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Show 1 I Tlhe biggest news, of course, is the coming of our new Vicar. We are all looking forward with eager expectation to his arrival early in July. On another page of this issue we are printing a brief message from him; but - as a newsletter should be chiefly concerned with news - that is, things which have happened - we must get on with our job, pausing only to assure our many friends an dwell-wishers that the basic principles upon which our Mission was set up and has operated for nearly twenty years will be stoutly maintained. I F I~r it is just twenty years since Fr. Liebler, . then Rector of St. Saviour's Church in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, set out with his pony and packhorse over the Utah strip of the Navajo Reservation - the last of many trips he had made looking for an untouched Indian field, where no competition with other missionary efforts would disturb or confuse the natives. He had some well-thought-out theories about the importance of native culture, about the futility of presenting a partial gospel, of the unity of evangelism, healing and education. As all of these theories were not held ill high places, it was important to ask for help only of people who approved of them, which is the basic reason the Mission was what we call a "volunteer" Mission; it was not "independent" in any ecclesiastical sense, as it was undertaken with the enthusiastic approval of the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Utah. Most of our readers are well acquainted with the story of how a small camp of tents by the irrigation ditch slowly grew into a reasonably well-housed community of mission- workers, with church, clinic and school, not to mention churches and mission stations throughout the 3,OOO-mile area. Since our last Newsletter, the routine and special works of the Mission have gone forward; congregations ,have· been for the most part larger, although classes in some of the schools have declined in attendance; there have been many baptisms, both of adults and children, which is a source of encouragement to the Mission and we know must be to our readers as well. Generally speaking, the naming of a child is a fairly routine matter. The Navajos now realize that official records, or "papers", are useful and important on occasion, such as · when those on Welfare have to register the entire 2 family in order to receive their monthly ration of surplus commodities (flour, shortening, sugar, etc.), and their children are accordingly named "Belakane" (American)-style. A slight state of confusion is sometimes caused by the fact that to a Navajo, the names "Thomas", "Tommy" and "Tom" are entirely different names, and therefore you may find all three given to children in the same family. Once this idiosyncrasy is understood, however, identifications can usually be accurately made. Another situation can arise, however, which might well be named "Department of Utter Confusion", which is caused by the difficulty Navajos have in pronouncing the letter "R" .. and any two consonants which are together in a word. An example of this occurred when Father Liebler was encouraging prospective parents to name their male children after the Evangelists. He suggested to one mother-to-be that Matthew was a very nice name for her next boy. She seemed happy about the suggestion, and in due course was delivered of a boy at St. Ignatio Hospital. When the baby was brought to Father for Baptism and he asked the mother to name the child he was rather surprised to hear what he thought to be "Ignatio", but, recollecting that that was the name of the hospital where the child was born and that it was a very good saint's name, he proceeded to baptize the child accordingly, only to have the mother indignantly inform him afterwards that the child should have ·been baptized "Matthew". Father spent some little time soothing mamma's ruffled feelings, while soothing his own with the reflection that l'Nass-yoh" and "Mass-you" do sound identical to uncultivated "Balakane" ears! Tn recent months we have been helped by the ~ temporary presence and activities of Ruth . Stoughton of Pottstown, Pa., and Maude Whittier of New Rochelle, New York_ As (we hope) a 3 permanent worker we have Joan Eskell, from the Church of the Resurrection in New York City - a woman who brings a wealth of experience in many lines. Her contacts with Indians througp. the Indian Society of New York, as well as her wide reading and her previous visits to the Mission (the first in 1946) have helped her to feel at home in her new vocation. Among visitors who we hoped might try for a vocation here were Stuart Farmer and Father Richard Asdell. We haven't given up! I AI recent project has been the visit of 16 mem-bers of the Young People's Fellowship of Calvary Episcopal Church in Golden, Colorado, under the leadership of their priest, Father Bruce Moncrief and of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Zieman. Chaperoned and directed by Mr. and Mrs. Arch Sproul and Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hughes, these young people, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, have worked like beavers painting the walls of the clinic and of the new Vicar's house. The funds for their food and transportation were earned by the boys and girls themselves during the last eight months, by washing windows and cars, mowing lawns, doing extra housework, etc. We admire them greatly for their enterprise, and extend our admiration to the other young people of Calvary parish, who, though unable to come themselves, undertook similar fund-raising work and donated their earnings to those who could come. May every parish have such a group of dedicated young people! We are fortunate not only in these workers but by having the entire paint supply donated by Benjamin Moore & Co. of Denver, who now are our very favorite paint manufacturers. I T IhiS type of project seems happily to be growing in popularity, and we hope to hear from more parishes where there is a desire to make some such contribution. Six boys from Verde Valley School spent part of a week with us, learning about Navajos and building a typical Navajo hoghan, under the able direction of a non-English speaking Navajo. Here's something almost anybody can help with. Do you save TV dinner-plates, or any aluminum plates of that sort? Three times a year or more we invite large numbers to dine - St. Christopher's Day, July 25, is the next. We could use up to 800 plates. If you send us your |