Ministerial Team

The Buddhist Church of Santa Barbara is supervised by Rev. Ryuta Furumoto, the resident minister of Senshin Buddhist Temple in South Los Angeles. Prior to his appointment at Senshin, Furumoto-sensei served the San Mateo Buddhist Temple. 

Rev. Jean-Paul deGuzman, from the San Fernando Valley Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, leads monthly services and study discussions. Minister emeritus Rev. Fumiaki Usuki, Rev. Blake Honda (resident minister of the Oxnard Buddhist Temple), and Rev. Stacy Reardon have also assisted the temple in recent years. 

We are also grateful to our lay leaders who stepped in to conduct rituals, offer Dharma reflections, and hold services in the absence of a minister.

This image of Shinran Shonin, the father of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, was drawn by our former minister, the late Rev. Masanori Watanabe who served our temple from 2013 to 2021,