It is not every day that you get to be a witness to history being made, but one of the joys and privileges of serving as a deputy from the Diocese of Kansas at the 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church is that on any given day you just might! Having represented our diocese at the 2015, 2018, 2022, and now 2024 General Conventions as either a Deputy or an Alternate I have been blessed by witnessing some truly amazing moments over the years. Marriage equality and the election of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in 2015; the reunification of the Diocese of Cuba to the Episcopal Church in 2018; the election Julia Ayala Harris as the first Latina to serve as President of the House of Deputies and the first steps towards potential revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 2022–these are just some of the amazing moments I have been privileged to witness in my General Convention service. When the history book about this era in the life of the Episcopal Church is written, all of these will be significant chapters!
Not to be left out of that history book, though, will be what we witnessed today in the House of Deputies. On Tuesday, June 25, the House voted to adopt resolution C009 granting the petition of the Navajoland Area Mission to elevate it to a missionary diocese of the Episcopal Church! Today’s action will likely not garner quite the same worldwide attention as when a certain bishop of our church preached a stemwinder of a sermon at a certain royal wedding, but it was profoundly significant nonetheless. Indeed, the creation of the Missionary Diocese of Navajoland is something that should rightly capture all our attention!
And capture our attention it did! It’s worth noting that while there is often good humor in the dispatch of business on the floor of the House of Deputies, it remains a formal environment befitting a deliberative body discerning God’s will and purpose for our beloved Episcopal Church. But every now and again, something truly remarkable happens that breaks through all the formality. Today was just that sort of day. In honoring the petition of the Diné people of Navajoland to raise the status of the area mission to a missionary diocese, we were honoring the work of generations of lay and clergy leaders who have sought to preserve their indigenous traditions while also being fully Episcopalian and claiming their full and rightful place in the life of our Church. When the House of Deputies considered resolution C009, the normal Rules of Order were briefly suspended so that every member of the Navajoland deputation could speak. One after another the deputies from Navajoland described their hopes and dreams coming to fulfillment in this historical action.
The Rev. Cornelia Eaton, a Navajoland deputy and canon to the ordinary said, “We have come a long way, a long journey. We are the hopes of our ancestors and what our elders prayed for.” One of the Navajoland elders also addressed the House with her heartfelt thankfulness for the arrival of a future that has finally arrived. It was tremendously moving to hear these words and a great joy when the vote was affirmed by unanimous acclamation.
This action of the House of Deputies still needs to be concurred by the House of Bishops to become final–and there is no reason to think it will not be. Which means, in other words, history will repeat itself on the floor of the House of Bishops sometime in the next few days. Then history will be made again sometime in the near future when the Missionary Diocese of Navajoland elects its own bishop for the first time. And then history will be made in 2027 when that new bishop and the deputation are seated in the Houses of Bishops and Deputies for the first time as members of a missionary diocese rather than an area mission. And on and on it will go, with all the grand historical moments and all the less visible moments of faithful discipleship that led to and will spring from today.
It is a privilege to be a witness to history. It is even more amazing to be a witness to the movement of the Holy Spirit helping us lament our shameful treatment of Indigenous Peoples and inspiring us to take the next steps into becoming the fully realized Dream of God. We were reminded today that the Diné people of Navajoland who have been Episcopalians for generations have full and equal claim to the very identity we all love so much. We know we have much more work to do to support our siblings in Christ in Navajoland and so very much to learn from the beauty of their faith expression. History was made today and now we join God in crafting a new future, and we celebrate!
by the Rev. Andrew O’Connor
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