underlining the church's mission priority framed by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said that "the advancement of human rights and religious freedom is an integral part of human development. The Episcopal Church will be strongly supportive of the efforts of our ecumenical and concordat partners in the Philippines and Asia in work for human rights, justice, freedom and peace."

Grieves noted that the Episcopal Church (TEC), through the offices of Anglican and Global Relations, Episcopal Asian American Ministries and Peace and Justice Ministries, is jointly funding the Philippine Human Rights project in partnership with the United Methodist Church and other denominations. The documentation and writing of this project will be spearheaded by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

During their visit to the State Department, Grieves and Vergara conferred with Scot Marciel, director of Maritime Southeast Asia; Clarissa Adamson, officer for human rights and labor; and Tamara Crouse, foreign affairs officer for Asia.

Grieves and Vergara expressed their anxiety that, in light of the U.S. war on terrorism and concern for Southern Philippines (Mindanao) as a possible haven for terrorists' training, the Bush Administration would turn a blind eye to human rights violations in the Philippines, especially if some sectors of the Philippine military are involved. They were assured by the State Department that the human rights issue is their top priority in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and that they support the sentiments of the churches.

The U.S. State Department also informed Grieves and Vergara that the U.S. Ambassador in Manila, Hon. Kristie Kenney, is gravely concerned about this issue and very direct in expressing her concern to the Philippine government. "We believe it is to the best interest of the Arroyo administration to safeguard human rights and ensure a strong judicial system to bring to justice the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines as a mark of its democracy," Marciel said. "Prosperity in a democracy cannot happen at the expense of human rights, political and religious freedom."

"The spate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines that included the outspoken human rights advocate, former Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento, is unacceptable and despicable and we express our hope that the perpetrators of these killings be brought to justice and the killings stop," Vergara said.

Ramento, who was found stabbed to death at his rectory in the Parish of San Sebastian, Tarlac City, on the morning of October 3, had been an outspoken critic of the Philippine government and a leading advocate for peace and human rights in the country. Within days of Ramento's murder, another clergy member of the Philippine Independent Church received a death threat via SMS (Short Message Service) on his cellular phone, the Asian Human Rights Commission reported.

Ramento was a member of the committee that drafted the renewal of the terms of the concordat of full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Philippine Independent Church (PIC), which was signed by Griswold and incumbent PIC Supreme Bishop Godofredo David during the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006.

Deploring Ramento's murder in an October 4 statement, David "denounced in the strongest possible terms this barbaric and dastardly act against a man of the cloth within the premises of his own church," and urged the authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators of Ramento's murder to justice.

Ramento's death was the latest in a string of killings of Christian leaders in the Philippines. According to various human rights reports, there have been more than 700 political or extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since President Arroyo took power in 2001. Arroyo's presidency followed the second "people power" movement that unseated former President Joseph Estrada on charges of corruption.

The first "people power revolution" happened in 1985 following the assassination of Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino that brought an end to the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos and catapulted Aquino's widow, Corazon C. Aquino, to presidency and restored the country to democracy. Arroyo won the second term in the last Philippine presidential election in 2004 amidst protests and charges of election fraud.

ENS coverage on the death of Bishop Ramento is available here and here.

Report: Theology of inclusion empowers ethnic communities

[Episcopal News Service, Nov. 6, 2006] The theology of inclusion in the Episcopal Church is drawing in 'unchurched' people from ethnic minorities who have historically been marginalized in American church and society, said the Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara, national missioner for Asian American Ministries of the Episcopal Church.

Speaking at a Book Forum at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, October 23, Vergara said that many Episcopal dioceses in the country reported welcoming Asian communities receptive to the inclusive trends of the Episcopal Church.

"I think the message they are getting is that if the Church is capable of welcoming and empowering women, gays and lesbians as equal members of the Body of Christ, then it is capable of welcoming and empowering almost everybody," Vergara said. "It is a radical form of hospitality that says, 'you are accepted whoever and whatever you are and you don't need to be like us.' It is a closer approximation of God's unconditional love."

Promoting his book, "Mainstreaming: Asian Americans in the Episcopal Church," Vergara noted that ethnic congregations in the Episcopal Church had historically "suffered from being marginalized." Many dioceses looked upon ethnic congregations as "specialized ministries" rather than an integral part of its life and mission. "There was a lot of paternalism and tokenism in these ministries and many ethnic clergy felt like 'second-rate' ministers, Vergara said.

In history, American churches participated in racial and cultural injustice such as Black slavery, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment and other forms of racial and cultural prejudices.

"They had not lifted the prophetic voice for the rights of minorities and disadvantaged immigrants whom Jesus would call harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd," Vergara said. "There are still vestiges of racism in the structures of the church that must be dismantled and that can only happen if we 'mainstream' the marginalized, include and empower them in the decision-making bodies of the Church."

Vergara explained that the Episcopal Church is serving as an "avant garde" in radical hospitality and affirmative action toward ethnic missions.

"The election of a woman Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who strongly believes in inclusive theology is a great and bold step towards this new 'mainstreaming' in The Episcopal Church, which Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold had also upheld."

Radical hospitality or "mainstreaming" does not mean conformity to the values of the dominant culture but acceptance and learning from each others cultures, Vergara explained.

"The new phenomenon in the Body of Christ is not one of a melting pot where one dominant culture melts the lesser ones in some kind of a stew," he said. "Rather we look at the images of a salad bowl, a patch quilt or a mosaic. There is a lot to learn from each other's cultures and ethnicities. Nature itself, as in the case of flowers and fruits, favors diversity. Church planting is also a natural congregational development."

Vergara reported that during the past two years, ethnic churches have began to blossom in the Episcopal Church. At St. Paul's, Minnesota, more than 600 Hmong immigrants have joined Holy Apostles' Parish and revitalized its multicultural ministry; in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles, a Taiwanese congregation is growing in the context of a multi-ethnic parish of St. Thomas; in Nashville, Tennessee, a former Korean Pentecostal congregation has become an Episcopal parish; in Las Vegas, Nevada, a Filipino congregation is rapidly growing; and in Queens, New York various Asian and pan-Asian churches are thriving.

In October, Vergara met with Filipino, Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Maryland and Virginia "and all of them are excited to be part of The Episcopal Church," he said. "In Sacramento both the outgoing and incoming bishops of Northern California jointly planned to develop two Filipino ministries in partnership with its neighboring Diocese of El Camino Real. I say that the future of The Episcopal Church in Church planting and Church Growth has to do with 'mainstreaming the formerly marginalized.'"

Vergara noted that the mainstreaming in dioceses has risen to the national level. In the preface of his book, which was published prior to General Convention in June 2006, he wrote that there was only one Asian member in the Episcopal Church's Executive Council and hardly any Asian member in the national commissions, committees, agencies and boards (CCABs). "Now I am glad to report that there are four Asian members of the Executive Council and ten Asians in the CCABs," he said.

"I firmly believe we will continue to see the results of this 'mainstreaming' in the flowering of Asian, Black, Latino and Native American ministries along with the growth of women, youth, gay and all ministries which were once marginalized," he said. "I am glad that recent events indicate that the Church is recovering its role as a leader and advocate for justice, equality and harmony in society."

ISAAC e*newsletter (Nov 16, 2006)

November 16, 2006

Dear friend,

As Thanksgiving draws near, we at ISAAC are grateful for your encouragement and suggestions! We have been listening to you carefully and are even more convinced that ISAAC is needed. There are very few organizations that lift up Asian American voices in the Church and the Academy or integrate Christian faith and Asian American realities. ISAAC does - and is now ready to offer the following services:

• academic research
• teaching and training
• professional network cultivation
• consulting

Here are a few highlights of our work thus far:

• Persistent Witness: A Documentary History of Asian American Christianity is in its editing phase as Mr.Hyung Shin Park, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Graduate Theological Union and I sort out the surprisingly abundant Roman Catholic, Protestant, and evangelical documents for this reader.

• The Bay Area Chinese Congregational study project, led by Rev. Dr. James Chuck, is also moving forward. Our research team is gathering data and preparing to produce a comprehensive overview of Chinese Christians in the San Francisco Bay Area. We hope to publish our findings in time for a conference in the Fall of 2007.

• ISAAC is also facilitating the development of a network of scholars of Asian American Christianity. Such a network would encourage quality scholarship about the growing and diverse Asian American Christian communities. Go to our blog for more information about the upcoming American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature meetings - ISAAC will be co-hosting and sponsoring a few events there.

• My wife and I led a workshop on Christian perspectives in College Admissions at the Chinese for Christ Church of Hayward, California on July 23. We are grateful to Pastor Tim Lee and the over 40 parents and high school students who helped us "field test" this service.

• Dr. Viji Nakka-Cammauf led an inter-generational workshop for the Burmese Christian Community Church of Silicon Valley to build community and develop a church mission statement. She will be leading ISAAC's efforts to develop consultation, training and teaching programs.

• Dr. Young Lee Hertig is producing a leadership manual for Korean Presbyterians. She also respresented ISAAC at the Fifth Annual Lighting the Community Conference sponsored by the Korean Churches for Community Development on Nov. 13.

• Young Lee, Grace Choi-Kim, and a wonderful volunteer team, have been developing a network of Asian American women leaders called AAWOL. AAWOL just co-sponsored the successful launching of More Than Serving Tea, a book about Asian American Christian women written by Asian American Christian women leaders.

• Dr. Russell Moy and a local planning team (Rev. Ken Kho, Mr. Jonathan Lew, and Ms. Karen Yonemoto) are designing the Summer Immersion Program, tentatively scheduled for July 25-28, 2007 in the Los Angeles area. Invited participants will immerse themselves into the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian American Christian communities and then engage in a reflection process to strengthen their practices as educators and leaders of church, professional, and business organizations.

All this sounds quite impressive for a "rag-tag" team of volunteers (including our Board of Directors), doesn't it? Well, volunteer energy doesn't last forever! We plan to hire staff in the summer of 2007, so your partnership and support are greatly needed! Please consider providing a generous year-end gift (you can now use your credit card on-line - just click here). Join National Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, USA, Andrew Kwong, Augie and Katharine Hsiao Bau and others who are investing in ISAAC's work. Thank you!

Cordially,

Tim Tseng
President

In the next ISAAC e*newsletter we will feature profiles of Asian American Christians who engage Civic Life. Find out how Christian core convictions inspire Andrew Kwong, Hyepin Im, and Rod Hsiao to act for the Common Good

New book! Henri Nouwen: A Spirituality of Imperfection

Wil Hernandez, Henri Nouwen: A Spirituality of Imperfection (Paulist Press, 2006)

This book will be an encouragement to those who have embarked on a spiritual journey and have wrestled with integrating and bringing to life the aspects of our inner, relational and spiritual lives in light of unending longings, wounds and struggles. Through Wil Hernandez's clear analysis and synthesis of Nouwen's spirituality, we can learn from the dynamics of Nouwen's spirituality of imperfection, and continue with renewed hope on our journey to know God.

Wil Hernandez, PhD, works for the Leadership Institute in Southern California in partnership with the Denver-based Spiritual Formation Alliance. He also serves as the Director of Community Formation at Evergreen Baptist Church of L.A. In addition, Wil teaches a course on the spirituality of Henri Nouwen at Fuller Theological Seminary and at the Center for Religion and Spirituality at Loyola Marymount University.

New book! Decolonizing Josiah

Uriah Y. Kim, Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2005)

This is a passionate postcolonial reading of Josiah that, on the one hand, critiques the failure of biblical studies to come to terms with its colonialist legacy and, on the other hand, connects the world of biblical studies to the world at large.

How is it possible, Kim asks, given the all-encompassing sway of the colonialist reading of the Bible, to understand Josiah in other than colonialist terms? His answer: the historical imagination, making unfettered use of the tools of the critical historian, must be informed by the experience of those who have lived as the other, as the colonized, as not at home in their own land - which means, for Kim, the experience of being Asian American. The intellectual use of this experience creates his distinctive postcolonial perspective, as he draws attention to the connection between Western imperialism and the production of Western knowledge. Specifically, the author reads the story of Josiah intercontextually with the experience of Asian Americans from the space of liminality.

Uriah Kim is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT.

New book! Korean American Evangelicals

Elaine Howard Ecklund, Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life (NY: Oxford University Press, 2006)

In Korean American Evangelicals, Elaine Howard Ecklund examines how Korean Americans use evangelical Christianity to negotiate local civic responsibility and create racial and ethnic identities. She compares the views and activities of second-generation Korean Americans in ethnically Korean and multi-ethnic churches, finding that both types of congregations have distinctly different models for relating to their local communities, particularly to low-income minorities. Ecklund's work will be useful to scholars as well as churches leaders and pastors. Elaine Howard Ecklund is an assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY and an affiliate research fellow of the Rice University Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life. She can be reached at this link.

Healthy Congregation workshop (Oct. 14, 2006)

On Saturday, Oct. 14, three members of the ISAAC board facilitated an all-day workshop for the Burmese Christian Community Church of Silicon Valley. ISAAC Board member, Dr. Viji Nakka-Cammauf, the lead facilitator throughout the day, worked with church members to build community and develop a mission statement. Like many immigrant Asian congregations, adapting and transitioning to American culture is often complex and challenging. Yet the Burmese American churches are among the most vital and fastest growing Asian American congregations.

Rev. Zauya Lahpai with the youngest church member Children, parents, and grandparents participated in this inter-generational workshop designed to help the congregation identify its strengths and areas of greatest need.

ISAAC looks forward to continuing to work with the Burmese Christian Community Church of Silicon Valley and other Burmese congregations to develop a Lay Academy and other programs!

[graphic credit: Wikipedia] Burma, now called Myanmar, is located between Thailand and India. Many recent Burmese arrivals are refugees from the political turmoil there.

AAR/SBL sessions with Asian and Asian American themes

Here are the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature sessions with Asian and Asian American foci. The meetings will be held in Washington, DC:


FRIDAY, NOV 17

7:30- 8:30 PM
AM17-128: Book session at Washington Convention Center
CC-Rm 149B
The Heart of Cross: A Postcolonial Christology by W. Anne Joh
Su Yon Pak (Union Theological Seminary), presiding
Panelists:
Rita Nakashima Brock-Director, Faith Voices
Serene Jones-Yale Divinity School
Eleazar Fernandez-United Theological Seminary
Rachel Bundang--Santa Clara University
Respondent: W. Anne Joh-Phillips Theological Seminary


SATURDAY, NOV 18

1-3:30 PM
A19-59: Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group
CC-140A
Anne Joh, Phillips Theological Seminary, Presiding
Theme: Asian/Asian American Women Negotiating Power and Authority
http://aarweb.org/annualmeet/2006/pbook/pbook.asp?ANum=A18-58&DayTime=&KeyWord=&B1=Submit#results
Min-Ah Cho, Emory University
Religion beneath Mother Tongues: Religious Practice and the Act of Writing in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee
Nikky Singh, Colby College
Feticide in the Punjab and Fetus Imagery in Sikhism
Karen Yonemoto, University of Southern California
Progressive Politics, Conservative Practices: Re-thinking Gender in Asian American Church
K. Christine Pae, Union Theological Seminary, New York
Gender as an Analytical Tool of "Sin and Redemption": Women, Religious Fundamentalism, and Homosexuality in the Asian Pacific American Community
Responding:
Jung Ha Kim, Georgia State University


4-6:30 PM
S18-105: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics Group
Room: 302 – CC
Theme: Asian and Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics: Theory and Practice
Lai-Ling Ngan, Baylor University, Presiding
Il-Seung Chung, University of Sheffield
Whose Fault Is It Anyway?: Reading Esau’s Marriage from an Asian Perspective (30 min)
Rajkumar Boaz Johnson, North Park University Theological Seminary
Dalit Biblical Interpretation: A Paradigm Shift in Indian Christian Hermeneutics (30 min)
Archie Chi-Chung Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Critical Biblical Hermeneutics of Li Jung-fang in the Socio-Intellectual Context of China (30 min)
Seung-Ai Yang, University of Saint Thomas, Respondent (20 min)
Discussion (40 min)


7:00 pm-8:30 pm
AM18-124: Korean North American Systematic Theology/ ISAAC Groups
GH-Bridge Room: Arlington
http://aarweb.org/annualmeet/2006/pbook/addmtg.asp?AMNum=AM18-124&KeyWord=&B1=Submit#results
Sang Hyun Lee, Presiding
1.ISAAC: Tim Tseng
2.. Discussions of Peter C. Phan, Christianity with an Asian Face: Asian American Theology in the Making,
Reviewer: Tim Lee (Brite Divinity/Texas Christian University)
3. Heup Young Kim, Christ and the Tao.
Reviewer: Kenneth Lee (California State University, Northridge)


SUNDAY, NOV 19

9:00 am - 11:30 am
S19-6: Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics Group
Room: 208A - CC
Theme: Panel Review of Jeffrey Kuan and Mary Foskett, eds., Ways of Being,
Ways of Reading: Constructing Asian-American Biblical Interpretation (Chalice, 2006)
Henry Rietz, Grinnell College, Presiding
Panelists:
Jeffrey Kuan, Pacific School of Religion
Seung-Ai Yang, University of Saint Thomas
Daniel Smith-Christopher, Loyola Marymount University
Anne Joh, Phillips Theological Seminary
Mary Foskett, Wake Forest University

1:00 -2:30 PM
A19-59: Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group
CC-143C
http://aarweb.org/annualmeet/2006/pbook/vCalendar.asp?ANum=A19-59
Joseph Cheah, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Theme: Intersection of Religious and Spiritual Practices in Hawaii
Wilburn Hansen, Stanford University
Shinto in the Hawaiian Diaspora: Economics Masquerading as Nationalism at a Pre-Pacific War Hawaiian Shrine
Regina Pfeiffer, Chaminade University of Honolulu
Colonial Conquest(s), Especially Hawaiian or Native American in Focus
Jenny Patten-Gargiulo, Graduate Theological Union
Hawaiian Kapa: Sewing Spirituality
Responding:
Duncan Williams, University of California, Irvine
Henry W. Morisada Rietz, Grinnell College
Business Meeting:
Su Yon Pak, Union Theological Seminary, Presiding
Anne Joh, Phillips Theological Seminary, Presiding


MONDAY, NOV 20

4:00 -6:30 pm
A20-113: Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group and Asian American Hermeneutics
CC-152A
http://aarweb.org/annualmeet/2006/pbook/pbook.asp?ANum=A20-113&DayTime=&KeyWord=&B1=Submit#results
Su Yon Pak, Union Theological Seminary, Presiding
Theme: Teaching “Difficult” Texts in Communities—Asian North American Scholars in Conversation
Panelists:
Frank Yamada, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan, Baylor University
Faustino Cruz, Graduate Theological Union
Boyung Lee, Pacific School of Religion


7:00 pm-11:00 pm
AM20-112: Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
GH-Bridge Room: Arlington
http://aarweb.org/annualmeet/2006/pbook/addmtg.asp?AMNum=AM20-112&KeyWord=&B1=Submit#results
7:00 Mary Foskett, Wake Forest University, Presiding
Theme: Biblical Studies in China: Three Perspectives
Panelists:
Archie Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sze-kar Wan, Andover Newton Theological School
Antoinette Wire, Graduate Theological Union
9:00 Business Session: ECBC members only
For additional information, contact Jeffrey Kuan at kjkuan@psr.edu.

Growing Healthy Asian American Churches discussion

There is a "blog-based" discussion about this new book at DJ Chuang's website (Click link above). With a few exceptions, I felt that most of the contributors to the book were too negative about first generation culture. I still think that one can't really be an "Asian American" without being fair and balanced to the "Asian" part of one's identity. Furthermore, to what degree are some the practices of these "healthy" churches genuinely "Asian American"? Or are they "white evangelical wannabe" practices? In any case, in my opinion, Asian American Christian leaders shouldn't simply mirror the "model minority" aspirations of the Asian American community. Should there also be some prophetic edge that seeks to give voice to Asian American Christians in church and society? - Tim Tseng