This year’s student-led Harvey Lecture will feature the Rev. Dr. Bradley S. Hauff, the Episcopal Church Missioner for Indigenous Ministries, a member of the Presiding Bishop’s staff. In his role, Hauff is responsible for enabling and empowering Indigenous peoples and their respective communities within the Episcopal Church while also guiding the broader Church in intercultural competencies.
His talk is titled “It Ain’t Easy Being Native: Indigenous People, the Doctrine of Discovery and the Episcopal Church.” The situation of Indigenous Americans will be examined, beginning with the pre-Columbian historical context and the initiation and impact of the Doctrine of Discovery. The involvement of the Christian Church, from early missionary and colonization efforts will be discussed, focusing particularly on those of the Episcopal Church. The current realities and challenges of Indigenous life will also be presented, with suggestions on how the Church can most effectively and appropriately respond to the injustices of the past, many of which continue to the present day.
The event will be live at Knapp Auditorium on Seminary of the Southwest campus, and livestreamed at the ssw.edu website and the Southwest Facebook page.
Watch Native Voices: Speaking to the Church and the World – from TEC Office of Indigenous Ministries
Hauff will join in a student-led conversation at 3:00 p.m. in room 210A, and Community Hour at 4:00 p.m. on the Motte. The lecture will start at 6:30 p.m. in Knapp Auditorium, and there will be a dessert reception following in Howell Dining Hall.
The Reverend Dr. Bradley S. Hauff is the Indigenous Missioner for the Episcopal Church, a member of the Presiding Bishop’s staff. He is originally from South Dakota; born in Sioux Falls and raised in Rapid City, and he is enrolled with the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Lakota) of Pine Ridge, as were both of his parents. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, where he also served on the Board of Trustees. He received his Doctor of Clinical Psychology degree from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology, and worked for a time in the mental health profession, specializing in Native American identity formation and domestic abuse interventions. He has been an Episcopal priest for 29 years and has served congregations in the dioceses of South Dakota, Minnesota, Florida and Pennsylvania. He has written articles and made numerous presentations around the country on Native American issues. He also served on the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC).
The student-led Harvey Lectures were conceived at Seminary of the Southwest as a way of honoring the late Dean Hudnall Harvey, who died unexpectedly in 1972, after serving as the seminary’s dean for just five years.
During Dean Harvey’s tenure, following some institutional turbulence during the 1960s, the seminary had begun rebuilding: in terms of enrollment, financial strength, and earning back the trust of many dioceses through the church.
The seminary community established the Harvey Lectures an annual series that would be overseen by student leaders and that would address the relationship between pastoral leadership and contemporary issues confronting the church.
Over the years, these Lectures have become a lasting and vital resource for the seminary, bringing important and diverse theological voices to our campus.
