PANA Institute for Leadership Development

This event took place October 20-21, 2007. Original invitation below.

PANA invites you to join us for a weekend event, "Capturing the Moment by Rekindling the Movement of the Heart," a space for primarily Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) folks who are practicing the intersection of culture, spirituality and justice—who wish to reflect on what that work means at this particular time and place in history.

Gathering will be elders and pioneers who have been doing this work for decades, such as veteran human rights activist Rev. Lloyd Wake; Sikh and other activists and teachers deepening the spiritual strength of their work; faith leaders engaging their congregations to stand up for justice; artists developing new forms of cultural work; and young API folks just beginning to find ways to get active and serve their communities.

We invite you to come to share your journey, insights and challenges. We hope that out of this weekend we are touched by the wisdom of the past as well as the emergence of new spiritual and political practices.

More about the project:

PANA’s Civil Liberty and Faith project nurtures Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) leaders working at the intersection of spirituality and justice. During this past year, as part of this project, PANA convened a “Think (and Feel, and Breathe) Tank” of progressive API leaders, an intergenerational, interethnic, multi-religious group of committed activists, clergy, and artists.

In different settings and among different groups we have heard voices calling for a new way of imagining and integrating the way we create social justice and the way we renew the spiritual needs of our communities. Whether it is those of us who locate ourselves primarily within religious communities or primarily within social activist communities, we long for some new ways of practicing personal and social transformation that gives meaning to our spiritual lives and long-term healing in the world. We long for a deeper sense of meaning and a way of relationship that can sustain us when we are turned aside by institutional deafness and wounded by internal divisions. The world, as it is, is clearly not meeting the material needs of our communities, nor the needs of our souls. The U.S. is at war in Iraq and continues to militarize around the world, in places like Okinawa, Guam (Guahan), the Philippines, India, and the rest of Asia. Economic globalization continues unabated, bringing poverty and lower standards of living abroad and at home. From the depths of their hearts, the voices of the people are crying out for a new way of being.

Can we hear these voices? Can we recognize this moment? We are now at a moment to cut through all that stuff that gets in the way—stuff like religious divisions, ethnocentrism, sexism, homophobia, classism, age and generation, divisions between East Asians, South Asians or Pacific Islanders, divisions between activism and spirituality. This is a moment to come together—across movements, across ethnic and cultural backgrounds and religious traditions—to listen to each other and to the voices that are coming from our communities, to assess where we are in the big picture, to reflect on the deeper state of our communities and our work, and to begin exploring the possibilities for a new kind of practice.

We invite you to join us now for a larger API Faith and Justice Gathering, to help create a space among us for resonance to happen.

Over the course of the Gathering, we will follow together the four-part ritual of a spiritual pilgrimage, as outlined by intercultural scholar Dr. Joanne Doi, guide to PANA’s annual Pilgrimage to Manzanar. We will begin Saturday morning by reaching into our Motivations and Longing—sharing our histories, identities, injuries and dreams. Saturday afternoon, in intimate conversation and cultural creativity, we will practice Crossing a New Threshold—shedding falsehoods, naming and releasing those prejudices and fears that act as barriers separating us from one another and from our deeper wholeness. Sunday we will name new “Sacred Sites,” seek New Community together, and prepare for our re-commitment and Return. During this journey we trust we will find ways—culturally, politically, individually—to truly see one another, to build solidarities and create more authentic relationships, and defragment our multiple selves. I believe that in the place of our wholeness, new visions will appear. As we visit the sacred sites of our interwoven collective memory, new possibilities and new practices will emerge, both spiritual and political.

About registration:

The gathering will take place October 20-21 in Berkeley, and run from 9am on Saturday morning to 5pm on Sunday evening. Saturday night will be a time for cultural creativity, song, dance, poetry, etc.—feel free to bring something to share! All meals are included, and promise to be delicious. Funding is provided by PANA’s Civil Liberty and Faith Project, but we do ask that participants contribute a $50 registration fee toward the costs. Volunteer work exchange and some scholarships are available. Non-API participants with an interest in API issues are welcome. If you will be traveling in from outside the Berkeley area, we can help make arrangements for your housing (homestays, dorm rooms, hotel recommendations)—let us know your needs. Lot parking is available.

Registration is limited, and closes on October 10, 2007.

For more information, contact:
Rev. Deborah Lee

www.panainstitute.org
dlee@psr.edu
510-849-8260