Podcast with Kenji Sensei at the Pioneer Ocean View United Church of Christ

Last month our resident minister Kenji Sensei was a guest speaker for a Sunday Service at the Pioneer Ocean View United Church of Christ (POVUCC). Over the summer, the Church heard from teachers of various faith groups.

Lucky for us, they posted Sensei’s talk, a nice introduction to Buddhism, on their website, from which we link the audio file below. Thank you POVUCC for inviting Sensei and posting his talk for all to enjoy!

Our Long History with the POVUCC. Long-time Temple members can recount many informal friendships and family relationships that link the Temple with the Ocean View church from its early days. Both groups developed to serve the spiritual needs of the Japanese American community, Ocean view starting in 1907 and the Temple in 1926.

In the late 1980s, under the guidance of Rev. Akio Miyaji (then our resident minister) and Rev. Tom Fujita (then the minister of Ocean View UCC), this relationship grew stronger with annual visitations of one congregation to another. The church and the temple would take turns each year hosting a combined service. The practice continued into the 2000s, and the 75th Anniversary history book of 2001 includes a photo of our resident minister of the time, Rev. Tesshi Aoyama, with the Ocean View minister of the time, Rev. Norma de Saegher. Rev. Aoyama returned to San Diego on his retirement and continues to assist Kenji Sensei as Associate Minister.

In 2004 Ocean View UCC merged with Pioneer UCC opening a new chapter in its history. See the POVUCC website to learn more about this history.