Navajo Council Meets To Plan Area Mission
Episcopal News Service. November 3, 1977 [77353]
The Rev. H. Boone Porter, Jr., Editor, The Living Church
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. -- The Navajo Episcopal Council met Oct. 21 and 22 for its first meeting after the House of Bishops had approved the establishment of the Area Mission for the Navajoland Episcopal Church.
Members of the council were enthusiastic and grateful for the recent decision of the House of Bishops, and they proceeded with arrangements for the Area Mission.
The council took preliminary steps to delineate the responsibilities of their future bishop and expressed the hope that such a bishop might be chosen within the next several months. On the recommendation of the Navajo Commission on Ministry, the council approved two persons for ordination to the diaconate, and it planned a budget for 1978. After the jurisdiction becomes effective on the First Sunday of Advent 1977 (the date specified by the House of Bishops), the Navajoland Area Mission will receive three congregations formerly in the Diocese of Utah, and Good Shepherd Mission and its outlying chapels, formerly in the Diocese of Arizona, in accordance with agreements already made. Four congregations which are in the Diocese of the Rio Grande work in close cooperation with the Navajo Episcopal Council and have recently initiated steps which may lead to their ultimate incorporation in the Area Mission.
The council carries out functions similar to those of a diocesan standing committee, and serves as an executive board. It is currently under the chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. E. Otis Charles, Bishop of Utah, who is exercising oversight over the Area Mission until the latter secures its own bishop. The administrative assistant is Mr. Thomas A. Jackson, well known Navajo churchman. The recent meeting was held in the historic setting of Good Shepherd Mission, Fort Defiance, Ariz., one of the oldest Christian missions in the Navajo Reservation.