St. Mary of the Moonlight

OLJATO, San Juan County — In the heart of Monument Valley, on the Utah section of the Navajo Reservation, a cross rises over the desert. This is St. Mary's of the Moonlight Episcopal Church. One recent summer evening, as the sun began to set behind the red cliffs, pickup trucks started pulling off the dirt road near the church. About 70 people — grandparents, parents, toddlers, teens — congregated around tables set up in the shade.

Having decided it was too hot for a priestly collar, Father Ian Corbett walked through the crowd wearing a red T-shirt. As he greeted people, he told them they would be worshipping before dinner. Then he gathered everyone into the chapel.

They prayed standing. They began by facing east, because Navajos always start their prayers in the direction of the sunrise, the symbol of new life. Father Corbett led them in prayer for the children. Then, following the path of the sun, everyone turned south. They prayed for the youth. Next, facing west, they prayed for the middle-aged. At the end, they faced north and Father Corbett led them in words of gratitude for their elders.

The service was joyous and short. It marked the end of a weeklong vacation Bible school, in which kids were taught by volunteers from various Protestant churches in the Midwest. Much of this service consisted of the children and their teachers leading the rest of the congregation in song.

They sang zestfully, "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. ... " And as they sang, the children flung their arms, acting out the words.

During the prayers, Father Corbett occasionally had to shush the children. If we want to hear from God, we must listen, he reminded them.

Father Corbett has been here on the reservation for six years, listening for God's will for his own life and for the life of the mission.

St. Christopher's Episcopal Mission to the Navajos got its start in 1942, when a priest named Harold Baxter Liebler visited Bluff, San Juan County, looking for a site on which to build. For the first few decades the mission had a staff of a half dozen or more, mostly priests, who ran a school and medical clinic in addition to St. Christopher's church.

Liebler respected the Navajo ways, taking part in their ceremonies and learning the language so he could give his own sermons in Navajo. St. Christopher's School was the first school in Utah at which Navajo children could sometimes hear their own language.

Liebler and the other priests traveled throughout the Utah portion of the reservation, holding Episcopal services in hogans. The church of St. John the Baptizer, in Montezuma Creek, grew out of one of those hogan churches. When he retired in 1962, Liebler moved to Monument Valley and built St. Mary's of the Moonlight. At that point, there were three churches under the umbrella of St. Christopher's Mission.

Over the years the school and clinic closed. In 1977, the Episcopal Church combined the missions in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico under one bishop, to form a larger mission called the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. After Liebler's death, in 1982, St. Mary's closed.

In the years since Liebler, St. Christopher's has seen priests come and go. Father Corbett is one who stayed long enough to earn people's trust. He is proud that he could preside over the reopening of St. Mary's three years ago.

But Father Corbett is 65 now and plans to retire next year. He will miss his congregations, he knows. He has always worked with indigenous people — first in Africa, then in Canada and now here. Throughout his career, he has received much more than he has given, he says. He has been part of people's lives — blessed their animals and their homes, baptized their babies, visited them when they were sick and, in general, "tried to fill in the gaps." There are so many gaps between what the Navajos have and what they need, he knows. On the other hand, he also worries that the church has helped to create a sense of dependency.

Still Father Corbett has faith in the future of St. Christopher's. He is sure the Episcopal Church will not abandon its last "area mission" within the contiguous United States.

An area mission is much like any other Episcopal diocese, he explains. It is a district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. "But we are not, strictly speaking, a diocese, because we are not self-supporting."

The mission will rely on the central church for the foreseeable future, Father Corbett is sure. He explains that one of the congregations, St. John's, does not have one active member who has regular employment.

Father Corbett believes that if the Episcopal Church is going to continue to have meaning in the lives of Navajos, it must embrace their traditions. He quotes Steven Plummer, the church's first Navajo bishop, saying the church must be an incubator of the culture. That's why Father Corbett has learned Navajo prayers, recites the Lord's Prayer in Navajo, prays in English to the four directions. "The basic point is anything Navajos learn has to fit in with their world view."

Father Corbett says Navajo traditions are easily reconciled with Christianity in that Navajos also believe in a creator God. And Navajos have an easy time knowing God incarnate in his son, Jesus. In their Winter Festival, the Holy People come to dance among them, Father Corbett explains. "It is an instance of multiple incarnations."

Father Corbett told a previous bishop that he thought the Navajo would always see Christ as first among many Holy People. "That was too much for him," Father Corbett recalls.

Still, he is sure most of his superiors in the church believe as he does, "If you are going to have dialogue between the Navajo and Christian, if it is a true dialogue, both sides have to be open to change." The Episcopal Church has a long history of adapting, he points out. 

So the Episcopal Church will use Navajo teachers and medicine men to help with a Navajo blessing ceremony when they ordain their new bishop. Father Corbett predicts, "The sermon will draw parallels with Christianity. No doubt we shall sing some hymns as well as Navajo chants. This has to be done by someone who is at home with both traditions. Otherwise we will end up with a mishmash."

After he retires, Father Corbett would like to teach high school for a few years on the reservation. Eventually he will return to England, where he was born. He will live near his brother in Bristol, and he will get to know the grandchildren who have been born into his brother's family in the years he has been away.

The Navajo have taught him that he is a grandparent, too, to the grandchildren of his siblings. Father Corbett says, "I have a lot of catching up to do."