Indigenous Anglicans from four provinces of the Anglican Communion have issued a joint statement of support for the Episcopal Church in Navajoland (TEC), after the second postponement of the election of its first Bishop Diocesan. The postponement was announced on 11 June.

The statement is signed by the Most Reverend Dr Don Tamihere, Archbishop and Primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia; the Most Reverend Marinez Bassotto, Archbishop and Primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil and Bishop of Amazonia; the Most Reverend Chris Harper, National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop and Presiding Elder of Sacred Circle in the Anglican Church of Canada; and the Right Reverend Daniel Gutiérrez, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The signatories write that they have followed Navajoland's journey towards self-determination with 'prayer, aroha, and thanksgiving', and that they walk with their Diné family 'not as distant observers, but as relatives', bound 'by faith, by kinship and by a shared history of colonisation'.

They share 'the surprise and disappointment expressed by many at the postponement, for a second time, of the election of Navajoland’s first Bishop Diocesan. We know this must have been a deeply sacrificial and difficult decision'. 

They honour the two nominees, who they say have set aside their own hopes for a season and returned to strengthen the diocese's Standing Committee, and they emphasise that the change to the election is a 'postponement of the process, not a cancellation'.

The signatories also makes reference to a statement from the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland (30 June), noting 'the stated commitment of Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and the leadership of The Episcopal Church to work with ECN on a covenant of action addressing the structural, financial, and long-term mission needs of the Diocese to be brought before General Convention'.

The signatories say they receive that commitment in 'good faith and with hope' and 'look forward to a covenant that is equitable, honest and worthy of the Diné church'. Drawing on their own experience, they write that such 'discernment cannot be rushed', but that they have also learned the cost of long waiting, and ask that the work be pursued with urgency as well as care.

They offer material, administrative and pastoral support to the diocese as it lays the foundations for its own flourishing.

Navajoland and Missionary Diocese Status

The Episcopal Church’s ministry on the 27,000-square-mile Navajo reservation dates back more than a century to medical missions established in Fort Defiance, Arizona; Farmington, New Mexico; and Bluff, Utah. Navajoland was the name given to the area mission created by The Episcopal Church in 1977. Area missions’ bishops were appointed to the role by the House of Bishops rather than elected by a local convention [source:Episcopal News Service].

That began to change in 2022, when the 80th General Convention entrusted Navajoland 'to establish its own rules and procedures for a process of discernment for the calling of a bishop that reflects the values, teachings, and traditions of the Diné.' [Episcopal News Service].

Navajoland leaders worked on the plan with the church’s Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons, and in January 2024, a special convocation in Navajoland voted in favour of the request for missionary diocese status [Episcopal News Service].

Bishops and deputies then authorised the missionary diocese when they gathered in June 2024 at the 81st General Convention. Missionary diocese status allows Navajoland, for the first time in its history, to elect a bishop of its own choosing [Episcopal News Service].

Election Process

A slate of three nominees was announced in November 2025, with an election set for 3 January. That was moved to June after the diocese concluded that its discernment needed to be extended, and days later one of the three, the Rev. Alyssa Stebbing of the Diocese of Texas, withdrew. The remaining nominees are the Rev. Canon Cornelia Eaton, the diocese's canon to the ordinary, and the Rev. Leon Sampson, co-vicar of its Southeast Region.

On 11 June the Standing Committee announced that the Election Convention due to be held two days later would not take place. The committee said it was the election rather than the election process that had been postponed, and that both nominees remained in contention. It did not give a reason for the postponement of the election.

The Episcopal Church expresses support for the diocese

On the topic of Navajoland's postponed election, a spokesperson from The Episcopal Church said: 'The Missionary Diocese of Navajoland is a beloved community of Christians walking the sacred path of the Beauty Way and following Jesus in reconciliation, harmony, and right relationship with God and all creation.

'Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe expressed his support for the diocese in the standing committee's letter of June 30: "As Diné leadership looks closely at the opportunities and challenges ahead, I want to reaffirm that the Episcopal Church as a whole has a special responsibility for the Missionary Diocese of Navajoland, and I am committed to supporting your mission vitality and continued discernment."' 

The joint statement from the Indigenous leaders can be read here or below.

Joint Statement

Indigenous Anglicans' Support for Navajoland's Journey of Self-Determination

As Indigenous Anglican leaders from across the Anglican Communion, we have followed the journey of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland (ECN) towards self-determination with prayer, aroha, and thanksgiving. We walk with our Diné family not as distant observers, but as relatives. We are bound by faith, by kinship, by a shared history of colonisation, and by a common hope for the flourishing of Indigenous peoples within the life of the Church.

We have stood in solidarity and rejoiced with the Church in Navajoland at every step of this recent journey. We bore international witness when they were elevated to the status of a Missionary Diocese at General Convention in 2025. We rejoiced with them at the adoption of their new Constitution, written in both Diné and English, and at their readiness to lead and govern themselves. We hold in deep regard and affection the leadership and ministries of the Diné elders, the ECN Standing Committee, and the local ministers and pastors who carry the daily life of the Church between the four sacred mountains.

We give thanks for the outstanding servanthood of Bishop Barry Beisner, whose faithful ministry as Bishop Provisional, concluded on 21 June 2026, and for the Bishops before him who helped shepherd the Church in Navajoland to the threshold of an historic electoral college. We uphold the ECN Standing Committee as it now serves as the Ecclesiastical Authority of the Diocese, and we have every confidence in its wisdom and strength for this season.

We share the surprise and disappointment expressed by many at the postponement, for a second time, of the election of Navajoland’s first Bishop Diocesan. We know this must have been a deeply sacrificial and difficult decision. We honour especially the discernment of the Rev. Leon Sampson and the Rev. Canon Cornelia Eaton who, in a remarkable spirit of servanthood, have set aside their own hopes for a season and returned to strengthen the Standing Committee in its work. Both remain nominees, and this is a postponement of the process, not a cancellation. We will continue to uphold them, and this crucial and historic process, in our prayers.

We have received the Standing Committee’s recent statement, and we welcome the stated commitment of Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and the leadership of The Episcopal Church to work with ECN on a covenant of action addressing the structural, financial, and long-term mission needs of the Diocese, to be brought before General Convention. We receive this commitment in good faith and with hope, and we look forward to a covenant that is equitable, honest, and worthy of the Diné church. We note that a new election date is to be determined by 31 August 2026, for an election to be held on or before 30 May 2027, and we will hold this timeline, and all who share responsibility for it, in our prayers.

We understand that the broader Episcopal Church will want assurance that the Diocese is well-positioned to flourish. The careful work of attending to questions of structure, resources, and shared responsibility is itself holy work. We have learned in our own contexts that such discernment cannot be rushed. We have also learned the cost of long waiting, and so we trust that this work will be pursued with urgency as well as care, so that the promise now made to the Diné church may be fulfilled in full and in good time.

For our part, we stand ready, as members of the global Indigenous Anglican family, to walk alongside the Church in Navajoland: to uphold their dignity and sacred worth, and to provide any ongoing material, administrative, and pastoral support that they may request of us, so that they may lay the foundations for their own future flourishing as a sovereign people.

Our kinship and solidarity with the Church in Navajoland is not new. Our forebears made commitments many decades ago to support one another as Indigenous Anglicans, and those relationships were rejuvenated and deepened through our four-nation pilgrimage to Navajoland in 2025. We see in our Diné brothers and sisters a people who are deserving and ready, for the first time in the history of their beloved Church, to discern and elect a Bishop of their own choosing.

We remain committed to journeying alongside Navajoland until a first Bishop Diocesan is called to shepherd our beloved Diné family, who dwell between the four sacred mountains of Navajoland.

May God bless and keep you.

Yours in Christ,

• The Most Reverend Dr Don Tamihere, Archbishop & Primate, The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
  
  
• The Most Reverend Marinez Bassotto, Archbishop & Primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil; Bishop of Amazonia
  
  
• The Most Reverend Chris Harper, National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop and Presiding Elder of Sacred Circle, Anglican Church of Canada
  
  
• The Right Reverend Daniel Gutiérrez, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania