‘Native Presbyterian people will continue to sing our songs,’ preacher says
by Gail Strange | Presbyterian News Service
The Rev. Irv Porter, associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support in the Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, lit a candle for the worship service celebrating Native American Day at the PC(USA). Tammy Warren
LOUISVILLE — Following two days of meetings by the Native American Consulting Committee at the Presbyterian Center, on Wednesday the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) celebrated Native American Day with a special worship service.
The Rev. Irvin Porter, associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support, opened the service with an a capella rendition of a traditional Native American hymn.
The Rev. Ron McKinney, retention specialist in student support services for Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and newly re-elected vice moderator of the Native American Consulting Committee, titled his sermon “Our Song Continues.” The inspiration for the sermon was drawn from Psalm 137, which speaks to the lament and destruction of Jerusalem and asks, “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”
The Rev. Ron McKinney was the preacher for a special worship service at the PC(USA) Center in celebration of Native American Day. McKinney was re-elected as Vice-Moderator of the Native American Consulting Committee. Tammy Warren
McKinney opened with a story of him singing “Nittak kanima fehna ho, si ai illi hokma” (“Death Welcome”) at the funeral of a friend. He then went on to talk about his summer travel with his family to familiar places that afforded them the opportunity to sing translated hymns like “Blessed Assurance” and “We’ll Work ’til Jesus Comes” (“Howa yo, ho Jesus na”) in the Nimiipuu language. McKinney also discussed other events where they sang Dakota hymns like “Welcome Voice” (“Niho, nahon waun”), which is based on Matthew 11:28: “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
“In each of these scenarios, the one common thing among the peoples was having hymns and songs in languages that have history, that are connected to a place — songs that only the people who sing them can fully appreciate,” he said.
“Like in our reading from Psalm 137, we hear the lament of the unknown writer that speaks of being away from Jerusalem, and the torment and ridicule they have endured at the hands of their captors,” he said.
McKinney asked worshipers to close their eyes and think about the “one song that really gets you through. I want you to think about that one song you go to when you need strength, when you need assurance that everything is going to be OK. That one song on your playlist that is in its own selection. What is it about that song? Is it the words? Is it the music? What images and feelings come to mind when you think about this song? Does it remind you of someone in your life?
“When I read Psalm 137, I feel the pain and anger, and the frustration of the writer being stripped of everything, of being tormented and ridiculed, because it reminds me of what my people have been through, and continue to face today,” he said. “I think about my late grandmother, the sweetest lady you would ever meet, getting her hands hit with a ruler for speaking her own language when she was only 9 years old. I think of elementary and middle school children getting sprayed with beer and being yelled at and told to go back to the ‘rez’ by grown white men at a sporting event in SD. And I wonder, what will my 2- and 4-year-old grandsons face? This is my Native American experience, this is my Native theology. It is not a theology of destitution, it is a theology of resilience. We are still here.”
McKinney says the songs and hymns sung today by Native Americans in their own language are the songs that have carried Native Presbyterians through some of the most horrific, darkest and tragic days that people can imagine over the past 200 years. “Through these songs we have a deep spiritual connection between our historic past and our rising future,” he said. “They connect us to our homes, regardless of where we lay our heads, and we draw strength from them for whatever we face in this life.
“When I look back on that day when I sang for my friend, the song entitled ‘Death Welcome,’ I now realize it isn’t a song of sorrow, but of our faith, and the blessed assurance we have that when our day is done, our Creator will come and take us home,” said McKinney. “And so we will continue to sing — whether at funerals or conventions in Choctaw Country, or whether among the tall pines of Talmaks at the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) camp meeting, or under the big tent out on the prairies of Dakota, Native Presbyterian people will continue to sing our songs.”
There are 95 Native American congregations within the PC(USA). Several of the churches are 100 years old or older. Most were “mission” sites, beginning with the Shinnecock church on Long Island, New York, in 1741.
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