Navajoland Area Mission

Article VI of the Episcopal Church Constitution provides for the establishment of an area mission of the church for territory not included within a diocese. The 1976 General Convention authorized all territory in the dioceses of Utah and Arizona lying within the boundaries of the Navajo Indian Nation to be organized as an area mission. In 1979 the Diocese of Rio Grande ceded all of the Navajoland Reservation in New Mexico to the new jurisdiction. The first bishop of the whole Navajo Nation chosen by the House of Bishops was the Rt. Rev. Frederick Putnam, who was enthroned in Jan. 1979. The Rt. Rev. Steven T. Plummer was consecrated in 1990. He was the first bishop of the mission of Navajo descent. The area mission is divided into three regions, each supervised by a regional vicar.