Pine Ridge Congregations Form New Church

From The Living Church:

Posted on: March 20, 2009

Members of the nine congregations on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation that were closed by the Diocese of South Dakota voted March 14 to create the Lakota Oyate Episcopalian Church, elected officers, wrote bylaws and approved a resolution that it will submit to the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Land Committee on March 23. A report this week in the Rapid City Journal said the resolution asks for ownership rights to any of those church properties that the tribe receives from the diocese.

“Other than by media reports, we are not informed of the most recent developments,” Steven W. Sanford, diocesan chancellor, told The Living Church. “The diocese has no intent or interest in any disposition except that which best promotes local control. We have had productive discussions with the Oglala Tribal Land Office and hope that we can accomplish agreed transfer to the tribe or other local interests in the near future, assuming the litigation in tribal court can be resolved. We also expect to make adequate arrangements for preservation of any cemetery associated with a closed location.”

In September the Rt. Rev. Creighton Robertson, Bishop of South Dakota, announced plans to close the nine churches by the end of 2008 because of a combination of factors including aging clergy, declining revenues, dwindling attendance and problematic building maintenance and repair issues. After the closings were announced, members sued the diocese in Tribal Court, but Mr. Sanford said he remains uncertain as to exactly what the group is seeking in the suit.

“While the Tribal Court does not have jurisdiction, we believe, that does not mean we are insensitive to concerns expressed in the suits,” he said. “The Tribal Council passed a resolution seeking Department of the Interior support to keep us from transferring land that The Episcopal Church acquired under certain federal statutes. We don’t intend to transfer any of these properties to interests outside the Pine Ridge Reservation, unless there is no other option.”

The Rev. Robert Two Bulls, who was elected president, told the Journal he does not want to be a bishop. The new judicatory will be a not-for-profit church ministry, but members are not forming their own diocese, nor do they have immediate plans to affiliate with any other Anglican or Episcopal diocese.

“We have the right to do this. We’re not ex-communicated or anything,” said Lorri Ann Two Bulls, a member who has helped set up the new organization. “There’s no way we’re not going to be Episcopalian.”