Religious Studies Lecture Series

You're cordially invited to the Spring 2025 Religious Studies Lecture Series, featuring Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, February 20, 2025 at 5:30 p.m in Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby, Ed. D., Academic Center LL31.

Myokei Caine-Barrett, Shonin, was the first American woman and the first person of African Japanese descent to receive full ordination as a Nichiren priest. Today, she is the bishop of the Nichiren Shu Buddhist Order of North America. Based in Houston, where she is the guiding teacher of Myoken-ji Temple, she also leads two prison sanghas. 

She currently serves on the boards of Lion’s Roar and Dharma Relief 2 [a project providing financial support for Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent] as well as the advisory boards of Rice University Boniuk Center’s Religion and Public Life and Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Center for the Study of African American Religious Life. She is also involved in the Garden Initiative, a mentoring project for Black Women Religious Leaders. She has been active in Healing Warrior Hearts (a program for veterans returning home) and The Gathering: Buddhist Teachers of Black African Descent. Myokei Shonin recently became 1 of 3 westerners to participate in Aragyo [austerities practice] in Okayama Japan and become a Saijo Inari priest.