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Show S.W~ I.M. 11E'NS BULLE'l'IN No. 2 Re - st. Christopher's Mission to the Navajo, Bluff, Utah July .. 1944 st. Christopher's Mission to tho Navajo, represented in Bluff, utah, by Fa ther H. Baxter Liebler, is an Anglo-Catholic Mission, under the Episcopa~ Bishop of Utah. But, for all that associa tion with the Mo t her Church may imply in tenus of spiritual and me. terial security, our group! of p'ioneers -i () i,,- f was not denied the many interesting and often exciting experiences inevitably encountered in such an undertaking. However, buildings are now in the process of construction, irrigation farming is being simultaneously learned and carried on, a local school is being maintaincd~~',.with instruction possible through the coopera tive efforts of the Mission group1, health measures are being sugges ted and introduced to a people thoroughly unfamiliar with any of. our modern concepts of hygienic living , and tne general sociological welfare of the community is be ing considerably improved. "And how," you ask, "does all this come to be?" About a year ago - lest you forgot - Father Liebler and his party left the Eas t, and all that it had come to mean to them ••• , homo . familly, friends and work. ",pulling up the roots of their lives, already deeply grown these many years past, to start out anew in the V(est, in an inspired effort to improve the lives - both spiritual and physical - of a people, they felt sincerely would benefit thereby. It is true , of course, that the condition of the worl d today hardly justifies the thought that we have attained a divinely insp i red cul ture. And, ,to quote Fathe r Liebler, ' ''Exporience docs ~not shoV'l that Navajos who have adopted Vfuite ways are happier, or are able to make any greater contributi., Qn to a better world." To be sure , polygamy and unsanitary living condi tions must give way to the coming of the Light of Christ, but this dOGS not necessarily mean the substitution of a honeymoon and kitchenette apa'rtrnent. It The fact is that S. W. I.M. stands for the presena tion of nat ive culture in every detail that is not obviously counter to Catholic morals or the known laws of hygiene. It should interest us, then, to learn that the work with the Navajo is progressing satisfactorily. Rapport has been established - with the people interes te.d in U5< and our work because they sense our sincere interest in them. True, we have no converts as yet. However, it should be understood that were we to ask the Indians to be baptized, they would willingly oblige - for they readily add one religion to another. We vmnt them to know and understand what they are undertaking when they elect to join the Church, and that will mean long hours of work with each soul. They attend the Mission services with reverence and interest, and in time they vdll come to understand. The first Holy Week celebrated among the Navajos was particular'ly inspiring, with the traditional ceremonies and rites of ' those grea t days from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday carried out in full. Thon, with Easter Day bringing torrents of rain after months of drought, the reputation of our group as first class medicine men was firmly established. |
