With a resounding “Aye!” Calvary Episcopal Cathedral in Sioux Falls unanimously approved the establishment of its first parochial mission, Tiospaye Wakan (Holy Family), at its Annual Meeting on Sunday, Jan. 28.
The vote was greeted with a round of enthusiastic applause and cheering from the congregation.
Tiospaye Wakan began its life 32 years ago, when the Very Rev. Canon Dr. Martin Brokenleg, then a full-time college professor in Sioux Falls, began a worship service at Calvary for Native American Episcopalians. It was always considered the “third service” of the cathedral.
The mission status of Tiospaye Wakan will give it more autonomy and visibility as a congregation. The Ven. Paul Sneve, Archdeacon of the Diocese of South Dakota and now the Vicar of Tiospaye Wakan, sees huge potential for a Native church in Sioux Falls, especially since the congregation is young. “The majority of our congregation are between the ages of 19 and 40, and they have big ideas about how they can impact the community,” Sneve said.
Parochial missions are rare in the Episcopal Church; most mission churches are established as independent congregations in their own buildings. It was possible to make Tiospaye Wakan a parochial mission due to a Diocesan canon that allows parishes to establish their own mission churches, rather than the church being a diocesan mission. There have been no parochial missions established in South Dakota in more than 100 years, although it is possible it was used by The Rt. Rev. William Hobart Hare, the first bishop of the Diocese.
Father Brokenleg, now retired and living in British Columbia, had this canon in mind when he proposed a Native congregation in Sioux Falls. As South Dakota’s largest city, it is a draw for Native people to come for employment, but it is far from most of the state’s reservations. Brokenleg saw a need for community and relevant worship, and many Sioux Falls Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people have roots in the Episcopal church on their home reservations.
“We chose this name carefully,” Father Brokenleg said in an email sent after the Cathedral’s Vestry voted earlier in the week to support the establishment. “Tiospaye Wakan — The Holy Large Family. We say Tiwahe for the nuclear family of just parents and kids. We say Tiospaye when we add the elders, aunties and uncles, nieces and nephews, and even your brother-in-law. From time immemorial our people have survived by sticking together no matter what. When things were good, we celebrated together. When we had losses, we cried together. When we were hungry, we stayed together and fed one another. When enemies attacked, we stood together. This community is our Tiospaye Wakan, especially in the city when we are far away from our loved ones back home.”
“The moment when I rapped on the table and said, ‘Carried,’ thereby officially establishing Tiospaye Wakan as a Parochial Mission, was one of the most spiritually profound moments of my ordained ministry,” commented the Very Rev. Ward Simpson, Dean of the Cathedral. “God bless Calvary Cathedral. God bless Tiospaye Wakan. God bless our ministry as we grow together, today and every day.”
For several years, whenever Tiospaye Wakan was without a priest, Dean Simpson cared for the
congregation and led the services. "This congregation has taught me so much about ministry with the Lakota, but also ministry in general. Relationships are so valued in the Lakota culture, and that has helped me to be much more attuned to the importance and value of relationships in all of my ministry."
The move to parochial mission was a long time coming due to changes in clergy at the Cathedral over the years, and the strong desire to have a Native priest lead the congregation. In the summer of 2022, Father Sneve, who is Archdeacon part-time for the Diocese, moved to Sioux Falls to serve Tiospaye Wakan as a half-time priest. Sneve is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and was part of the congregation at its inception. He is also the nephew of Father Brokenleg.
A huge advantage for Tiospaye Wakan is that Diocesan Canon 16 does not dictate the type of governance the congregation must use, Father Sneve said. This allows them to design a system that is consistent with Lakota tradition. Rather than using Roberts Rules of Order, for example, decisions will be made by consensus. Their governing body, called the Tiospaye Wakan Omniciye (“council” or “committee”), will not have a quorum unless two elders are present.
“This will be an Episcopal congregation, supported by the Cathedral, governed out of Lakota/Dakota/Nakota culture in its worship life, its social life, its community life, and its missionary life,” Dean Simpson said. “It empowers them to live out their faith in a way that’s authentic to their community.”
As a parochial mission, Dean Simpson said, this is a “unique” situation. Calvary’s support would include gaining support from outside grants that would include Tiospaye Wakan in the requests. As a practical matter, he said, support would include worshipping with Tiospaye Wakan and going to events that congregation holds. “Just being there is a tremendous vote of support and will help them in many ways.”
At the Annual Meeting, Father Sneve gave more background on the mission’s founding. “Thirty-two years ago, my uncle, Martin Brokenleg, working with then-Dean Bob North, decided the Lakota community in Sioux Falls needed a place to go to feel welcome. This is a hard town to be Native in. … You look around … and Native people can be hard to see. And if you are Native yourself, and try to find relatives and friends … it’s difficult. … All of these things are reason for the establishment of Tióšpaye Wakȟaŋ. Native people come here, they see relatives — that’s very important to us —and they make friends. … You all are relatives now.
"The uniqueness of us is that I don’t know, since Bishop Hare, that we’ve had a parochial mission,” he said. “So this is really cool, and people around the country are noticing, and they are watching us.”
Congratulating the people after the vote, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jonathan H. Folts said, “I’m very, very happy to be able to be with you today. … I have to say, first of all, I am extraordinarily proud of each and every one of you for making this decision that has been 32 years in the making. Second, I want to echo, although I will not repeat, every word that Dean Ward has shared with you about the importance and significance of Tiospaye Wakan.”
The creation of this parochial mission is “like going on a journey together, side by side, a journey
that will take you more and more into recognizing God’s vision and participating in God’s mission,” Bishop Folts said. “Let me put it to you this way: When folks come to me as bishop and they are discerning a call to ministry, there’s one particular trait that I am looking for in any person who steps into my office … I’m a firm believer that if anyone is formed in this Diocese and you serve here as a deacon or priest, and you serve here for three, five, seven years, you can go anywhere in the Episcopal Church and nothing will faze you. Nothing. Nothing will faze you. You will be prepared for anything.
“But here’s the catch,” he added. “If a person comes into my office and tells me, ‘Well, I feel called to the ministry but only ministry among White people, and White congregations, and parishes,’ they are not going through the process. If any person comes into my office and says, ‘I feel called to the ministry, but only among Natives,’ they are not going through the process. If you’re going to a deacon, if you’re going to a priest in the Diocese of South Dakota, you will be willing to serve and to worship with both Natives and White folk. It’s going to be both, not either/or. Both. Because that’s who we are in South Dakota. We are separate and at the same time, we are one. We each have our own customs, but we worship the same Lord. We travel together.
“So, when I point at the Cathedral, and when I point at Tiospaye Wakan, I hold this up as the example of who we are as the Diocese of South Dakota. We are separate, we each have our own ways of worship, and of organization, as you’ve heard now-Vicar Paul share with you, and at the same time, we are one body in Christ, following the same Lord, saved by the same love of God.”
Bishop Folts concluded by saying, “Thank you for being the example, the living example, that we can share with the wider Episcopal Church, that this is who we are, this is what we do. Come follow us and join our circle as together we be the Church that many people don’t expect us to be. Congratulations again.”
After the vote, Father Sneve said, “On behalf of my uncle, I do also thank you, and I thank you for being part of our family, and we will move forward together.”
In his email, Father Brokenleg recalled the early days of Tiospaye Wakan. “We thought that if maybe a dozen people would come, that would be good. That first Thanksgiving Eve, when we had the Mass and a dinner following, there were almost 450 people present. Now, 30 years later, you are still here because of being faithful, supporting your leaders, and discovering what being a Christian can do in your life.”
He added, “There are some [Lakota] people today who don’t think it is important to come here. There are even some who say no Lakota should have anything to do with the Wašíču (non-Native) church. This church is ours. Our ancestors and elders belonged to this church. It was always the Ská-uŋ Okólakičiye (Episcopal church) to our people from even before there were reservations.”
Father Brokenleg concluded, “Here we know one another and we stand together to support one another. We aren’t the only ones who say, ‘Keep coming back!’ All these years you have found that being together is wakan (holy). It makes each of us strong. Now you have a new responsibility for yourselves. Being a family and looking after yourselves in this new way will make you even stronger. So I congratulate you and am so proud that you continue to be the church right there in Sioux Falls. You make an old man happy.”
The Rev. Dr. Lauren R. Stanley, Canon to the Ordinary, echoed Bishop Folts’ words as she joined
in the congratulations, "We don’t have Native ministry over here, and White ministry over here. We are always together in this diocese and it is what makes us the church that many people do not expect us to be.”
Canon Stanley shared recent statistics from the Episcopal Church, which showed that 43 congregations nationwide closed between 2021 and 2022, accompanied by a loss of 88,506 members in that time. “Not in South Dakota!” she said. “In South Dakota, 81 percent of our congregations experienced noticeable growth in membership and attendance; 65 percent in South Dakota experienced an increase in giving.
“So I want to tell you that not only is the church in South Dakota not the church that many people expect us to be, in the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Diocese of South Dakota is not the church that the rest of the church expects us to be,” she said. “Your vote today is historical, and it is living the Gospel. And we are going to shout this aloud to the rest of the Church. Because the rest of the Church needs hope, and you all — and all the people of Tiospaye — are the people providing hope in a country that right now doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of it. I join with the Bishop in telling you how proud I am of you. This is a bold, bold step, and it is Gospel.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Dean Simpson declared, “I am so happy to have been a part of this moment. … It is wonderful. It is joy-filled. It is exciting. And if we are honest about it, it is a little terrifying. But that’s OK. It is sometimes a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But it is also a blessing to do so. So I am so happy that I’m a part of this. I’m so thankful that I’m a part of this. And I am so proud of you all for taking this step.”
— Reporting by Julie Gehm and Lauren R. Stanley