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Welcome!

Wel­come to the vir­tual site of the Bud­dhist Churches of Amer­ica (BCA). Through this site we hope to pro­vide you with infor­ma­tion about the BCA, our tem­ples that are found through­out the Con­ti­nen­tal United States, and Jodo Shin­shu Bud­dhism. Jodo Shin­shu Bud­dhism, the school of Bud­dhism that pro­vides the reli­gious and spir­i­tual core of our insti­tu­tion, is a teach­ing that has been prop­a­gated for more than 8 cen­turies and has been able to help give mean­ing to people’s lives in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North Amer­ica. The BCA was estab­lished to help spread the mes­sage of Uni­ver­sal Sal­va­tion through the Vow of the Amida Bud­dha in the Con­ti­nen­tal United States. We hope that through this site you will be able to par­tic­i­pate in the rich resources that the BCA has avail­able, to deepen your appre­ci­a­tion of Jodo Shin­shu Bud­dhism, and ulti­mately to dis­cover the riches that life has to offer all beings.

 

MISSION STATEMENT TO PROMOTE THE BUDDHA, DHARMA, AND SANGHA as well as TO PROPAGATE THE JODO SHINSHU TEACHINGS.


National Organization

The Bud­dhist Churches of Amer­ica (BCA) is an incor­po­rated reli­gious orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can Shin Bud­dhist affil­i­ated with the Jodo Shin­shu Hongwanji-ha Hong­wanji denom­i­na­tion within the Con­ti­nen­tal United States.

The BCA is gov­erned by Amer­i­cans of the Shin Bud­dhist faith through a Board of Direc­tors com­prised of the Bishop, the Board Pres­i­dent, the Min­is­te­r­ial Asso­ci­a­tion Chair­per­son, district-elected Board mem­bers, Board members-at-large and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the rec­og­nized BCA-affiliated organization.

The Amer­i­can Shin Bud­dhists within the State of Hawaii have a sep­a­rate juris­dic­tion and admin­is­tra­tion because of the his­tor­i­cal sep­a­ra­tion at the time of its found­ing since the King­dom of Hawaii was not a part of the United States. The Jodo Shin­shu Hongwanji-ha denom­i­na­tion is orga­nized as the Honpa Hong­wanji Mis­sion of Hawaii , head­quar­tered at 1727 Pali High­way, Hon­olulu, Hawaii 96813.

The Bud­dhist Churches of Amer­ica national head­quar­ters serves as a regional cen­ter of the World Fel­low­ship of Bud­dhists and is a sup­port­ing mem­ber of the World Con­fer­ence on Reli­gion and Peace (WCRP).