wfn.org | [ENS] Traditions meld in funeral rites for Navajoland Bishop Steven

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Friday, April 8, 2005

Traditions meld in funeral rites for Navajoland Bishop Steven Plummer

By Dick Snyder

ENS 040805-1

[ENS] -- In a service that combined Episcopal and Navajo traditions, the
Rt.
Rev. Steven Tsosie Plummer, Bishop of Navajoland, was laid to rest in a
family burial plot on Wednesday, April 6.

An estimated congregation of 300, including 10 bishops, participated in
the
requiem Mass, which was celebrated in English and Navajo.

Plummer, the first elected bishop of Navajoland and the first Navajo to
serve as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, died April 2 after a lengthy
battle with cancer. He was 60.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold was celebrant at the requiem Mass held
at
St. Christopher's Church in Bluff, Utah, where Plummer had served as
vicar.

Griswold was also one of several homilists who commented on Plummer's
life
and ministry.

Griswold said he appreciated the Navajo bishop's "gentle wisdom" and the
"way in which he could see the humor in situations when other people
were
terribly serious."

Bishop Mark MacDonald of Alaska, who formerly served under Plummer in
Navajoland, called Plummer "a great leader" in the Native American
tradition.

He said Plummer continued to show courage and "kept moving forward" in
spite
of "many obstacles" in his life. He told those in the congregation
"that it
is now up to us to see what he saw -- and to go for it."

Plummer worked to meld Navajo and Episcopal traditions in worship and
spirituality and to encourage indigenous leadership within
Navajoland. Bishop Rustin Kimsey, retired bishop of Eastern Oregon and
another homilist, said the Episcopal Church needs to learn more from the
Navajo about spirituality.

The liturgy included symbolic and traditional Navajo offerings from each
of
the three regions-Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico-within
Navajoland. Helping
to mark its intercultural nature, a bagpiper in kilts played "Amazing
Grace"
as Plummer's body was taken from the church and placed in the hearse for
transport to the burial site.

Griswold and Kimsey presided at the graveside committal service, which
included the traditional Prayer Book liturgy along with prayers in
Navajo
and the music of a Navajo flute.

In keeping with Navajo tradition, several of Plummer's personal effects,
including extra clothing and his medicine, were tossed into the grave on
top
of the coffin. Family members and others in the congregation,
including
Bishop Kimsey, took turns at filling in the grave.

--The Rev. Richard Snyder is a deacon in the Diocese of Utah.

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