Native Episcopalians reflect, renew ministries at Washington gathering
Episcopal News Service. October 11, 2007 [101107-02]
Jan Nunley, Executive editor for Episcopal Life Media
A group of twenty Native and non-Native American clergy and laity met for three days at the Cathedral College on the campus of Washington National Cathedral for the third annual Native Clergy and Lay Leadership Conference, October 8-10, 2007.
Led by national missioner Janine Tinsley-Roe, the gathering was designed to spark conversation about the state of Native ministries in the Episcopal Church and potential new directions for the future, and help Native and non-Native clergy and laity working in Native contexts develop needed individual, spiritual and cultural strength for ministry.
The gathering included three newly ordained Lakota deacons from North Dakota, including the youngest ordained person in the Episcopal Church, 22-year-old Deacon Brandon Mauai of St. Luke's Church in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
Participants hailed from all over North America and the Pacific Rim, from Long Island to Hawai'i—but they shared many of the same struggles: how to reconcile the tension between Anglocentric Episcopalian ways and those of their own cultures; responding to the differing needs of Native peoples living on reservation land and of "urban Indians"; and how to keep their voices and issues raised before the wider church and the Anglican Communion.
"It gives us a chance to really sit down and 'chew the bone' together," commented the Rev. Rosella Jim (Navajo) of All Saints Chapel at the San Juan Mission, just outside of Farmington, New Mexico.
Joining the group for its first day was Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe of Virginia, one of the host tribes for the year-long commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony. A summit meeting is scheduled for Jamestown November 1-3 to launch a renewed Decade of Remembrance, Recognition and Reconciliation.
They also took half a day for a tour of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) [http://www.nmai.si.edu/ ]on the National Mall. Terry Snowball, NMAI's Cultural Protocols Coordinator, and Fred Nahwooksy, Community Exhibitions Coordinator, discussed their work in repatriation and preparation of objects for loan to tribal museums and cultural centers.
Repatriation is a process in which specific kinds of American Indian cultural items, including human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony are returned to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes, Alaska Native clans or villages, or Native Hawaiian organizations.
The group received an update on Native issues currently before Congress from John Johnson, domestic policy analyst in the Office of Government Relations in Washington. Sally Johnson, chancellor to the president of the House of Deputies and vice president for risk management and education for the Church Pension Group, led a discussion of cultural sensitivity and sexual misconduct issues.