The Rt. Rev. David Earle Bailey, who served as Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland for 13 years, died July 28 at 84.
Committed to raising up Indigenous clergy and integrating Christian faith and Navajo spirituality, Bailey guided the small but vibrant Episcopal community on the nation’s largest reservation through a time of self-determination that ended in a joyous vote by General Convention this year to make Navajoland a missionary diocese.
When elected as bishop of what was called the Navajoland Area Mission in 2010, Bailey was already 70, the first septuagenarian chosen to lead an Episcopal diocese since the 18th century. In ordinary circumstances, 72 is the mandatory retirement age for bishops.
Bailey pressed on well into his 80s, providing pastoral leadership to the mission’s nine churches, overseeing major renovations of the historic Meem Chapel at Good Shepherd Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and converting a former mission hospital into the Hozho Wellness Center, a ministry focused on healing trauma among Navajo women and children.
During the pandemic, he helped coordinate a feeding ministry across the hard-hit Navajo Nation that distributed food and garden plants to families beyond the reach of conventional assistance programs.
The Episcopal Church in Navajoland’s website said that other priorities for his ministry included “developing programs to address substance abuse and domestic violence; supporting veterans; and developing new sources of income to support the mission.”
Bailey’s leadership in Navajoland developed out of decades of experience working with Native American communities. During a 19-year ministry at St. Stephen’s Church in Phoenix, he helped establish a 60-bed retreat center that often provided shelter for Navajo families that traveled to the city for medical care. He served as chair of the Diocese of Arizona’s Native American Ministries Commission, and worked closely with the Rt. Rev. Steven Tsosie Plummer, Navajoland’s first Diné bishop, helping with administrative tasks for five to six weeks each year.
He served the Diocese of Utah as deployment officer and canon to the ordinary for eight years, where he played a key role in the Jubilee Project, which renovated church buildings and launched new community ministries across the diocese.
He was elected Bishop of Navajoland by the House of Bishops in March 2010, succeeding the Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald, who resigned as interim bishop to become the Anglican Church of Canada’s first national Indigenous bishop.
Bailey was consecrated on August 7, 2010, at what Episcopal News Service called “a ceremony rife with tradition, joy, and hope” in a performing arts center in Kirtland, New Mexico, on the border of the Navajo reservation. Several hundred Diné attended the service, which incorporated various sacred elements of Navajo tradition, including eagle feathers, smudging with smoldering sage, and sweetgrass incense.
Bailey resigned as bishop in 2023, and the Rt. Rev. Barry Beisner, former Bishop of Northern California, was elected as interim bishop. The recent change to Navajoland’s status will allow members to elect their bishop, whom they hope will be a native Diné.
Bailey is survived by his wife, Anne, and their three children. Funeral services will be held at All Saints’ Church in Farmington, New Mexico, headquarters of the Missionary Diocese of Navajoland, at a later date.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
