Message #13 from Father Liebler, Helen Sturges, Brother Juniper, and Joan Eskell dated February 1973;
Subject
Indians of North America; Indians of North America—History; Indians of North America—Religion; Religion; Missionaries; St. Christopher's Mission (Bluff, Utah); Health; Children; Newsletters;
Place names
Bluff (Utah); San Juan County (Utah); Utah;
Keyword
Navajo; Navajo Indians; Navajo Indians -- History; Father Liebler; Brother Juniper; Liebler, Harold Baxter 1889-1982; Missionaries; Religion; St. Christopher's Mission; St. Mary's of the Moonlight Chapel; Photograph; Land; Farming; Agriculture;
Tribe
Navajo;
Description
This letter outlines Father Liebler's appointment to the position of Honorary Canon at St. Mark's Cathedral, baptisms at the Mission, an oil spill in the San Juan River, and flooding and property damage on ranches. The newsletter also contains messages and stories from the authors;
Publisher
Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library;
Date.original
1973-02;
Type
Text;
Format
application/pdf;
Source
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives;
Language
eng;
Coverage
Bluff (Utah); San Juan County (Utah);
Rights
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Library Western and Mormon Americana curator, phone (435) 797-2661;
Holding Location
Utah State University, Special Collections and Archives;
NESSAGE :#= 13, February, 1973
from
Father Liebler
Brother Juniper
at
Helen Sturges
I-ielen Eskell
HA'f ROCK VALLEY RETREA'f CEN'l'ER, P.O o Box 5
Honument Valley, Utah 84536
Hessages 1-12 have been issued semi-annua lly
since September, 1966. Some back numbers
are available. Ask.
A semi-annual periodical must necessarily
report some stale "ne,vs", so we make no
apology for running an account of the BIG
EV&~T that followed soon after our last
Message went out. It made headlines in
Sal t Lal<:e City papers, so it must be an
item of importance. Bishop E. O. Charles ,
our new Diocesan , 'vrote Father Liebler that he had made him honorary Canon of St.
Hark's Cathedral, but that the formal announcement would not be made until t he annual
gathering at st. Christopher's Mission on July 25th where there would also be
a regional meeting of the National Council of Indian liorkers. We four Hent to the·
meeting, of course, and it was a great experience, neeting many people , making new
friends and celebra ting Eucharist together. In place of a sermon, Father told
the legend of St. Christopher. A few weeks later, on the Feast of our Lady's
Assumption, the newly made Canon was formally "seated" ·in his stall at the Cathedral
in Salt Lake City where he also preached the sermon and later renewed many old
friendships.
When Father Wayne. left St. Christopher's late in August and it did · .
not seem that his successor was to take over in the forseeable future, Fr. Liebler
made the offer to the Bishop to hold a Sunday afternoon Hass there, 'vhich offer
was gladly accepted. It makes a full Sunday, to be sure, for an octogenarian
retired priest, with the morning Mass here and sermons in both place::>. But it a l so
inVOlves a volunteer to drive the l20-plus mile round trip in addition to the
driving needed here for our distant communicants. The attenda.1ce has been growing--
a statement which might be misleading unless one adds that it could hardly
be otherwise; one canVt get much lower than threeo
Many of you probably get the Newsletter from the Nission, and we trust
that all will respond to the urgent appeal of the last one. I am sure that the
'vriter of it did not intend to convey the idea, which might be inferred, that
there is nothing wrong with the Mission that a couple of dozen thousand dollar
bills would not remedy 0 True, the financial situation is serious, but far more
serious is the spiritual situation. The late Bishop Webb of Milwaul<:ee, used to
say that he could fairly well estimate the spiritual condition of a parish by the
number of persons he found in church five minutes before the Sunday eucharist
began. By that standard the Mission ·is spiritually bankrupt. Your prayers are
needed even more than your moneyo Individuals, groups, whole parishes at prayer
in the Spirit may open the hearts of the People who once heard the full Gospel
message to receive their Saviour again. Other problems will t~en fall into place.
AND, FROM BROTHER JUNIPER:
The Canon says it's time to get out another Message, so here goes:
For some time we have been trying to fix up the ground floor of our house so that
it would be more usable. Ever since the house was built I have been trying to
figure out how to use the space under the front porcho Last fall we decided to dig
