June 12: Enmegahbowh, Priest and Missionary, 1902

The Collect of the Day

Enmegahbowh

Almighty God, who led your pilgrim people of old by fire and cloud: Grant that the ministers of your church, following the example of your servant Enmegahbowh, may lead your people with fiery zeal and gentle humility; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Enmegahbowh

Almighty God, who didst lead thy pilgrim people of old by fire and cloud: Grant that the ministers of thy church, following the example of thy servant Enmegahbowh, may lead thy people with fiery zeal and gentle humility; through Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Isaiah 52:1–6
Psalm 129
Luke 6:17–23

John Johnson Enmegahbowh, an Odawa (Ottawa) Indian from Canada, born in 1807, was raised both in the Midewiwin traditional healing way of his grandfather and the Christian religion of his mother. He came into the United States as a Methodist missionary in 1832. At one point Enmegahbowh attempted to abandon missionary work and return to Canada, but the boat was turned back by storms on Lake Superior, providing him a vision: “Here Mr. Jonah came before me and said, ‘Ah, my friend Enmegahbowh, I know you. You are a fugitive. You have sinned and disobeyed God. Instead of going to the city of Nineveh, where God sent you to spread his word to the people, you started to go, and then turned aside. You are now on your way to the city of Tarsish…’”

Enmegahbowh invited James Lloyd Breck to Gull Lake, where together they founded St. Columba’s Mission in 1852. The mission was later moved to White Earth, where Enmegahbowh served until his death in 1902. Unwelcome for a time among some Ojibway groups because he warned the community at Fort Ripley about the 1862 uprising, Enmegahbowh was consistent as a man of peace, inspiring the Waubanaquot (Chief White Cloud) mission, which obtained a lasting peace between the Ojibway and the Dakota peoples.

Enmegahbowh (“The one who stands before his people”) is the first recognized Native American priest in The Episcopal Church. He was ordained as a deacon in 1859 and as a priest in the cathedral at Faribault in 1867.

Enmegahbowh helped train many others to serve as deacons throughout northern Minnesota. The powerful tradition of Ojibway hymn singing is a living testimony to their ministry. His understanding of Native tradition enabled him to enculturate Christianity in the language and traditions of the Ojibway. He tirelessly traveled throughout Minnesota and beyond, actively participating in the development of mission strategy and policy for the Episcopal Church.

Enmegahbowh died at the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota on June 12th, 1902.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

Psalm

¹“Greatly have they oppressed me since my youth,” *let Israel now say;

²“Greatly have they oppressed me since my youth, *but they have not prevailed against me.”

³The plowmen plowed upon my back *and made their furrows long.

⁴The Lord, the Righteous One, *has cut the cords of the wicked.

⁵Let them be put to shame and thrown back, *all those who are enemies of Zion.

⁶Let them be like grass upon the housetops, *which withers before it can be plucked;

⁷Which does not fill the hand of the reaper, *nor the bosom of him who binds the sheaves;

⁸So that those who go by say not so much as, “The Lord prosper you. *We wish you well in the Name of the Lord.”

Gospel

¹⁷He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. ¹⁸They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. ¹⁹And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. ²⁰Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ²²“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.