They gather to remember.
Every year on or close to July 16 — a day that will never be forgotten by the Navajo people — hundreds of Diné families and numerous allies from the Red Water Pond Road Community Association come together on Navajo Nation near Church Rock, New Mexico, to mourn, to pray, to heal and to act.
It has been said that “justice delayed is justice denied.” However, after a great injustice against the Nez Perce Tribe, the Nimiipuu people recently celebrated the correction of a grave injustice.
The Rev. Irvin Porter, associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support in the office of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, has offered up many presentations on the Doctrine of Discovery and the more than 500 years of history between Native American and white people in this country. Porter told Between Two Pulpits hosts Bryce Wiebe and Lauren Rogers Monday that only once has someone responded, “I didn’t do any of that, so why should I feel guilty?”
On Wednesday, employees of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered for a special online worship service to celebrate Native Americans. Welcomed by the Rev. Irvin Porter, Associate for Native American Intercultural Congregational Support in the office of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, worshipers participated in a service featuring a mix of English and Native languages.
On Wednesday, Presbyterian Women opened its 2021 Business Meeting and online Churchwide Gathering with greetings by the 2018-2021 board leadership team of Moderator JyungIn Lee; Joy Durrant, Vice Moderator for Justice and Peace Concerns; and Jo Ann Burrell, Vice Moderator for Mission Relationships.
Sounds like the same old same old, doesn’t it? God’s people, called the “chosen ones,” are somehow unable to live faithfully in gratitude to God in spite of God’s love, grace and care for them. The psalmist attempts to voice God’s bounty and God’s faithfulness as well as God’s frustration that they cannot seem to embrace the values of the One who gave them life and who has promised to sustain them. Over and over again they become a disappointment. They are tempted by the “gods” of the cultures in which they find themselves, forgetting the source of the true freedom they have been given as God’s own children.
In September 2019, the Synod of the Southwest and the Native American Ministries Coordinating Committee (NAMCC) held a successful gathering of the 29 Native American churches and chapels that are a part of the synod. A debriefing followed that gathering.
In September 2019 the Synod of the Southwest and the Native American Ministries Coordinating Committee (NAMCC) held a successful gathering of the 29 Native American churches and chapels that are a part of the Synod. A debriefing followed that gathering.
