wfn.org | Paths Crossing offers bridge betwee

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April 18, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1748
Paths Crossing offers bridge between Anglo and Indian spirituality

by Owanah Anderson
       (ENS) Sixteen-year-old Meagan Moughty from St. Luke's parish
in Darien, Connecticut, stood before 140 participants of the annual Paths
Crossing gathering in the Arizona high country and said, "The Navajo
kids taught us how to love."
       The poised high school sophomore spoke about a five-year
partnership between the affluent East Coast congregation and Church of
the Good Shepherd in faraway Fort Defiance on the Navajo Reservation.
       The Darien-Fort Defiance partnership is among 21 active
relationships that have evolved out of the annual Paths Crossing
initiative, which brings together white and Native American
Episcopalians for cross-cultural exchanges of ideas, projects and
understanding. Partners are as far flung as United Tribes Mission in
Bismarck, North Dakota, and St. Mary's Church of Clemonton, New
Jersey; St. Peter and St. Paul Church of Marietta, Georgia, and St.
Elizabeth's, Whiterocks, Utah, on the Uintah-Ouray (Ute) Reservation.
       "This partnership between our homogenous society and
Navajoland has been a wonderful learning experience for Darien kids,"
said Moughty. "During our visits out here in the summer to help with
Vacation Bible School and work projects, we discovered a lot about
different family roles when we saw Navajo kids carrying their baby
brothers and sisters on their shoulders." She added that getting to know
"kids whose goal was not to make money, not to get into the right
schools, became a mind-expanding experience for our kids."

Finding spiritual nourishment
       The relationship began in 1992 after a Darien youth director was
advised to attend a Paths Crossing gathering before leading a band of
eastern privileged teenagers into an adventure in reservation country. The
"adventure" turned into an experience from which St. Luke's "derives
spiritual nourishment." And for the Navajo, a new twist has been that the
eastern youth teach teachers to teach young Navajos, thus continuing the
Vacation Bible School jump-start for the long run through the year.
       For the ninth annual Paths Crossing, three dozen parish and
mission groups from across the nation wended their way in early April to
the remote high country of Arizona to be met by a sudden surprise
snowstorm. Most of the visiting participants flew into Albuquerque and
then drove three hours, paralleling the fabled old highway 66, climbing
higher and higher to an elevation of 7,000 feet, to the Good Shepherd
compound at the outskirts of the Fort Defiance, once a military post to
subdue Indians of the West.
       In addition to scraping snow from windshields of rental cars,
participants from 26 dioceses spent a long weekend exchanging
experiences in partnerships. They tackled the difficult Navajo language to
sing songs at daily worship services. They learned about Navajo
spirituality and participated in a pow-wow at a nearby "chapter house,"
the town hall of the "rez." They climbed aboard tribal buses and bounced
70 miles on a field trip to be struck with awe by the panorama of Canyon
de Chelly. And, they sampled the national Navajo dish-of-choice, mutton
stew and fry bread.

Like a family reunion 
       It was like an annual family reunion for old friends from the
Wind River Reservation of Wyoming and from Holy Spirit, Lake Forest,
Illinois, a duo with a 13-year association. It was the latter that assembled
the first Paths Crossing at the upscale Chicago suburb in 1989. 
       "This was my first Paths Crossing," said Barbara Nielson of St.
Philip's in the Hills of Tucson, Arizona. "I was overwhelmed with the
love and the spirit which I found here. I think it is very much of an
advantage to have these conferences on Native American land."
       "I am Din," said Bishop Steven Plummer of Navajoland, the
first Navajo bishop, as he welcomed the multitude to his native land.
"Navajo is what the Spanish called us but we call ourselves Din--the
People," he said. 
       Navajos were forced to make the `long walk' in 1864, he said,
when federal troops, headed by the famed Kit Carson, uprooted 7,000
Navajo from the mesas and mountains and deep red canyons of their
desert homeland and marched them 300 miles eastward. "My people
were dumped for four years on a 40-square-mile barren area in New
Mexico," said Plummer.
       He shared stories of the clans and kinship systems, of colors and
sacred mountains, of ceremonials such as the nine-day Yeibichai which
takes place in the winter and the Squaw Dance or Enemy Way which
brings young men and women together for several special days of
summer. "Along with its social aspects, the Squaw Dance is a healing
ceremony for one who has been away from the confines of the four
sacred mountains living among whites or fighting in a war," he said. 

A history of partnership
       Plummer also shared bits of the 105-year history of the Episcopal
Church among his people, noting that the Women's Auxiliary of
Westchester County, New York, built the very first medical facility for
the Navajo and that the compound of Good Shepherd mission expanded
over the years to include a dozen or so buildings. The Arthur Vining
Davis Foundation, he said, provided funds in the 1950s to build the
strikingly designed chapel, which harmonizes with the land and people.
Navajo craftsmanship and symbolism are represented in its vessels and
furnishings.
       Plummer extolled the commitment of the three partners of Good
Shepherd who helped to co-host Paths Crossing. In addition to the
Connecticut congregation, partners include the Church of the
Annunciation of Lewisville, Texas, which has a 14-year relationship with
St. Christopher's Church in the Utah part of the Navajo Reservation, and
Christ Cathedral, Cincinnati, Ohio, which has a 10-year relationship with
Good Shepherd.
       Christ Cathedral representative, David Thomson, a veteran
proponent of the Navajoland connection, described this year's event as "a
true time of spiritual and cultural awareness."
       T.J. Schuch from Indianapolis echoed the spiritual aspect when he
described the event as "serving as a good bridge between the Anglo and
Indian spiritual ways. As well, it has helped me understand more fully
the problems and concerns of Indians in today's world."

Outgrowth of youth visits
       While each partnership has a distinct character, most began with
youth work which brought summertime volunteers, mostly from the East,
to teach Vacation Bible School and repair often dilapidated buildings. "It
was primarily a ministry `to' and not a ministry `with' Native
communities," said Carol Hampton, staff officer for Multi-Cultural
Ministries. "We have seen satisfying attitude change over the last nine
years."
       "A few years ago what we saw was not partnership; it was well-
meaning youth directors bringing privileged juveniles to look at us in our
natural habitat," Hampton said. "We now see a spiritual depth, a sharing
of gifts. In fact, the Paths Crossing series has become a veritable
showcase for cross-cultural understanding."

--Owanah Anderson is staff officer for Indian Ministries for the
Episcopal Church.