Episcopal Press and News

Navajo Ordained To Priesthood

Episcopal News Service. August 9, 1976 [76267]

CHINLE, Ariz. -- The spectacular canyon country through which the defeated Navajo nation was once marched to captivity was the site of a bi-lingual, bicultural ceremony in which a Navajo became the first Episcopal priest of his nation.

The Rev. Stephen Tsosie Plummer, 33, was ordained priest by the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, the Rt. Rev. Joseph M. Harte, in outdoor ceremonies in the Canyon de Chelly National Monument. It was from this area that Kit Carson once marched the defeated native Americans to a harsh captivity at Fort Summer.

Raised and educated on the Navajo reservation, Fr. Plummer attended Phoenix Junior College and graduated from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He then returned to the reservation and served his diaconate at the Good Shepherd Mission, Fort Defiance, Ariz., doing work with Navajo youth. He will continue to be affiliated with the mission, but will spend much of his time traveling among the approximately 12,000 Episcopal Navajos on the reservation.

The ordination was the highlight of a four-day convocation that brought about 300 leaders of the Church together under Navajo Episcopal Council Chairman James Sampson to explore programs and needs and plan for the General Convention of the Church in Minnesota in September. Sampson has been designated a spokesman to present the proposal for General Convention to authorize the creation of an area mission from the Navajo Episcopal Council. In addition to Bishop Harte, the Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, Bishop of Utah, and the Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers, Bishop of California, joined the convocation talks.

Scripture lessons and the sermon for the ordination and eucharist were read in both Navajo and English and a meal prepared by members of the nation concluded the ceremonies.