Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jan/13/il/il04a.html

On January 13, 2004 The Honolulu Advertiser published an interview with Mary Beth Jiko Oshima-Nakade, who "received her Buddhist ministerial training in Kona, on the Big Island, and is Hawai'i's first homegrown minister of a major Buddhist sect. She serves as Assistant minister at Daifukuji Soto Mission in Kona — a trend other major Buddhist sects watch with interest. The Soto Zen ministerial training program has been called a hope for the survival of the religion here, as members age and the face of traditional ethnic Buddhism changes."