# Video: BMI 10th Anniversary: Closing Remarks January 16, 2023 ![Janet Gyatso](/sites/g/files/omnuum5526/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds2/files/gyatso-links-600x600.jpg?itok=qnpw3RXM) On October 27, 2022, Harvard Divinity School celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Buddhist Ministry Initiative (BMI). In honor of this anniversary, the community engaged in discussions of Buddhist ministry in the context of HDS. In this video, Dr. Monica Sanford closes the celebration by asking Janet Gyatso what she wants to see in the future for the BMI. Full transcript: MUSIC PLAYING\] SPEAKER 1: Harvard Divinity School. SPEAKER 2: Buddhist Ministry Initiative 10th anniversary celebration closing remarks October 27, 2022. MONICA SANFORD: Thank you to all of our wonderful alumni and speakers and to Janet and Charlie for guiding us in this discussion this evening. I'm just going to say a little bit of thanks to some of the people who helped organize these events because I know we're already over time and, I appreciate everyone who's hung in there so long for us. And then I'm going to turn to Janet with one last question so that she can have the last word of this wonderful evening. But first, I need to thank, of course, the Robert H. N. Ho. Family Foundation, the faculty members who make up the Buddhist Ministry committee Janet Gyatso, Charlie Hallisey, Cheryl Giles, Chris Berlin, and Dudley Rose, and Emily click, who were the previous associate and assistant dean of Ministry Studies who helped create the Buddhist Ministry Initiative. We also need to thank Julie Gillette who helped coordinate the Buddhist Ministry Initiative for nine and a half of its 10 years and wish her Well on her new adventures, and thank Jonathan Makransky, who is now the coordinator for multi religious ministry initiatives who started us off this evening and has helped deeply in organizing this entire process. Lastly, I have to thank a whole bunch of people without whom we would not be here, Leslie and Dawn in the Office of Ministry Studies, Sue and her staff in operations, Bob and Robbie, who are even now in the back of the room and behind the cameras, Kyle and the wonderful Crimson catering staff, Lori, \[? Meghan, ?\] and Kristi, and Nancy in development of alumni relations, and the entire communications team, including Caroline, who's still in the back of the room taking photos long after I told her she could go home. So Thank you to all of you. This demonstrates that the Buddhist Ministry Initiative is not an OMS project. It is truly a project of Harvard Divinity School and Harvard University as a whole, and it is definitely a work of generosity and love. Now to end the program, I just have a pressing question for Janet. So this is the anniversary of 10 years of the Buddhist Ministry Initiative, but it's also the culmination, a lot of history longer than that. But what do you want to see in the future for the Buddhist Ministry Initiative? What do you most hope for, for the students for the alumni, for the institution, for the world in relation to the BMI? And that will be our last word. JANET GYATSO: Well, thank you for giving me the last word. It's been just wonderful and lovely to hear all of the accounts from the students. And to think about this program, I am indeed extremely proud of it and just how wonderful it has been and continues to be. And I feel as if what we're doing now is a seed for what can grow into even a bigger plant, a bigger tree, as we continue to do our work. I feel that the two major initiatives that we have taken. One is the Buddhist Ministry working group, which has really catalyzed and brought together the training and the vision of what Buddhist Ministry means. So far in North America, it's an amazing contribution, but we need to extend it further. Our international access and program that we have that's been facilitated by the visiting scholars is fantastic, but it needs to be expanded. So we need to extend the reach of the Buddhist Ministry working group to institutions, certainly in Asia, of which there are many and from which we have a great deal to learn, and they have a lot to learn from us and around the world. And that international cooperation and collaboration at this particular point in time, given the increasing global nature of our world and our values and our discourse. We're very much coming together. We need to learn from each other. And we need to help to build and envision really what wisdom, what knowledge, what practical knowledge, we can take from Buddhist tradition and apply to the current extremely difficult world problems that we're facing. So I'm really thinking a lot about Buddhist leadership, Buddhist really stepping up to the world stage in terms of the ethical contributions that we can make to living on our planet now. So it means doing more of what we're doing, doing It better, and extending the reach further. So I hope all these things will be possible, and I'm saying this auspicious prayer and statement and hoping that will come to pass. \[APPLAUSE\] MONICA SANFORD: Thank you everyone. And good night to those of you on Zoom, or good morning to those of you who are joining us from Asia. SPEAKER 2: Sponsor, Harvard Divinity School, Office of Ministry Studies. SPEAKER 1: Copyright 2022 to the President and Fellows of Harvard College.