Members of nine congregations closed last year on a Sioux Indian reservation have quit the Diocese of South Dakota and formed the Lakota Oyate Episcopalian Church.
On March 14, the clergy and members of the nine redundant rural churches created the new group, which they say will not be affiliated with either the Episcopal Church or its rival Anglican Church in North America, to oversee the reservation churches.
Speaking to the Rapid City Journal, Lori Ann Two Bulls said the group has petitioned the tribe’s Land Committee to transfer ownership rights to the church properties from the diocese to the Lakota Oyate Episcopalian Church. It asked the tribal council to allow it to “continue operating the churches expelled by The Episcopal diocese,” she explained.
On Nov 22 the vicar of Christ Church, Red Shirt, the Rev Robert Two Bulls, filed suit in the tribal court, seeking an injunction halting the closure of nine of the sixteen Episcopal Churches on the reservation. The tribal court has yet to address the request, which Ms Two Bulls said is now moot given the formation of the new group.
The Diocese of South Dakota has not opposed turning over the church properties to the tribe, and last year Bishop Creighton Robertson defended the closures in his diocesan newspaper saying “this is not an ‘Indian War’,” but “a responsible review of property and use of resources entrusted” to us.
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=4142
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