Yes, I'm a minister. No, I don't have a church.

Welcome to the blog series celebrating the 2015 Asian Pacific American Hertiage Month, inspired by the "Our New Day Begun" series celebrating Black History Month by the Rev. Tawnya Denise Anderson. This month, you will read profiles of Asian Pacific American Presbyterian leaders, spanning many generations and ethnicities. Check back throughout May for more profiles! A look at other posts: Presbyterians Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month The Rev. Phil Tom The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow The Rev. Yena Hwang The Rev. Joann Haejong Lee The Rev. Shawn Kang The Rev. Neal Presa The Rev. Jim Huang The Rev. Charlene Han Powell of New York, NY, is the Associate Pastor for Education and Engagement at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church . Are you a “cradle Presbyterian,” or did you come to the tradition later in life? Both.  I grew up going to a Korean church but would attend a “white” Presbyterian church as well. However, I didn’t truly come into my Pr...

Welcome to my blog series celebrating the 2015 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, inspired by the “Our New Day Begun” series celebrating Black History Month by the Rev. Tawnya Denise Anderson.  I loved reading the profiles of young black leaders in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and asked Denise if I might be inspired by her work to do an Asian Pacific American series. We talked about what the series might be titled, as the Black History Month features was called by a line in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the black national anthem. I said, bluntly, that all we have in common as Asian Pacific Americans is racism. And the month of May, of course. Here are the profiles featured so far: The Rev. Charlene Han Powell The Rev. Phil Tom The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow The Rev. Yena Hwang The Rev. Joann Haejong Lee The Rev. Shawn Kang The Rev. Neal Presa The Rev. Jim Huang A quick primer on Asian Pacific Americans… The U.S. census puts us into two catego...

This is the second installment in a blog series about a 2014 trip I took with my church to Israel/Palestine. The first is here:  Israel/Palestine and Japanese/Jewish/ChristianAmerican Identity . I was asked to stay off the radar about the trip, because my agency was implicated in upcoming General Assembly business regarding Israel/Palestine. When you’re national staff, you can’t have any opinions on or comment about business before the assembly. Additionally, since the church was going to discuss divesting from three companies doing business with military implications in Israel, the whole thing was a tinderbox. I made arrangements with my spouse that I would send brief apolitical updates and photos by email, which my spouse would post on a private document for only invited friends and family to see. It was smart to lay low. Any time anyone on our trip made a misstep and posted something about “Israel” without saying “Palestine,” we were reminded on social ...