In Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada, 236. New York and London: Routledge, 1996.

Laverne Jacobs (Ojibway) is the national coordinator for native ministries for the Anglican Church of Canada.  An ordained priest originally from Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario, he has served in several Ontario parishes and is involved in many other denominational and ecumenical activities at the national and international levels.  His work is guided by a desire to promote healing and self-determination in native communities and to address the basic crisis of identity facing many native people.  Jacobs wrote this essay in response to an invitation from Ecumenism magazine to contribute an article on native traditions; he felt qualified only to write about his own experiences, an attitude that many native people share.  Jacobs recounts a complex process of overcoming confusion, suspicion, and fear as an Anglican priest contending with the native traditionalist revival.  His spiritual journey eventually led him to a new appreciation for the pipe and the sweat lodge, and for the incomparable beauty of human religious diversity.

© 2008 by James Treat