wfn.org | [ENS] Navajoland Bishop Stephen Plummer dies at 60

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

Saturday, April 2, 2005

Navajoland Bishop Stephen Plummer dies at 60

By Dick Snyder

ENS 040205-2

[ENS] -- The Rt. Rev. Steven Tsosie Plummer, the first Navajo bishop in
the
Episcopal Church, died Saturday, April 2, in a Shiprock, New Mexico,
hospital after a heroic battle with cancer. He was 60.

A celebration of his life and requiem Eucharist will be held at St.
Christopher's Episcopal Mission, Bluff, Utah, at 1 p.m., Wednesday,
April 6.

Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold is scheduled to preside, and Bishop
Rustin Kimsey, retired of Eastern Oregon, will assist.

The son of a medicine man, Plummer lived all of his ordained life in
Navajoland, and was the first elected bishop of the Navajoland Area
Mission.

He was originally diagnosed with lymphoma in 2000.

Soft spoken and with an easy smile, Plummer was well known around the
church
as an advocate for Native American ministries. He was a shepherd in both
a
literal and figurative sense. He and his wife maintained a small herd of
sheep at their home in Bluff on the grounds of historic St.
Christopher's
Church.

He led the area mission on a path toward greater incorporation of Navajo
traditions into Episcopal Church worship.

He strived constantly to encourage development of indigenous leadership
among the Navajo and a more self-reliant Navajo Episcopal church. Those
efforts included the development of the "hogan seminary" now known as
Hogan
Learning Circle in Navajoland. "Hogan" is the word for the traditional
Navajo house.

In his convocation address last year, Plummer told the largely Navajo
audience, "We are serious about our Christian faith and serious about
our
Navajo tradition.

"Let us challenge one another. We are the missionaries here on the
reservation, and we must go out and proclaim the Gospel to our people,"
he
said.

Plummer was also known as a leader of workshops in several dioceses to
introduce Navajo spirituality.	There are "many similarities between
Anglican and Navajo spirituality," he once noted. "There are some
conflicts
in the ceremonies."

Born in Coal Mine, Arizona, on August 14, 1944, Plummer said that his
first
Christian influences came from his mother and from Anglo missionaries.
Also
key in his formation was Harold Jones, once vicar at Good Shepherd
Mission
in Fort Defiance and later the first Native American bishop in the
Episcopal
Church.  Jones encouraged Plummer to prepare for training for
ordination.

Plummer attended schools in the Navajo reservation, and at 21 entered
Cook
Christian Training School on Tempe, Arizona.  He completed a certificate
program at Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

He was ordained deacon in 1975, and was ordained priest in outdoor
ceremonies in the Canyon de Chelley, at a holy site in the Navajo
tradition.
He spent his entire ordained ministry among the Navajo, serving in the
Utah
and New Mexico regions.

He was encouraged to be a candidate for bishop of Navajoland by the late
Bishop Wesley Frensdorff, who served as interim bishop of Navajoland.

Frensdorff said he had found "nearly unanimous" support for Plummer
among
the Navajo people.

"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," Plummer said
in
1990 when he was consecrated bishop.

The election of a Navajo bishop fulfills "a long-time dream held in a
lot of
people's minds," said then Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning at the time.

"The Navajoland Area Mission was created in part to help give Native
Americans a chance to develop their own direction and fulfillment," he
added.

In 1993 Plummer took a voluntary one year leave of absence to evaluate
his
personal life and ministry. He resumed his ministry as bishop of
Navajoland
in June 1994 with the support of Browning and the House of Bishops.

The Navajoland Area Mission was created by General Convention in 1977
from
parts of the Dioceses of Arizona, Utah and Rio Grande.	Its boundaries
coincide with that of the Navajo Nation.  The only area mission in the
Episcopal Church, it functions much the same as a diocese but with more
oversight from the office of the Presiding Bishop and House of Bishops.

Plummer is survived by his wife Catherine, whom he married on June 11,
1977.
They had four children: Byron Tso, who was killed in auto accident in
June
1999; Brian Tso, Steven Jr., and Cathlena.

At a workshop in 1990, he was asked to draw something outlining his
life.
The drawing showed his life starting at a hogan, tending sheep.  The
drawing
showed him going back on a path guided by a cross to a hogan and to his
sheep.

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

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