The Buddhist Churches of America (abbreviated as BCA in English, ' or ''Beikoku Bukkyōdan'' in Japanese) is the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

branch of the Nishi Honganji subsect of

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran ...

("True Pure Land School")

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. The BCA headquarters is at 1710 Octavia Street,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, and currently under the leadership of Terri Omori, its first female president. It is the oldest Buddhist organization in the continental United States.

Origins and development

An earlier separate branch of the Nishi Hongwanji-ha was established on the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost ...

in the 1880s when it was the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent islan ...

, the

Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii The Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii ( ja, 本派本願寺ハワイ別院, ''Honpa Honganji Hawai Betsuin'') is a district of the Nishi (West) Hongwanji branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, a school of Mahayana Pure Land Buddhism. History Jodo Sh ...

. Many Japanese had also immigrated to Hawaii to work on the

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s there. The BCA hopes that ongoing American interest in the

Dharma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

will lead to a new interest in Jōdo Shinshū and its revival in the United States. The BCA has attempted to accomplish this goal chiefly through

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, "minister's assistant" training, and through cultural events open to the public, such as the

Bon Festival or just is fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist–Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people retu ...

taiko are a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called and to the form of ensemble drumming ...

, and Japanese food bazaars. BCA was among the first American Buddhist communities to sanction same-sex marriage.

Seminary and education

BCA ministers have also been the only Buddhist chaplains to serve in the

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. D ...

and the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The ...

, Rev. Shoko Masunaga (1975-1976) and Rev. Bob Oshita (2017-2018).

Style

In the United States, BCA priests may be addressed as either ''

sensei Sensei, Seonsaeng, Tiên sinh or Xiansheng, corresponding to Chinese characters , is an East Asian honorific term shared in Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese; it is literally translated as "person born before another" or "one who c ...

'' ("teacher"), "Minister", or "Reverend". BCA ministers have historically been all male and ethnically Japanese, but there is now a substantial number of female, and non-Japanese, ministers. In 2022, the BCA appointed their first female president, Terri Omori.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buddhist Churches Of America Jōdo Shinshū Jōdo Shin temples Buddhism in the United States Shinshū Honganji-ha