Who We Are

In 1943, Fr. Baxter Liebler left his home and his family in Greenwich, CT, for the canyon lands of southern Utah to establish St. Christopher’s Mission.  When Fr. Liebler founded St. Cristopher’s Mission, he, like most other Christian missionaries, came to teach the Way to those he thought had never known it.  Over time, Fr. Liebler became open to the work of the Spirit that preceded him there, and in the end it was the Navajo who taught Baxter Liebler the Way.  More than once, he accepted invitations to join Navajo hataałii (traditional medicine men) in praying for sick elders and children.  On one occasion, when a medicine man asked Fr. Liebler to pray for his own infant son, he noted that his traditional prayers were good but told Fr. Liebler, “You make good Jesus-talk.”  Holding up two fingers together, the medicine man remarked that  “Two good make strong good.”

Over his nearly 40 years of ministry in the Utah Strip of Diné Bikéyáh (Navajoland), Fr. Liebler spent much of his time attending traditional Navajo ceremony and listening to the teachings of traditional Navajo medicine men.  According to their teachings, he learned to hold together the teachings, ceremonies, and beliefs of two traditions (Navajo and Christian) in a dialogue that revealed the ever-present work of the Spirit.  When Liebler invited a hataałii to join the Episcopal bishop in consecrating the chapel at St. Christopher’s Mission, he acknowledged that “Navajo prayers and corn pollen – a symbol of peace, fertility, and protection” were just as effective in discerning the divine as Christian prayers – even the prayers of his bishop, no less!

In the end, the people of Navajoland, those Fr. Liebler thought he was coming to convert, actually converted him. They showed him the Gospel in action in their self-giving love for one another, in their love for creation, and in their love for Creator. They converted him to the Jesus Way by living out the Beauty Way. That is why, when Fr. Liebler grew old, he refused his family’s wishes to return East with them. He chose, instead, to live and die among the people of Navajoland. He is buried in the garden at St. Christopher’s Mission.

St. Christopher’s Mission was built in 1943, outside of Bluff, UT, at the northern edge of Navajo Nation.  The Mission was founded by Fr. Baxter Liebler, an Episcopal priest who understood “mission” as a process of discerning with a people the Spirit of God that is active and present amongst a people, often before the church ever arrives there.  St. Christopher’s Mission historically offered the Navajo of the Utah Region of Navajoland with healthcare and education, but perhaps more importantly friendship and hospitality.  When St. Christopher’s Mission was founded, we provided access to food and water, education, healthcare.  Our basic mission has not changed, but we are adapting to better respond to the needs of a post-pandemic world where the consequences of food scarcity have become harder to ignore; where children have lost significant ground in their education without access to internet; and where families have fallen deeper into the cycle of substance abuse and domestic violence.

In 1966, Father H. Baxter Liebler, the founder of Episcopal missions in the Utah Strip of Navajoland, retired to the small Navajo community of Oljato, which means “Moonlight Water.”  He built a small house on a piece of property given to him by the Diocese of Utah, where a hogán church was meeting.  In 1971, with the help of Navajo stone mason Henry Phillips, Liebler built St. Mary of the Moonlight Chapel adjacent to his home to serve the members of that community who were regularly meeting in the hogán church.  Since Liebler’s death in 1982, St. Mary of the Moonlight has seen priests come and go – and with them, ministry initiatives.  With the onset of the COVID pandemic, however, St. Mary in the Moonlight has begun to reimagine the shape of its ministry in Monument Valley and is exploring new horizons.