St. Elizabeth’s Church and Church of the Holy Spirit revived an important piece of Native American ministry with a revived Mountains and Deserts gathering at the Episcopal Church Center of Utah. Mountains and Deserts was an important conference of congregational leaders
and clerics from throughout the church that had stopped in 2011.
The renewed gathering continued the original purpose of sharing ideas, supporting one another, and speaking as one voice. The Rev. Michael Carney of St. Elizabeth’s, Whiterocks, helped organize the meeting and was selected to lead the group into future meetings.
The conference also had a number of young people from Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Navajoland. Fr. Carney says that was a wonderful feature of the meeting. They had an outing at a water park for fun, but also had cultural education and a service project. They toured the “native voices” exhibit at the Utah Museum of Natural History and filled 30 personal hygiene kits for women being assisted by the YWCA. Mountains and Deserts will continue to meet. Navajoland has agreed to host the next gathering.