Buddhist Church of Lodi

We have created a YouTube channel for Buddhist Church of Lodi. the home link is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA IF we can get 100 subscribers (or more) for 30 days, We will be able to change the link to reflect our name instead of the Radom characters (UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA)... Thank you.

Sunday Service 1/10/2021 Buddhist Church of Stockton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Time: Sunday, January 10, 2021 at 10:00 AM... This is a Zoom Meeting. If you wish to be notified and join the Sunday Service via Zoom, please click the link https://lodibuddhist.org/contact1/ and click "send us Email".

From Reverend Candice Shibata...

Reverend's Message 12/2020 To Our Sangha I hope this message finds you healthy and well! As we near the end of 2020, it is hard not to reflect upon this past year’s series of events and hardships experienced worldwide. I hope that everyone has weathered these storms and continue to feel the compassionate light of Amida Buddha shine brightly as we approach the new year. ...Continue reading

To Our Sangha One of the unfortunate consequences of the coronavirus pandemic has been the suspension of our monthly Shotsuki services. These services are monthly memorial services who passed away during a particular month of the year. Remembering our loved ones makes us realize the foundation of our life. It is a precious occasion for us to listen to the Buddha Dharma and express our appreciation to our loved ones who now become Buddha. Until we are able to again meet ...in person, we are pleased to announce that, through the support of Rev. Candice Shibata, we are now able to resume these observations in a safe and meaningful manner. While we would all prefer to meet in person, we are not confident that we have solutions in place to do so safely at this time. For the balance of the year, Rev. Shibata will conduct Shotsuki services alone in the church and we will record them and upload them to YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA ) for your viewing. Links to these videos can be searched directly and also will be found (link) on lodibuddhist.org Your loved ones who passed away in April, May and June have been recently memorialized in a combined Shotsuki service. This service was conducted by Rev. Shibata, recorded and is available online as of October 5. We will do the same in a separate service for those who passed away in July, August, September and October and post it online by 10/19/20. Beginning in November, we will conduct individual monthly services that can be viewed live and you will be able to access archived versions by the 2nd Sunday of each month. As this process is new, we are sending these first letters and lists to our entire Sangha until we are comfortable that everybody understands this new process and is able to view the services. Should you desire a receipt for your thoughtful donation in memory of your beloved, please attach a note to your offering and we will send one in the weeks following the service. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly if you have questions. In Gassho, Buddhist Church of Lodi

Shotsuki Service video link on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA/

Board Meeting 12/2020 To Our Sangha Coming out of our final General Meeting for 2020, we have a few thoughts to share with you:... 1 Due to a combination of reduced expenses related to our ministerial expenses, strong performance from our investments in the BCA Endowment and your ongoing generosity, we continue to maintain a stable financial position and expect to be able to endure Covid-related closures. As a result of the above, despite increasing dues to BCA, we have made the determination to hold dues flat at $225/member again for 2021. While we will send you an official notification next month, please consider this a gentle reminder that dues paid by February enable us to make a timely payment to BCA without having to dip in to reserve funds while waiting for your generous checks. Thank you in advance. 2 Viewership for our online services, while modest, continue to outpace actual attendance at our typical weekly services. If you have not already, please visit our YouTube channel by searching for Buddhist Church of Lodi and subscribe. While we will continue to send monthly letters for the upcoming services, by subscribing you can receive notifications when new services have been uploaded. Rev. Candice has done a lovely job of memorializing our loved ones through these recorded Shotsuki services at a time when we are unable to meet in person. You can easily find the YouTube channel by searching directly, or through the link on our webpage. Here is the direct link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA 3 While we regret the inability to be there personally at such a difficult time, under the current conditions here in San Joaquin County, it is not safe for Rev Candice and Church staff and members to have even a small, private makuragyo, funeral, or memorial service at home, the temple or mortuary. Please note that an option to postponing to a later, unknown date is to offer a virtual (Zoom) service, with the minister conducting from the temple and the family members safely gathered in their own homes. These services can be as simple as a short sutra chanting and message and can even include the presentation of the Buddhist name, with the card being sent through the mail. As state and local guidelines evolve, we can work together at scheduling in-person services when conditions improve. Please feel free to reach out to myself or Rev Candice if you have questions you can find our contact information on the church webpage. Please stay safe, practice social distancing and we will all look forward to the time when we can again meet together in person. In Gassho, Corey Okazaki BCL President

Sorry for this being late. We are still trying to get organized on doing Online (Zoom) services Buddhist Church Stockton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Stockton, Lodi, & Walnut Grove Service Invitation... Time: Sunday, October 4, 2020 Service at 10:00 AM (Golden Chain II, Juseige, Our Pledge) followed by October Shotsuki Service 10:30 AM (Sambujo, Amida Kyo, Three Treasures) These two services are accessible from the same Zoom link. Thank you, BCL Office [email protected] Join Zoom Meeting Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85826650573#success Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video an... Meeting ID: 858 2665 0573 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbfyaPyaiz Buddhist Church of Stockton 2820 Shimizu Dr. Stockton, CA 95203 (209) 466-6701 - office phone (209) 469-2811 - office fax

To our Sangha, I've uploaded the Buddhist Church of Lodi December Shotski service reading. You can view it at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/cha/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA/videos ----------... In Gassho, BCL Reverend P.S. We have created a YouTube channel for Buddhist Church of Lodi. The home link is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA. If we can get 100 subscribers (or more) for 30 days, We will be able to change the link to reflect our name instead of the Radom assigned characters (UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA).

Lodi’s November Shotsuki names video has been uploaded to our YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdlyuFIkAeMD6e9ECQY-wBA

From Rev. Candice Shibata I think I say this every month, but last month flew by! I still cannot believe that the year is almost over! However, before we ring out 2020, many of us may be reflecting upon this upcoming holiday season and wondering if we should or can spend the holidays with our extended family members. I always look forward to seeing my family and enjoying (too much) delicious foods at our family gatherings, which warms my heart and my tummy. The pandemic ...has definitely shed some light on the gratitude of being able to freely see our loved ones prior to March of this year. Speaking of the holiday season, Halloween always seems to be the observance that kicks off the festivities at the end of the year with the abundance of shared sweets and candies. To be honest, I was never too fond of Halloween. I believe that it is mostly due to being afraid of Halloween masks, which began early on in my life and continues to be a memory that still gives me shivers when I think about it. It may even contribute to my love of comedies instead of scary movies. Despite the distance between our family in California and my mother’s family in New York City, we still had many opportunities to visit with each other during vacations and are still very close. I remember our cousin coming for a visit in California and while he stayed with us he scared me (multiple times) with a Halloween mask of an old man. I am sure it was funny for my older cousin, but no matter how much I may have anticipated his teasing, it completely scared me! Looking back, this mask was not gory or particularly scary, however, it was being caught off guard seeing him in that mask as an old man that scared me the most. As a young child I may not have completely understood the reality of aging and how it affects all of us. I can only imagine how Siddhartha Gautama felt as he left the comforts of the palace for the first time and encountered the sights of an old man, an ill man and lastly, a man who passed away. During these outings, Siddhartha Gautama was accompanied by an attendant who revealed to the young prince that all living beings experience this process of life. These encounters, in addition to meeting an ascetic who was living a simple life compelled Prince Siddhartha to leave the palace to search how to end suffering. As humans we also wear masks that prevent us from seeing reality clearly, others and ourselves, which in turn causes suffering. These masks blind us in the form of greed, anger and ignorance. Sometimes our own insecurities create masks we wear so we can feel brave when facing others. However, the teachings of the Buddha and Shinran Shonin can give us strength and comfort to help us to remove our masks of greed, anger, ignorance and insecurities to live our lives with gratitude and humility. In Gassho, Rev. Candice Shibata

To our Sangha - A quick update from our recent General Meeting held via a Zoom call last week. Unfortunately, due to ongoing, high level COVID infection rates in San Joaquin County, we have canceled in-person services through the end of the year. ... However, as many of you are aware, there are numerous options to join and/or view online services held by various temples. We will continue to publish links to these events via email and Facebook. As we now enjoy the wonderful support from Reverend Shibata, we are happy to announce that we will begin to conduct virtual Shotsuki services for Lodi families. Given that we have missed 8 months of Shotsuki services, we will conduct 2 virtual services to catch up - one covering the months March - June, and a second, covering July - October. We will be sending letters to families with loved ones who passed in these months along with instructions on how to access the virtual services by the end of the month. Starting in November we will revert to conducting individual monthly Online Shotsuki services. The plan moving forward will be to have the option to view the service online live, or a recording at a later time. We think this is an important first step in helping to reconnect our Sangha. From an administrative perspective, I’m pleased to report that our church continues to maintain a relatively healthy financial position despite the recent lack of services due to a corresponding reduction in expenses and income from the rental of the Residence. Work continues on the annex kitchen, slowed in combination of COVID related factors as well as some typical surprises that are not uncommon in a building of this vintage. Hopefully by our next update we will have some pictures to share. Last, if you know of anybody who would like to be added to our email distribution list, please have them send a message to the office, or through the website at lodibuddhist.org. In Gassho, Corey Okazaki BCL Board President

Virtual Obon from Sacramento Betsuin https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org//20200815_virtua

Greeting BCL Sangha, We hope this finds you and your families safe and healthy in the midst of the unprecedented medical and social unrest we have been facing. As we have been doing for the past months, your temple leadership group met last week over a series of Zoom video conference calls and old school phone calls to discuss the state of our church. I’m pleased share that after our discussions with Bruce, Steve, Gordon, Gary, Judy, Hannah, Rev. Motoyoshi, Rev. Shibata and ...Bishop Harada, that we are in solid financial and operational condition. Through the ongoing dedication of your fellow members, minimum basic operations of the church/office have been able to be maintained. We currently have a tenant in the Residence that has enabled us to generate a modest income and, more importantly, maintain and secure the house. Additionally, you might have noticed that we have also sold the Church’s 12 year old car. When the time comes that a resident minister becomes available for Lodi, we will be replacing it with a newer model. Also, if you have driven by the church lately, you would have seen that the work on the Annex continues and we will have a new roof and beautiful new cookline by early July! While some area churches have re-started Sunday services, out of an abundance of caution, we will not be restarting live, in-person services until September at the earliest. We are working with BCA to develop our plan for cleaning and ensuring social distancing, and we will keep you updated as we begin to reschedule services and temple activities. As some of you may know, Reverend Motoyoshi has announced her retirement as a full-time minister, effective June 30th. Please give her your best wishes, but also know that she will continue to appear occasionally at services as a guest speaker. Truly the best of both worlds! Replacing her as Stockton’s resident minister is Reverend Candace Shibata. Many of you may already know her and I am thrilled to know that she will serve as our Supervising Minister for the foreseeable future. While we will not be having live, in-person services through August in Lodi, we should remind you that Stockton has graciously extended invitations to our Sangha to join them in their online Sunday services. We will provide links to their services in a separate email or you can find the information on their website: buddhistchurchofstockton.org While we will not be having traditional in-person services, we do have the ability to do a limited number of private/family services (restricted to no more than 10 people). Please reach out to Reverend Motoyoshi (Reverend Shibata after 7/1) at the Stockton office at 209-466-6701 if you need to speak to her about a service. If you have questions or thoughts about how we can improve your safety when we reopen events and services, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us. In Gassho, Corey Okazaki BCL President

From the Sacramento Betsuin: Greetings, I hope you are doing well during these uncertain and challenging times. There is so much going on in the world today, that it is difficult to know how to go on with life as usual. Because there is nothing "usual" about our lives today.... In spite of the challenges, the BCA & CBE are still working to continue to provide programs for its members. I'm sure you have already heard that we cancelled this year's BYR Summer Youth Retreat at the JSC. So in its place, we have decided to host a Virtual BYR Retreat. Hopefully this allows more kids the opportunity to attend. No more long flights or travel plans needed! This year's event will be on July 6th - July 10th, in the evenings from 7pm - 10pm . This event is for high school age (and graduating seniors) students, and will require the ability to log into Zoom sessions for the week. The registration deadline is next week, but please don't hesitate to let me know if you need more time. I realize that it can be a challenge to get kids to try something new, so I would deeply appreciate it if you would personally encourage one or two of your YBA kids to attend. Just a quick email, or text to encourage their participation can make all the difference. Sometimes it takes a personal touch to motivate them. And please let them know that if they participate in this virtual retreat, that they will still be eligible to participate in any in-person event once our facilities have been reopened to the public. And if they are still hesitant, just let them know that this will be a fun and relaxed week, and there won't be anything to worry about! Thank you in advance for your support of the BCA Youth Programs. It is my hope that by continuing to provide meaningful programs and experiences for our youth, they will continue to value our teachings, and become future leaders at all of our BCA temples. I hope you will be able to encourage some of your YBA kids to attend this event. I look forward to seeing them there! Please email me if you have any questions. And thank you for sharing this email. Gassho, Koichi Event Flyer: https://docs.google.com//1tri0D6mJLtvt580ENgV2yKkcrI/edit Reg Form: https://docs.google.com//1poeTC0kKhPMa55R16gPXafWUUC/edit

New! CBE Seminars Online For All Two Saturdays, 11 am - 1 pm (Pacific Time) June 13:... "Seeing Shin Buddhism in Star Wars" Guest Speaker: Rev. Landon Yamaoka June 27: "Man's Search for Meaning" Guest Speaker: Rev. Kenji Akahoshi Kv BCA members and the public are invited to join us for a new series of online programs. All are welcome! Online registration is required to receive the Zoom seminar link. If you need assistance, please call or email CBE staff. FREE Donations are gratefully accepted online. (Scroll campaign box to CBE) Checks are payable to "Buddhist Churches of America", with check memo: "CBE June Seminars." Mail to: Center for Buddhist Education, 2140 Durant Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704 Please share with all who may be interested in these timely/timeless topics. Limited spaces Early registration encouraged Gassho, CBE Staff Click image to view BCA Center for Buddhist Education | buddhistchurchesofamerica.org [email protected] 510.809.1460 Center for Buddhist Education | 2140 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704 510.809.1460 [email protected] Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | About Constant Contact Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Trusted Email from Constant Contact - Try it FREE today. Try email marketing for free today!

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Online Hanamatsuri service

To our Sangha, As a reminder, we have canceled our April Shotsuki and Hanamatsuri services and will likely face similar circumstances for May as well. We will continue to provide updates as your Temple Leadership and BCA assess the changing circumstances. Please rest assured that for those Shotsuki services we have been forced to cancel, we plan to honor your loved ones with a joint Shotsuki service when we are again able to meet. ... For those Funeral/Memorial services that have been postponed, we will work with you to reschedule with priority given to those who have been waiting the longest. Please see the recent announcements from BCA regarding the retirement of Bishop Umezu and a new message from Bishop Harada. Corey Okazaki BCL President 209.610.9170 Reverend Motoyoshi 209.565.7822 Gassho, Buddhist Church of Lodi

After 47 years of dedicated ministry and service to the Buddhist Churches of America, Rev. Kodo Umezu, Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America, retired from ...the BCA ministry on March 31, 2020. Prior to assuming the position of Bishop and Superintendent of the Hongwanji-ha North America District in 2012, Rev. Umezu served as the resident minister at the Fresno Betsuin Buddhist Temple, Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, and the Buddhist Church of Oakland. Additionally, Rev. Umezu also served as the Director of the BCA Center for Buddhist Education, and Chancellor of the Institute of Buddhist Studies. It is with the deepest gratitude and appreciation for his devoted service to the BCA and to the propagation of the Nembutsu teaching that we extend our best wishes to Rev. & Mrs. Umezu. We wish them well in their retirement. Beginning today (April 1, 2020), Reverend Marvin Harada begins his tenure as Bishop of the Buddhist Churches of America and Superintendent of the Hongwanji-ha North America District. https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org

Wanting or missing the Dharma Talks. From the Buddhist Church of America (BCA) Website https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org This link will take to a listing of the different Temples doing live/recorded Services & Dharma Talks.... https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/live-streaming-a/

To Our Sangha - After consultation with Temple leadership and consistent with guidelines issued by BCA and the government, we will be closing the Church and Office to all activity, both public and private, through the end of April. Please note that this closure will include both Makuragyo and Funeral/Memorial Services until further notices. We will re-evaluate as the situation changes and through consultation with Temple, BCA and Government leadership, we will keep you pos...ted as to timing for our ability to restart operations and services. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or Reverend Motoyoshi. Corey Okazaki BCL President 209.610.9170 Reverend Motoyoshi 209.565.7822 Gassho, Buddhist Church of Lodi