OCR Text |
Show #25, p.2 hell to destroy the devil and his works, they would be successful -- the gates would eive way! On a more cheerful subject: the installation of the nevi priest at S t Christopher'sNission at Bluff - the Reverend Luke Titus, formerly Archdeacon in Alaska. He was instituted by [t'ather Steven Plummer. Father Luke is married to a Navajo girl from the Oljeto area, Alice Simpson Titus, and they have three lovely children, Niriam, Gabriel and Jonathan. Father Luke is an Athabascan Indian, a descendant of people believed to have been travellers from Asia who settled in what is now Alaska, sOlie of them pushing further south to what is nOl-l Arizona and nearby areas, becoming the Navajo and Apache we know now. In his brief speech he pointed out that the day of his installation, July 16, was the day after the 35th anniversary of the first Hass offered at St Christopher's (the day after our arrival), the 8th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood - and one week after his birthday! He is a fine man, a fine priest - whose prior commitment is to Our Lord Jesus Christ; he deserves your prayers for a fruitful ministry among the Navajo Feople. One of the problems he, and all Christian missions in Navajoland, is faced with is a filexican drug used in Indian re-ligious ceremonies - peyote. While we affirm everyone's right to Freedom of i'lorship, we have found that, in recent years, the devil has moved into the peyote cult. And the devil is a right smart dealer. He is not interested in necessarily makine; people bad -- stealing, lying, murder, &c -- what he really wants is to draw people away from their on-ly Saviour. Peyote was virtually unknown in Utah's Navajoland before we came with the Gospel. As we won converts to Christ, the devil moved into the peyote cult. Now,peyote is an hallucinatory drug, and he has appeared to people under its influence as Jesus Himself'. Worse still, he has convinced many of the Christian members of the cult that God has provided especially for the Havajo People the peyote "button" as a substitute for the consecrated Host of the Eucharist! Good men and women are accepting this cunningly devised substitution for Christianity. They, too, need your prayers. v~~ L..4~\ol~ ~ 'F~'Vr L.,....\(r. -rl't'v-s cho:t t~t.Th~ ~CK" ~~\hltr ~,,1> _ I\~:ralla..+f~ ~ ~e~ a.T' Bt' C"' ... ·l'5'f'ophe\"'ls MISSion, \3l,,",~, Llt-oh '. ~J.~ l"', ttp E, Many of you have heard about, or actually heard, the music of the Nass of Saint Isaac Jogues - being our Episcopalian Liturgy to American Indian melodies. It is now available in cassette tape from Mr and Nrs John I'1yers, at 631 S. Fairview, laG, Santa Ana, CA · 92704, and the price is $4.50, the actual cost to the Hyers. This Hass was composed by Fr Liebler a number of years ago, and contains some plainsong and some "made-up" Indian melodies, such as the Gloria in Excelsis, for which he could find no adeqpate tones; but the greater part consists of real Indian melodies. And now, some news and a little story from Helen: First, her news: A month is a long time to be in a hospital with atypical pneumonia, unable to open or answer mail, but it is a real comfort to have the competent care of good doctors and nurses. 'rhe weather and roads were too bad for visitors from home, and Father Dick Rising's faithful visits with the Blessed Sacrament, from St Barnabas' Church in Cortez, Colo., |