The event consisted presentations, community worship and meals, and small-group dialogue. Continuing for two days, the consultation represented one of many conversations preceding the center’s formation.

The seminary is ecumenical and cross-cultural, and had a long-cherished relationship with the Korean American community. Through the event, the seminary’s intent to reach out to a broader Asian American constituency became implemented.

Peggy Saika, an Executive Director of Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, said that McCormick’s effort to serve the broader Asian American population as part of “building the kind of multicultural and multiracial democracy that we say we are.”

“How do we really create more welcoming communities across the board?” she asked. “How does each one of us go home every day, look into the mirror and confront our privilege and reinvest that privilege to do good, to be more justice-minded and to deal with the inequities that continue to exist? … It’s [a discussion] for all of us who are trying to be ‘American’ in the best sense of the word, and that is really our collective challenge.”