By Rachel Ambasing, MDiv Class of 2028 and Postulant in the Diocese of San Diego
Last month, I traveled to Seattle, WA, alongside fellow students, Tina Francis and Iwao Asakura, to attend the 2026 AANHPI (Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander) Episcopal Leadership Retreat. These annual gatherings are more than just “networking opportunities”; they are crucial spaces of connection where we’ve centered and celebrated the complex stories, diverse gifts and varied needs of the expansive AANHPI Episcopal community. Through these retreats I’ve encountered God in an expansive way, feeling challenged and invited to consider how God shows up in different bodies, places, and stories.
The first time I ever met Tina and Iwao was at one of these retreats (in Austin in 2023 and Portland in 2024, respectively, and back before I had an inkling that I would be an enrolled student at a seminary). My relationship with the two of them was a big reason I chose Southwest as my place of formation.
This year, the theme of the retreat was “Let it Not Happen Again,” which is also the motto of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. The phrase served as a reminder to us of all that our ancestors endured. And, it was a reminder of our call to live in solidarity, not only with those suffering in the AANHPI community, but with all those people and communities whose needs have been historically unseen and underserved.
We were surrounded by solidarity across ethnic and racial lines as we made our pilgrimage through Seattle and Tacoma. In Seattle we visited St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, a historically Japanese church; Wing Luke Museum in the Chinese International District; and the Filipino community Village; while in Tacoma we visited the Chinese Reconciliation Park, and Holy Family of Jesus Cambodian Episcopal Church. Each of these communities started off as a space serving a particular cultural and ethnic group, but eventually grew to a place of expansive, inclusive belonging, service and safety to all who could connect with the stories being made in that place.
And, we had an opportunity to express our own solidarity through public witness when we visited the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s detention center in Tacoma. The 70 of us attending the retreat gathered just outside of the fenced boundaries at an altar of remembrance set up and cared for by local organization La Resistencia, as well as the wider community. The altar already held prayers remembering those who had died in detention, including Charles Leo Daniel, and Jose Manuel Sanchez Castro, and for those still waiting to be freed. We prayed and sang songs as we hung strands of tsuru — origami cranes — until a waterfall of carefully folded, vibrant paper cascaded over the altar’s tent covering like a waterfall.
Over 5000 tsuru were collected from across The Episcopal Church, including over 250 from Seminary of the Southwest community, and coming to us from as far as Paris, France. The idea was inspired by Tsuru for Solidarity, a group of Japanese American non-violent direct-action advocates for justice.
It was a packed, and busy retreat, and I left with gratitude for how God showed up through community care, collaboration, and being surrounded by folks committed to collective well-being.