Buddhist Church of San Francisco

Founded in 1898, the Buddhist Church of San Francisco was the first Jodo Shinshu (Pure Land) Buddhist temple established in the continental United States and is the flagship temple of the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA). 

In its one-hundred-twenty-year history, the BCSF sangha (community) has persevered through the natural disasters of the great 1906 earthquake and fire, the internment camp experience of the majority Nikkei membership during the Second World War, and the relocation of its members away from San Francisco's Japantown.

Today, the Buddhist Church of San Francisco enjoys a sense of growth beyond the traditional distinctions of culture, ethnicity and identities to realize the meaning of sangha as a community of people dedicated to living in the Light of Dharma and the Life of Nembutsu.