Buddhist Churches of America

The BCA headquarters is at 1710 Octavia Street, San Francisco, 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 branch of the Nishi Hongwanji was established on the Hawaiian Islands in the 1880s as the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. It remains a separate mission from the BCA today.

The BCA's roots on the U.S. mainland originate with missionaries Rev. Dr. Shuya Sonoda and Rev. Kakuryo Nishijima, who arrived in San Francisco in 1899, and formed a Buddhist Association (Bukkyo Seinenkai) as a focal point to begin organizing the Japanese Buddhists in America. They would eventually establish temples in Sacramento (1899), Fresno (1900), Seattle (1901), Oakland (1901), San Jose (1902), Portland (1903), and Stockton (1906), under what was then called the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Mission of North America. This organization evolved into the current BCA, incorporated in 1944. The BCA counts over 60 affiliated churches and some 12,000 members within its ranks today.

During World War II, Japanese Buddhist communities faced suspicion and discrimination as many Buddhist leaders were targeted by the government, as all mainland Japanese-Americans were incarcerated for the duration of the war. Despite the persecution, Japanese Buddhists kept their faith and continued their practice, initially in secret, in the camps and on the battlefield.

The BCA joined together with other Japanese-American community leaders of all faiths in assisting returning Nikkei resettle, opening up surviving churches and temples as temporary hostels, and in cases where churches or temples were vandalized or destroyed, offered up spaces to each other to practice their faith until new facilities could be acquired.

The BCA hopes that ongoing American interest in the Dharma 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, layman training, and through cultural events open to the public, such as the bon festival, taiko, and Japanese food bazaars. They also sponsor youth organizations such as Boy and Girl Scout troops, and community basketball leagues, often competing with and providing opportunities for children of all faiths to meet each learn from each other.

BCA was among the first American Buddhist communities to sanction same-sex marriage and support LGBTQ rights.