Navajos Elect a Leader to Express 'Gifts of Grace and Faith'
Episcopal News Service. March 14, 1990 [90068]
Dick Snyder, Editor of The Desert Church in the Diocese of Nevada.
During a recent workshop, Steve Plummer was asked to draw something outlining his life. The drawing started with a hogan (a Navajo dwelling built of earthen walls supported by timbers) near Coal Mine, New Mexico, where he was born 45 years ago. The drawing also included sheep, the family sheep he tended as a youth. In mid-March he accepted another kind of shepherd's role when he was consecrated the first Navajo to serve as bishop of the Navajoland Area Mission of the Episcopal Church.
The soft-spoken Plummer has spent most of his life on the reservation, which covers 25,000 square miles in parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The first Christian influence in his life was his mother, who gave him Bible tests.
One day young Plummer began serving as interpreter for the lay missionary, who later arranged for the youth to attend Cook School in Arizona. From there he went on to the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), from which he graduated. In his drawing, he depicted his time away at school with skyscrapers and big buildings.
After graduation from CDSP, he returned to the Navajo reservation, where he has spent all his ordained ministry. There are many similarities between Anglican and Navajo spirituality, according to Plummer, although there are "some conflicts" in the ceremony. "There are many parallels between the ancient Hebrews and the Navajo. We both wandered in the desert," he explained.
The Rite II Eucharist has been translated into Navajo and used throughout the reservation, which has 13 Episcopal parishes and 1,113 parishioners. There are four clergy, including Bishop Plummer and six lay pastors. Unemployment averages 80 percent on the reservation. Many young people move away, then become disillusioned and unemployed and return home to the reservation, Plummer said.
From Bishop Wes Frensdorff, Plummer said he learned about "the vision of total ministry -- helping people with their gifts, and affirming their gifts." Bishop Frensdorff, appointed interim bishop of Navajoland in 1982, was killed in a plane crash in May 1988.
"Bishop Wes taught us we had to take risks, for the church and for our lives. You have to stand up for yourself, and speak for yourself." Both men have been strong proponents of a model of ministry that trains and encourages indigenous church leadership for mission and ministry.
The new bishop said he is encouraged by increasingly strong and selfreliant lay and clergy leadership in Navajoland. "I tell them I may fly somewhere, someday, and not come back," he said. "We used to ask Wes what we should do, and then we realized that he's not here in that way any more. We have to find the answers for ourselves." Bishop Frensdorff encouraged Plummer to consider candidacy for bishop of Navajoland.
Plummer originally declined. "I am not outspoken. I know the weaknesses in me." But Bishop Frensdorff conducted a poll in every Navajoland parish, and the overwhelming -- if not unanimous -- consensus was that Plummer should be the first indigenous Navajo bishop.
"If it's what the people want, I will go along. I know the people, and they know me," Plummer said. He added that the late bishop often compared the strength of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland to a growing, potted plant. "The roots have to go down into the soil outside the pot, into the root of the people. We had relied on others for everything; now we must rely more on ourselves."
The election of a Navajo bishop fulfills "a long-time dream held in a lot of people's minds," said Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning in an interview. The Navajoland Area Mission was created in part to help give Native Americans a chance to develop their own direction and sense of fulfillment, he said. The Presiding Bishop credited Bishop Frensdorff with "giving flesh to the plans" for developing indigenous ministry leadership, including the election of a Navajo bishop. "He helped them see they could do it, that they have the gifts of grace and faith to choose someone from among them. I'm sure Wes is smiling."
Owanah Anderson, national staff officer for Native American work, said Bishop Plummer's election is a major step forward in the new recognition of the role of Indian people in the life and ministry of the Episcopal Church.
The newly consecrated bishop said he feels optimistic about the opportunity for evangelism in the diocese. "People will come to church out of curiosity, and they will see something good that is happening. They will come back and invite others," he said.
Plummer likes to spend time with his family: his wife, Catherine, and three sons, and a daughter. He also likes to read -- and tend the family sheep. His drawing shows him going back -- on a path guided by a cross -- to a hogan. and to tend his sheep.