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First Navajo Ordained to the Diaconate

Diocesan Press Service. August 18, 1975 [75279]

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. -- Steven Tsosie Plummer became the first Navajo ordained to the office of deacon in the Episcopal Church on Saturday, July 5, at Good Shepherd Mission here. Bishop Joseph M. Harte of the Diocese of Arizona presided at the investiture.

Also participating in the service were Suffragan Bishop Harold S. Jones of the Diocese of South Dakota, who preached the sermon, and Bishop Richard M. Trelease of the Diocese of the Rio Grande.

Bishop Jones, a Sioux Indian, was vicar of Good Shepherd Mission prior to his consecration to the episcopacy in 1972, and it was under his ministry that Mr. Plummer began his preparation for ordination.

In the congregation were representatives of 11 tribes of American Indians, including 30 Dakota priests and laypersons who accompanied Bishop Jones.

Mr. Plummer was presented to Bishop Harte by the Rev. Edward O. Moore, vicar of Good Shepherd Mission; Thomas A. Jackson, director of the Navajo Episcopal Council; and Mrs. John Dick, his sister.

The traditional blessing was recited by Billy Sam, a Navajo Medicine Man from Many Farms, Ariz. The epistle was read in Navajo by Phoebe Cleveland and in English by Rosella Jim. The Rev. Robin Merrell of the Episcopal Urban Ministry in San Francisco, under whose direction Mr. Plummer did his seminary field work, read the Gospel in English, and Mr. Plummer read it in Navajo. Interpreter was Mrs. Ruth Mitchell, chairwoman of the Navajo Episcopal Council, and the Rev. William Elrod of Cook Christian Training School, Tempe, Ariz., was master of ceremonies.

Born on August 14, 1944, in a little hogan near Coal Mine, N. Mex., Mr. Plummer was educated at Cook Training School, Phoenix Junior College, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif.

Following the service, there was a feast of Navajo fry bread and mutton stew and many speeches and the presentation of gifts.

Mr. Plummer has assumed duties as deacon at Good Shepherd Mission and hopes to be ordained to the priesthood in six months.