Asiamerica Ministries

Assisting dioceses to start new Asian congregations and strengthen existing ones, and advocates for Asian empowerment at all levels of the church: seminarians, women, youth, clergy, and lay leaders.

Church Planting in the Asian Diaspora

Our Presenters

Peter Huang was born in Taiwan to Taiwanese and Japanese parents and grew up in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States. He has a co-vocational call as a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice in Pasadena, Cal., as well as a priest in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Nurturing the multiple aspects of one’s identity to reflect the image of God in oneself and others is at the heart of his vocations. In the Diocese of Los Angeles, Peter serves as the Missioner for Asian American Ministries and as one of the leaders of The Gathering, a diocesan ministry for Asian Pacific American Spirituality. He is a graduate of MIT, Fuller Seminary, and Bloy House. He enjoys cycling, watching Sumo, binge-watching Asian dramas, and traveling to Asia. He lives in Pasadena with his wife, Christine. 


Wa Meng Lor is a father of 7 children, 6 stepchildren and 2 grandchildren. He became a Christian in 1973 in the Roman Catholic Church and converted into the Episcopal denomination in 2005. He was ordained a transitional deacon in 2015 and a priest in 2016, before being installed as vicar for the Church of Holy Apostles in September 2019. 


Bao Moua joined The Episcopal Church in 2005. She was ordained a transitional deacon in 2015 and a priest in 2016. She is an associate priest on the Shared Ministry Leadership Team at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minn., the first Hmong-majority congregation in the U.S. The Shared Ministry Leadership Team has four priests, two deacons, and six lay leaders. Bao is grateful to have a wonderful team, where all are sharing their gifts to help build up the body of Christ and to equip others for ministry in the congregation and in the world.


The Rev. Ruth Casipit Paguio was born and raised in the Philippines with six siblings. She grew up in the United Methodist Church and was ordained deaconess in the UMC and was assigned for 11 years to one of the churches in the Philippines. In 2000, she was invited by the Rev. Winfred and Angie Vergara to come to the U.S. and teach children Sunday school. The following year, she was admitted to the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, California, graduating with the Master of Divinity in 2004. After her graduation, she started serving Holy Child Episcopal Church as a layperson, and then as a transitional deacon before being priested in 2006. In 2010, Holy Child (a Filipino congregation) and St. Joseph Episcopal (an Anglo congregation) churches started a conversation to merge. The two churches were in covenant for 5 years. On November 4, 2016, during diocesan convention, the two churches were officially merged as the parish of Holy Family Episcopal Church. On March 26, 2017, Rev. Ruth was installed as the first Filipino woman rector of Holy Family. In November 2017, St Philip’s Episcopal Church, an Anglo, Black, and Latino congregation merged with Holy Family. Rev. Ruth’s is serving a multicultural parish with different ethnic backgrounds. She loves being with people and serving them, exemplifying service and faith. She has a fun side to her, being known as a dancing priest. She shows off her dance prowess during the church annual dinner and dance. Rev. Ruth is happily married to Sonny Paguio.


Katie Nakamura Rengers joined the Presiding Bishop’s staff in 2020, as Staff Officer for Church Planting.  She is the founder of The Abbey, a non-traditional church plant in Birmingham, AL that began as a coffee shop and is now a Sunday worshiping community.  Katie graduated from Virginia Theological Seminary in 2011.  She has served small and large, rural and urban congregations.  She is passionate about helping the Episcopal Church live into its innovative, resilient, multi-cultural future.  Katie, her husband and their two little girls live in Birmingham, AL.  Connect via email here. Learn more about New Episcopal Communities.


The Rev. Nadeem Sadiq was born and raised in a Christian family in Peshawar, Pakistan. He was welcomed by the Rt. Rev. William Love, who accepted his priestly orders at the annual Convention of the Diocese of Albany at the Camp in the Woods in Speculator, N.Y., in June 2019. He is now the priest-in-charge of the Pakistani congregation that meets in the chapel of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Albany. He and his family – his wife, Sadaf, and two children Sharill (daughter) and Matthias (son) – have devoted their lives to serve the congregation of St. Thomas Church.


Halim Shukair hails from Lebanon. He is currently a curate at Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn, Mich., and priest-in-charge for Mother of the Savior Church in Dearborn. Halim holds a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological (2018). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing from the Lebanese American University in Beirut as well as a Diploma in Theology from the Near East School of Theology, also in Beirut. Prior to starting seminary, Shukair worked at the American University of Beirut as Grants and Contracts Officer. He has been involved in many ministries of his home parish, All Saints Episcopal Church, in Beirut, Lebanon. He has a particular interest in interfaith dialogue, Christian formation, liturgy, and contemplative life. His hobbies include swimming, hiking, and theater.


Father Paul Xie was born, grew up, and received his Higher Education in China. He was an Associate Professor in a Medical University before coming to the U.S. He graduated from Ashland Theological Seminary, Ohio, and was called to St. George’s Episcopal Church as a Parish Pastoral Worker in June 2002. He obtained his second master’s degree from The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, New York, 2004, and was ordained as a priest in 2006. He is the first Chinese from mainland China being ordained in the Episcopal Church in US and the current Priest-in-Charge of St. George’s church, Flushing, NY, which is an English, Chinese and Spanish trilingual parish.

Before coming to St. George’s in June 2002, he visited Flushing, noticing the large population of Chinese immigrants without religious background. Many of them tried to adapt to the culture and life of a society they had never faced before and did have a lot of spiritual, pastoral, emotional, and other issues and concerns that needed to be solved. He remembered what Jesus said that “They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd…” (Mt. 9:36-38). His vision was inviting the people to “Come and see” the house of prayer and sending the disciples to “Go and serve” the wider community with God’s love.

With God’s help, the Chinese ministry has been growing rapidly in the past 15 years, more than 1,000 people have been baptized and 500 people were confirmed. Flushing is an area with high population mobility; until pandemic there were active parishioners about 550 and average weekly attendance 275 and several regular formation and outreach programs. For example,  there are Sunday school, youth group, young adults group, lay leaders training retreat, Bible study and fellowships, three-month baptism classes throughout the year, and Food Pantry, and so on. During the pandemic, St. George’s turned crisis into opportunity and started online worship by Zoom since Holy Week 2020, and the same time developed Live Stream for the in-person worship at the church since November 1st, All Saints’ Day, 2020. The church has restarted baptism and confirmation classes both online and in person since March 2021. Thank God, there are many devoted stewards serving for St. George’s ministries even though shortage of clergy and staff during the pandemic.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Winfred (Fred) Vergara lived, studied and ministered in Philippines, Singapore and the United States. He has served as church planter, missionary and revivalist in the Iglesia Filipina Independiente; the Anglican Church of Singapore and the Diocese of El Camino Real; the Diocese of Nevada; and the Diocese of Long Island. He teaches Healing via Facebook Live (FredVergara3) and has written several books, including a bestseller booklet, Being Episcopalian. He keeps two blogsites: Travelin’ Asian and Vergara Books. Based in New York, he can be contacted via email here and through the Asiamerica Ministries page on The Episcopal Church website.


Joseph Yoo is working on planting a community called Mosaic Church in a suburb of Houston. The dream for that community is to create a space where people know (and can trust) that EVERYBODY matters to God, even if God doesn’t matter to them (yet).

Contact:
The Rev. Pamela Tang, Deacon

Interim Missioner for Asiamerica Ministries

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