From South Dakota-
Bishop John Tarrant’s initial message to the Rev. Bob Two Bulls was viewed with skepticism by the pastor of Christ Church Episcopal in Red Shirt Table.
“I was suspicious when I got an e-mail from the land office there at the diocese, saying Bishop Tarrant wanted to meet with me,” Two Bulls said recently, seven months after Tarrant was installed as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota and about 18 months after the diocese officially “closed” Christ Church and eight other small churches on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Since that initial contact, Two Bulls and Tarrant have had three face-to-face visits. They’ve developed a friendship and a change of heart, if not a change of policy, in the diocese’s approach to those nine Pine Ridge congregations.
In 2008, then-Bishop Creighton Robertson announced plans to close Episcopal churches in Oglala, Wolf Creek, Wakpamni Lake, Manderson, Kyle, Potato Creek, Porcupine, Allen and Red Shirt Table because of falling attendance and failing finances. The move sparked controversy throughout the reservation and acrimony within the diocese.
Eventually, each of those properties was declared “inactive” by the diocese, and ownership of them was transferred back to the Oglala Sioux Tribe. But the churches themselves were never officially “deconsecrated” by the diocese, and Tarrant, who was installed as bishop Oct. 31, has since made it clear to Two Bulls and other Pine Ridge Episcopalians that they are free to continue to use the churches for worship services and community events, as members in good standing within the diocese. Tribal officials are supportive of that use, as well.
More here-
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_c08c8ae6-818e-11df-a9f6-001cc4c002e0.html
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