Welcome to Myra House

Myra House: Holistic Living Center, Claremont, CA., was created in October 2001 by Rev. Sung Sohn, an United Methodist Church minister and his wife, Mrya, as a multicultural spiritual retreat and environmental education center. Myra House is using this setting to form a healing and caring community. Rev Sohn is a senior architect and a Ph.D. student at the Claremont School of Theology. His wife is a pharmacist. After fifteen years in this country, they sensed the need to live holistically and to teach others about ways to answer the cries of a hurting environment and the diseased human spirit, psyche and body, which are all interconnected. To respond to this need, they designed and built an award-winning ten-bedroom home and transformed the grounds into a pond-dotted landscape, all based on ecological and spiritual principles.

The center has connections with both CST and the Annual Conference. The vision is to provide ecological and spiritual education in a holistic setting. This education will be offered to house guests, retreatants, students from the seminary and local colleges, professionals in the religious, environmental and health professions, and families. These educational opportunities will be through live-in communal practices or weekend eco-spiritual awareness classes.

Presently, house guests and retreatants take part experientially in the rhythms of a common life as they can: morning and evening prayer/meditation, household chores, gardening, communal meals, etc. Educational work days are attracting environmental classes from neighboring colleges and CST holds its spirituality prayer class in the main prayer area. It will soon offer week-end ecological awareness retreats and an
adopt-a-tree program for nearby elementary students

On Saturday, May, 4, 2002 the Myra House ministry was featured in a 12-minute interview by The Rev. Brandon Cho, Chair, U.M. Council on Korean American Ministries, on TAN (The Asian Network) and April 20, 2003 by Lyle Jackson, UM Network. Full color pictures were shown of the ministry taking place on-site. Myra House has also been previously covered by the following media: LA Times Inland Valley on November 9, 2001 and December 20, 2002, Korea Times Daily and Korean Central Daily on October 16, 2001.

The Myra House ministry provides a unique and greatly needed experiential immersion in holistic alternatives. This ministry has attracted visitors from within the United Methodist and Korean American Methodist communities. It has the enthusiastic support of the founding board members, who are setting programmatic priorities and providing a sound financial basis for this incorporated, non-profit religious ministry. We welcome the support and participation of persons who share this vision and would like to become a part of this ministry.

Advisory Board
Dr. Philip and Elaine Amerson (CST)
Dr. Michael Chai, MD (Upland)
Mr. A. Carlos and Mrs. Hortencia Casillas (Claremont)
Jane Geumja, JD., and Mr. Steve Seunggun Chung (Los Angeles)
Dr. John Cobb (Claremont)
Prof. Andy Dreitcer, (Spirituality, CST)
Mrs. Susie Fan (Pharmacist, Claremont)
Prof. Kathleen Greider (Pastoral Counseling, CST)
Rev. Keith Hwang (Cal-Pac A.C. Conference Secretary, and Associate
Director, Connectional Ministries)
Rev. Youngstone and Mrs. Grace Jhun (Pomona)
Mr. Jai J. Lee (Artesia)

Mr. Jay Lee (Glendale)
Mrs. Young Ran Lee
Mrs. Cathy Osman (Upland, elementary teacher, environmental studies)
Rev. Lois and Dr. Ward McAfee (Upland)
Rev. Don Locher (Sierra Madre, Bishop Mary Ann Swenson’s representative)
Rev. Seungabae Paik (Anaheim)
Prof. Frank Rogers (Christian Education, CST)
Mr. Eugene T. Tchoe (Hacienda Heights)
Mr. Robert Vincent (Claremont)

Program consultants:
Dr. C. Dean Freudenberger (Claremont, environmental ethicist, agronomist)
Mr. Mark von Wodtke, ASLA (Claremont)