Looking forward to this weekend’s mini-retreat!
Retreat Speakers
- Rev. Myokei Lindsa Caine-Barrett (Bishop @NONA)
- Myokei Caine-Barrett is the first woman and the first Westerner to hold the position of bishop in the Nichiren Order of North America. She is the Chief Priest of the Myoken-ji Temple in Houston, Texas. Bishop Myokei is an active prison ministry chaplain and with the VA system as a hospice chaplain.
- Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick (Head Minister @Shingan-Ji Temple)
- Ryuei Michael McCormick is a Buddhist priest of the Nichiren Shu, a Mahayana Buddhist lineage established in Japan by Nichiren Daishonin in 1253. Ryuei began practicing Nichiren Buddhism in 1986. In 1997 he became a disciple of Bishop Ryusho Matsuda of the Nichiren Order of North America. After a four year apprenticeship as a novice, Ryuei received full ordination at Kuonji Temple on Mt. Minobu in 2001. He is currently serving as head minister to the San Francisco Bay Area Nichiren Sangha Shingan-ji Temple. Ryuei is the author of Open Your Eyes: A Nichiren Buddhist View of Awakening, Lotus in a Sea of Flames, and co-author of Sacred Services of the Lotus Sutra: Nichiren Shu. He has also served as an assistant editor of the Nichiren Shu News.
- Rev. Shoda Douglas Kanai (Head Minister @Kannon-Ji Temple)
- Rev. Shoda Douglas Kanai is currently the Head Priest of Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada, in Las Vegas. We are an overseas branch temple of Nichiren Shu, which is one of the main sects of Buddhism in Japan. Most recently, he spent three and a half years studying and practicing at a remote mountain-side temple in northern Osaka Prefecture. During this time, he completed two separate 100-day ascetic training sessions (Aryagyo) which involved chanting the sutras, ritual water purification with cold water, eating two meals and only sleeping two and a half hours per day. He is currently trying to make Buddhism easier to understand for the English-speaking audience.
- Rev. Ryuoh Faulconer (Head Minister @Kosen-Ji Temple)
- Rev. Ryuoh Faulconer is the head minister at the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of Greater New England. started his journey with Nichiren Shu with the Portland Temple where he was a memeber for over eight years when he took vows (Tokudo) to become a minister in the future on January 26th, 1997 with his master Rev. Ryuken Akahoshi. He compleated Shingyo Dojo training and was ordained as a Nichiren Buddhist Minister on May 19th, 2001. He served as the 13th resident minister for the Portland Temple for a time before transfering to the Boston area in January of 2007. Faulconer Shonin is an iconographer, artist, book-maker, and is passionate about making service manner and other study materials avalible in English. He also has extensive experiance working in human services; he has most recently worked as a group faclitator in a drug and alchohol treatment center and is currently working as a hospice chaplain.
- Rev. Shinkyo Will Warner (Head Minister @Kentucky Sangha)
- Rev. Shinkyo Warner, along with Rev. Ryuei McCormick and Rev. Ryuoh Falconer, was one of the first three non-Japanese speaking Americans to be ordained as Nichiren Shu priests in 2001. For the next ten years or so, he edited the third edition of Bishop Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, released in 2012. He was then asked by the Nichiren Shu Overseas Propagation Promotion Association (NOPPA) to edit the final seventh volume of Rev. Kyotsu Hori’s compilation of English translations of the Writings of Nichiren Shonin (WONS). He is currently on another project for NOPPA, editing revisions of the other six volumes of WONS, and plans to produce a single electronic version of all seven volumes.
- Shami Ryoen Elizabeth Drewillo (Shami @Kosen-ji Temple)
- Ryoen started attending the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha in Haverhill, MA in February 2012 and took Jukai with their master Rev. Ryuoh Faulconer in April of that same year. Shortly thereafter, they started working toward training as a lay leader with the sangha. After attending a study tour trip to Mt. Minobu, Ryoen decided to ask to take vows to become a minister in the future. They took Tokudo in July of 2015 and Docho in August of 2016; two steps toward full ordination. In addition to their duties at the temple; Ryoen works full time as a Licenced Independant Clinical social worker in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and operates a private practice. Their primary clinical focus is on working with trauma and/or addiction issues within the LGBTQ community. They live with their Master, his husband Neil, and the four family dogs and enjoys crochet and other crafting projects as a hobby.
- Shami Ryumon Chad Grohman (Shami @Myoken-ji Temple)
- Ryumon Grohman is a student of Bishop Myokei Caine Barrett, Myoken-Ji Temple, Houston, Texas. He has been a shami (novice priest) in the Nichren Shu tradition since 2014. Ryumon also studies mindfulness meditation with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and attends herbal school at Heartstone Center for Earth Essentials. In addition to spiritual and plant studies, Ruymon is an illustration professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and continues to work as a freelancer. He currently lives in Lockport, New York with his wife and family.
- Shami Ryugan Mark Herrick (Shami @Shingan-ji Temple)
- Mark took refuge in Nichiren Buddhism in 1975. In February 2020 he was ordained as a novice priest in the Nichiren Shu Lineage of Buddhism by his master Rev. Ryuei McCormick. Rev. Ryuei McCormick bestowed upon him the Dharma name “Ryugan,” which means Dragon Vow. Ryugan chose a second Dharma English name of White Lotus to bridge the two cultures of East and West. Ryugan hosts weekly guiding chanting meditation classes at his local community center. He has been married for 40 years and has one son. He spent 38 years in high tech and 25 years as a volunteer police officer and search and rescue K9 handler before retiring in 2019 to concentrate on his priest training and helping Rev. McCormick found the Nichiren Shu Shingan-ji (True Vow) Temple based in Oakland, CA.