Ex-Serra Retreat Master Has Died

• Father Emery Tang Left Legacy of ‘Sacred Ordinary’

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

The Serra Retreat chapel, with its graceful architecture and magnificent views, offers an oasis of tranquility at the heart of the retreat’s grounds. The man who presided over its building died earlier this year, but the chapel remains as part of the legacy of one of the retreat’s best-loved masters. Emery Tang, retreat master, teacher, writer, photographer and poet, died on June 8. He was 81.
Tang was born in Phoenix Arizona in 1927 and ordained in 1952 at the Santa Barbara Mission. He spent a decade as a teacher and later a principal at schools in Northern California.
When Tang became a retreat master at the Serra Retreat in 1972, the Franciscans were still working to salvage and rebuild, following the devastating 1970 fire that destroyed most of the retreat’s buildings and left the grounds and the surrounding mountains scorched and barren.
Tang continued to be involved with the Malibu retreat house off and on for three decades. He was appointed Serra’s director in 1984. Retreatants remember him as a compelling and inspiring speaker and a man of great compassion who possessed a wry sense of humor. Visitors often encountered him working in the gardens, tending to his flowers.
“Whenever Emery went to speak or conduct retreats, people would flock to absorb his inspiring words delivered with simplicity and humility,” wrote Father Warren Rouse, Serra Retreat’s current director. “In ‘retirement’ he continued his preaching ministry in the parish and elsewhere, even though his health was precarious.”
Tang was also a highly respected photographer, his work described as embodying the “sacred ordinary.” His photographs accompany his three books, “China Connection,” which examines his Chinese American heritage; “Food for the Journey,” a book of essays; and “The Clams Are Talking,” a collection of poetry written in collaboration with fellow Franciscan Hugh Noonan.