Episcopal Press and News
NAVAJOLAND: Convocation planned for October 17
Episcopal News Service. September 11, 2009 [091109-03]
Pat McCaughan
The Episcopal Church in Navajoland is poised to, at an upcoming October 17 gathering, vote on its own leadership.
That selection, of an interim canon to the ordinary, would bring the Episcopal Church in Navajoland (ECN) a step closer toward its eventual goal of selecting a Navajo or Diné bishop by 2013, according to Anna Fowler, of Farmington, New Mexico.
"I am very excited," said Fowler, a member of the design team that helped to craft a proposal for developing Navajo leadership, to be considered at the October convocation.
"In the past we've had interim bishops appointed by the Presiding Bishop's office, and we've appreciated the appointments of those bishops that have helped us. But this time, we're going to do it. We are excited. We have challenges, yes, but we will come together and be proud that we have done this work."
Jefferts Schori immediately will appoint the person selected on October 17 to oversee Navajoland, said Fowler. "This same person's name then will be presented to the House of Bishops in March 2010 to be considered for consecration as bishop for Navajoland."
The Presiding Bishop has asked for the input of the people of Navajoland, which is an area mission of the Episcopal Church, not a diocese. At the invitation of the Presiding Bishop's office, the Rt. Rev. Rustin Kimsey, former Assisting Bishop of Navajoland, has agreed to convene the convocation. Delegates attending that meeting will choose between two candidates; each has longstanding relationships with the ECN.
"We're very fortunate to have him [Kimsey] because he was interim bishop here and Navajoland knows him," Fowler said. "He helped Navajoland in a lot of ways as a leader," she added.
Candidates have ties to Navajoland
The candidates for interim canon to the ordinary are: the Rev. Canon David Bailey, canon to the ordinary and deployment officer for the Diocese of Utah and the Rev. James Leehan, a retired priest and former vicar of Good Shepherd Mission, Fort Defiance, Arizona, in Navajoland.
Prior to his 1998 arrival in Utah, Bailey served as rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Phoenix and chaired Native American Ministries in the Diocese of Arizona. He also was a diocesan liaison to Navajoland. He assisted Bishop Steven Plummer in an administrative capacity, helping the diocese develop a mission statement, economic development plans and as a Hogan Learning Center consultant.
Plummer was the first Navajo ordained a priest and the first to serve in the House of Bishops. He was consecrated Bishop of Navajoland in 1990.
After Plummer's 2005 death from lymphoma, Bailey continued to offer administrative support to Kimsey until the Presiding Bishop appointed Bishop Mark MacDonald of Alaska as assisting bishop to succeed him.
MacDonald resigned as Bishop of Alaska in 2007 after his appointment as the first National Indigenous Bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada. He continued to serve in Navajoland and Canada until July 27, 2009, when he formally resigned from the ECN.
Leehan, a priest for more than 40 years, had served as vicar of the Good Shepherd Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the ECN. He retired in 2007 from Good Shepherd, and the licensed marriage and family therapist serves on the staff of Clergy Care Services, an agency that offers clergy support services and workshops.
He is canonically resident in the Diocese of Indianapolis, where he served St. Paul's Episcopal Church and taught at Christian Theological Seminary. He holds advanced degrees in counseling, social work, social ethics and divinity.
Fred Dick, a design team member representing Navajoland's Southeast region, including Arizona and portions of New Mexico, said Bailey and Leehan represent excellent choices for ECN leadership.
"Both candidates will do a great job" if selected, said Dick, a nephew of the late Plummer. "I'm just excited to work with either of them."
Because Navajoland is an area mission, the Presiding Bishop will formally appoint the candidate selected as canon to the ordinary for the ECN. The goal is for the canon "to work with us and develop education and training, so that we can select a Navajo bishop within five years," according to Fowler, of the design team.
Designing the way forward
In addition to Fowler and Dick, the design team included Lillie Henderson, representing the Utah region, a third area included in the ECN. The team also met with the Rev. Canon Charles Robertson, who is canon to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. "This team has worked tirelessly to help make the selection process work, and work well," said Robertson.
The Presiding Bishop had applauded the team's efforts at a June 12-14 convocation held beneath a pitched tent on the grounds of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona.
"It is my hope to ordain a Navajo bishop during my tenure as Presiding Bishop," Jefferts Schori told about 200 people who attended the convocation.
In addition to identifying and training Navajo leadership, Jefferts Schori had proposed fundraising in conjunction with the Episcopal Church Foundation. She also suggested administrative oversight for Navajoland's three regions -- proposals Dick believes helped to rekindle efforts to empower Diné leadership.
Created by General Convention 1978, Navajoland is the only area mission in the Episcopal Church. It functions much like a diocese but with more oversight from the office of the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops. The ECN was carved out of parts of the Dioceses of Utah, Arizona and Rio Grande. Its border is contiguous with that of the Navajo Nation.
Challenges abound; so does hope
Navajoland stretches from the red rock of Utah, to the chiseled bluffs of Arizona and spectacular land formations of New Mexico, but that sheer geographic separation makes communication a key challenge, said Henderson.
"Sometimes it's hard to have face-to-face meetings," said Henderson, a lay pastor at St. John the Baptizer Episcopal Mission in Montezuma Creek. "If we can just keep our communication open, we will come together," she said during a September 10 telephone interview from her office.
"But," she added firmly, "we will come together. I'm just hoping everyone will come together to select a leader for themselves. That's what we need right now, someone to lead us to develop our leadership among our own people."
There are other challenges. Median household income among the Navajo Nation is about $20,000 annually; unemployment is roughly 42 percent, according to 2000 U.S. census data. About 43 percent of those on the Navajo reservation live below the poverty line; 44 percent leave before completing high school.
Dick said the group plans to determine a site for the October meeting within the next few days. About selecting a canon to the ordinary, he said: "We've been talking about this for quite a while. It's time we actually do something. I'm glad we're taking some action. Things are starting to happen and things are going to happen.
"I'm glad the Presiding Bishop started something. We needed to get the process going. And if we will put our minds to it," he added, "it might even lead to actually becoming a diocese one of these days."