Episcopal Press and News
Native American Seminary Enrollment Increasing
Episcopal News Service. April 13, 1989 [89073]
Owanah Anderson
NEW YORK (DPS, Apr. 13) -- In the spring of 1974, Steve Charleston was the only Native American Episcopalian in seminary. Fifteen years later, in the spring of 1989, Charleston, the Choctaw scholar, author, and preacher, noted that ten Episcopal Indians are in seminary. He also noted that three times as many Native American ordained clergy are now in the field as 15 years ago, with four more expecting to take the final steps toward ordination following seminary graduation this spring.
Equally impressive is the fact that three years ago not one Episcopal Native American was in any seminary in spite of the fact that development of ordained native leadership had been clearly articulated by the grass roots as the number-one priority for at least an entire generation, and that a variety of specialized and innovative training approaches had been tried.
Charleston, who now teaches at Luther Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, can be credited with a prominent role in turning the tide that netted ten prospective new clergy.
While studying at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, far from his Oklahoma home, Charleston knew the gnawing isolation that the lone Indian experiences in standard seminary study. The loneliness left such a wrenching memory that Charleston would champion various alternative approaches to ordination study for the generation of Indian seminarians who would follow him.
During the two years Charleston worked at the Episcopal Church Center in New York as Executive Director for the National Committee on Indian Work (NICW), he encouraged support to NATA (Native American Theological Association) and served as NATA board chairman. Founded in 1978 with headquarters in Minneapolis, NATA was a consortium of five denominations -- Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, United Methodist, and Lutheran -- which developed special education programs and seminary affiliates. More significantly, NATA designed programs to undergird Indian community; thus, an Episcopal student would be found studying at a United Church of Christ or Presbyterian seminary.
The Episcopal Church made major financial commitments to the NATA program, and over a seven-year period -- 1978-1985 -- six NATA students who had received NCIW study assistance were ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
However, by the mid-1980s, Charleston, along with other Episcopal leaders, reluctantly recognized that the NATA program no longer held out its earlier promise. Financial support from the member denominations was irregular and significantly imbalanced, and by April 1987, NATA was insolvent.
An additional disappointment surfaced when it was realized that despite all the efforts and investments to encourage study for ordination, no steady flow of prospective priests had begun. Charleston said, "We were seeing new Indian ministry development, especially in the urban areas, but we were still facing a critical shortage of Indian clergy. We were investing a lot of money in a lot of directions but we were not seeing an average of one ordination a year. We knew we had to come at this problem from another angle."
So, Charleston cast about for a new angle. After working for two years in South Dakota as head of the Dakota Leadership Program, which offered home-based leadership training, he accepted a faculty position as director of cross-cultural studies at Luther Northwestern in St. Paul; he had also been named to the board of trustees of the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, in Evanston, Illinois.
In what may be his most important contribution to Native American leadership development, Charleston organized in 1985 a consultation that met at Seabury-Western. At the invitation of the seminary, Charleston brought together 19 Indian and non-Indian Episcopal leaders. After serious deliberation, the group issued "The Evanston Covenant," which says in part: "We recognize there is a leadership crisis confronting the Episcopal Church in its Native American ministry. While we affirm the many efforts in the past to meet this crisis, we assert the need now for a cohesive consistent, cooperative effort at the national level...."
The covenant proclaimed Seabury-Western to be "the" center for Native American theological education, with broad commitment of time, energy, and resources to the effort. The seminary agreed to relax entrance requirements and pledged $50,000 over a three-year period. One of the many goals was to assist Indian students to graduate "debtfree." Now in its third year of operation, the program has served 14 Indian seminarians.
NCIW has made major financial support to the Seabury program, with annual grants over the past three years averaging 30 percent of NCIW's total program allocation. For the combined years 1986, 1987, and 1988, NCIW funds allocated to the Seabury program totaled $186,800. Additional funds from Venture in Mission (VIM) and the Diocese of Jersey have totaled over $50,000. NCIW has continued to award scholarships, usually $2,000 annually, to Indians studying at seminaries other than Seabury.
In the autumn of 1988, the NCIW assembled a Seabury select committee to review the program as it entered its third year. On recommendation of the committee, the NCIW October 1988 meeting resolved to call upon the seminary to renew its effort to find, recruit, and secure qualified Indian faculty to teach Indian-related course work, to institute curriculum changes, and to address cultural sensitivity.
At its spring 1989 meeting, NCIW allocated for the 1989-90 school year $53,242 (in addition to a carry over of VIM funds totaling $43,000) to the Seabury program and named a Seabury Oversight, Research and Admissions Advisory Committee. Named to serve on the advisory committee are Father Philip Allen, Bessie Titus, Dr. C.B. Clark, Jesse Torres, and Ginny Doctor. The committee was charged to "advocate positive change at Seabury-Western Seminary, examine other schools and training, and after one year report to NCIW on the status of seminary training and the role that individual NCIW members can play in improving recruitment and retention of native seminarians...."
Although Charleston is still a young man -- he celebrated his fortieth birthday in February -- his mass of black hair and heavy black beard give him the look of a prophet and patriarch. He speaks with pride of the four young Indians who are to graduate this spring, receiving master of divinity degrees. They are Francis Apple, Jr. (Lakota), and George Ross (Ojibwa) at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary; Creighton Robertson (Sioux) at Sewanee; and Carol Gallagher (Cherokee) at Episcopal Divinity School.
"The rest of the Episcopal Church," Charleston said, "has a clergy surplus. In Indian country, we don't have near enough. I see the new NCIW advisory committee handling the screening responsibility formerly delegated to NATA. I think maybe we're on track."
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