Themes in Contemporary Native Theological Education

A Brief History Governmental policies and decisions of the past 300 years influence nearly every aspect of contemporary Aboriginal life. Theological education in Aboriginal communities is the result of past national policies as well. In some regions of the United States, the federal policy of the Quaker Plan of the 1870-1890 era defined with which denomination a First Nation would be affiliated. The Quaker Plan assigned the Lakota Nation, called Sioux by the government, to the Episcopal Church; and today half of all the Episcopal Church's Native ministry is among the Lakota people. Historical circumstances came into play in western Canada, affecting which denominations are active in contemporary coastal communities. Along the coast of British Columbia today, the United Church of Canada and Anglican churches predominate in most Aboriginal communities. The British Columbia interior First Nations are Roman Catholic. Educational and governmental decisions as well as European-based cultural biases influenced the social understanding of Christianity and its introduction to Native North American peoples. Education is suspect with First Nations people because of its history. North Americans in power typically saw education as a tool to bring Native people into American or Canadian society. These efforts of inclusion by education were often well-meant, even though they did not have the desired effect. The Canadian government in the Act of 1925 saw schooling as the means to educate and civilize Native people. The residential school experience has had a profound effect on the social and cultural disarray of Canadian Aboriginal individuals and communities. The legal ramifications of the residential school experience for the Christian church and for Canadian society are still a matter of litigation, disputation, and governmental redress. Theological Education in the Recent Past The Anglican Church baptized Aboriginal people in the 1500s but did not ordain any Native persons for nearly four hundred years. The men ordained at the end of the 1800s were spiritual and social leaders in their communities and typically had some theological education in the form of individual tutoring before being ordained. In the twentieth century, reading for orders became the common form of theological education for Aboriginal candidates for ordination. After World War II, candidates for ordination attended seminaries, a program generally not successful except for a few examples. In the 1990s the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota took part in the Kelly Inn Conference in Minnesota. Research concluded the diocese had sent nearly thirty candidates to seminary and none had completed their programs. While the predominant reasons for leaving seminary appeared to be personal, the real reason seemed to be cultural stress. The Vancouver School of Theology (VST) has a vigorous Native Ministries Program which grants a master of divinity degree by extension. This allows a student to complete half the program in a home reserve community. The student takes the other half of the courses at VST, but does so during the Native Ministries summer school when many lay and ordained Aboriginal people are taking courses in church leadership. Not only is the theological student supported culturally; VST also integrates Native culture in the dimensions of the school. This is accomplished essentially by seeing First Nation culture and spiritual practices as the Old Testament of Native North America. This philosophical position brings together the issues of Christianity with Aboriginal identity and culture, one of the most pressing contemporary conflicts in Indian country. Ten Themes in Contemporary Native Theological Education Aboriginal communities face a myriad of issues. Selecting the most prominent considerations may seem arbitrary. Among the major influencing factors at the present are long-term poverty, cultural disenfranchisement, and a profoundly rapid birth rate in cities and particularly on the prairies. …

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