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Ganado Presbyterian Church

1 Mission Way
928-755-3255

Ganado Presbyterian Church was founded in 1901 with the arrival of Rev. and Mrs. Berkamper in the area that was to become Ganado. The Berkampers lived at Hubbell's Trading Post for two years while the first Church and a Manse were built. That first Church still stands and is being used for an apartment building for two of the six Physicians at Sage Memorial Hospital. In 1906 a boarding school was started in order to teach the children to read and write English and so that a Sunday School could be established. The Presbyterian Medical Mission at Indian Wells was moved to the Ganado Mission during the drought of 1912. With the hospital, the three Missions of Ganado began, ministering to the minds, bodies, and spirits of the Navajo people.

The late 30's and early 40's, the last great building program at Ganado was completed. In 1941, the new Presbyterian Church at Ganado was completed. When the Mission School was closed in 1968, the College of Ganado was opened. In 1982, a steam eruption in the service tunnel beneath the Church totally destroyed the interior of the Church. In 1985, the restoration was completed and the Church was whole again. In 1986, the College of Ganado closed and the Three Missions became two Missions.

The word Presbyterian comes from a Greek word that means elder. Presbyterian refers to the kind of government found in the Church - a representative, democratic kind of Church organization. Elders, elected by the Congregation, along with the Pastor, called by the Congregation make up the ruling board called the Session. While our Government may be different, we share with all Christians a faith that Jesus the Christ is Lord and Savior of us all.

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