Indigenous Episcopal Church leaders whose ministry includes native peoples will gather in May in Sewanee, Tennesee for the Oklahoma IV 2010 Consultation: “The Present and Future of Indigenous Leadership in the Episcopal Church.”
Church leaders to study future of indigenous ministries
By Sarah Eagle Heart
Indigenous clergy, laity, and bishops whose ministry includes native peoples are gathering May 27 – 31 in Sewanee, Tennessee, for the Oklahoma IV 2010 Consultation: “The Present and Future of Indigenous Leadership in the Episcopal Church.”
This consultation has great significance for the indigenous community and continues 25 years of work in the Episcopal Church. It has been developed and planned by the Indigenous Theological Training Institute, with support from the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministries and the Episcopal Church’s Office of Native American/Indigenous Ministry. It is one of the ways the Episcopal Church continues to build bridges of leadership and action with indigenous people, continuing a relationship begun 400 years ago.
Past consultations produced seven points of action for the church:
1. The continued inclusion and empowering of Indians and native people in the decision-making of the church.
2. Exploration and experimentation with alternative modes of church governance and structure.
3. Consultation with all programs of the Episcopal Church designed to combat the evils of racism.
4. Assistance in the development of a variety of media especially designed to foster cross-cultural appreciation and understanding.
5. Assistance in the design of material and programs for the training of indigenous church leaders, both lay and ordained.
6. Assistance in the design of educational curricula for adults and children, addressing needs inside and outside the church.
7. The exposure of the whole church to native spirituality, and the encouraging of native communities to offer this spirituality to the whole church.
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In a letter to bishops whose jurisdictions include significant indigenous populations, Jefferts Schori asked for their commitment to this ministry.
“At such a time of urgent need and unique opportunity, we must do more than offer quiet prayers,” she wrote. “We must join in the costly, active work to make those prayers reality. May God’s prayer in us lead us to dream and collaborate with our indigenous brothers and sisters who continue to seek more abundant life, as they bring gifts needed by the whole church.”