The Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota

February 17, 2024 If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. Matthew 9:13 Today, we find ourselves back at Isaiah 58, which serves for me as a summary of the entirety of my faith. After probing the depth and authenticity of performative faith, the prophet Isaiah lays out what God considers true religion. God states, “If you offer your food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom be like the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10). Over the centuries, scholars and theologians have made many efforts to spiritualize such simple and direct language. In the second and third centuries, some Christians reinterpreted “the hungry” to mean “the spiritually hungry.” Whereas Scripture speaks directly about the hardships of the poor, “to remove the yoke” became a metaphor for any form of relief. As beautiful as this spiritualizing tradition can be, it is also vital to consider hunger, poverty and hardship in concrete terms. During Lent, let us ask ourselves these important questions: Am I adding to the burdens of the poor, or am I helping to remove the yoke? Am I sharing my food with the hungry, or are my meals kept to a closely knit circle of family and friends? What is the connection between my life and the needs of the afflicted? Through Isaiah, God urges us to make this connection and to become more generous and satisfy the needs of the afflicted so that our light will shine in the darkness and our gloom will be like the noonday. Today’s readings Psalm 86:1–11 | Isaiah 58:9b–14 | Luke 5:27–32 Giving regularly to Episcopal Relief & Development is one of the ways in which my spouse and I strive to “remove the yoke” from people experiencing poverty. We especially enjoy supporting Moments That Matter®, a program partnership of Episcopal Relief & Development, which helps children up to the age of 3 reach their fullest potential. What is one concrete way you can help “remove the yoke” today?

February 15, 2024 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? Luke 9:24–25 On this Thursday after Ash Wednesday, Scripture offers us rich and complicated fare about life and death. Beginning with Deuteronomy 30:15, God describes two paths: “I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” In Psalm 1:3–4, we hear that those who follow the Law will be like “trees planted by streams of water,” whereas those who walk in the counsel of the wicked are “chaff which the wind blows away. Such texts rely on strong contrasts. On one side is life and prosperity. On the other side, there is death and adversity. The starkness of the contrasts—their light and shadow—make the final reading even more remarkable because Jesus’ message of the cross complicates this polarized vision of reality. Jesus, after all, relishes a provocative paradox. In Luke 9:24, Jesus states, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Once again, Scripture presents life and death, but this time, gaining the whole world (power, prestige, etc.) is presented as the chaff that blows away, while the bewildering fact of a shameful crucifixion becomes the seed of new life. Today’s readings Psalm 1 | Deuteronomy 30:15–20 | Luke 9:18–25 It is easy, at times, to miss the strange and paradoxical message of the cross. What does it mean to lose one’s life for God’s sake today? How might the way of the cross be a beginning rather than an end?

February 16, 2024 Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. Matthew 9:13 In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus and his disciples are admonished for hanging out with the wrong crowd. The religious authorities of Jesus’ day criticize them for sitting with the much-loathed tax collectors and sinners. Jesus’ response: “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13). I see two components in Jesus’ response. First, Jesus instructs us all to “go and learn.” Go and learn what it means to follow God in a complex and confusing world. Go and learn what it means to have one’s heart broken—and to know that you’ve broken others’ hearts, too. Go and learn what it means to have tried your best and yet completely failed. Go and learn the names and stories of people that you have judged to be sinners. The second part occurs once one has “gone and learned.” Once that has been done, we can begin to grasp the teaching that mercy—not sacrifice—is the hallmark of a truly faithful person. Jesus insists that a compassionate approach to life is more pleasing to God than righteous indignation and judgment. Today’s readings Psalm 51:1–10 | Isaiah 58:1–9a | Matthew 9:10–17 Humans judge. At some point, we have all categorized people into good and bad, pure and impure. How might we entertain curiosity—rather than judgment—toward those we have dismissed?

Episcopal Election Activators is an Episcopal Church program, run by the Office of Government Relations, that seeks volunteers to help promote and facilitate local non-partisan election engagement efforts in their state or region of the U.S.! Applications are open for the 2024-2025 cohort, which will run from January 2024 to December 2025 with varying levels of engagement based on the election calendar. Individuals may apply at any time, even as the program is underway. To apply, please fill out the application below. Questions? simply email us at eppn@episcopalchurch.org

January 15 is the federal holiday honoring the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota and other dioceses across The Episcopal Church will be closed Monday. MLK Jr Day is observed on the third Monday of January each year. Born in 1929, King's actual birthday is January 15.

So the shortest day came, and the year died, And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. –Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day Borrowed from the Daily Almanac.

Thanks to the people who sent donation boxes to the Diocese of South Dakota. BCU (Brotherhood of Christian Unity) was able to distribute some nice things for the homeless and street people. We were able to help one man in particular who is sleeping inside a cardboard box, he lives in the street by my grandaughter's apartment. We were able to provide him with some warm clothing and blankets. The Rev. Mercy Hobbs and The Rev. David Hussey along with several of the LeBeau family gathered to help make goodie essential bags for the Men and Women who find themselves homeless. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

From the Public Affairs office, On Dec. 3, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was admitted to the hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, after experiencing a fall in Syracuse, New York, that resulted in a subdural hematoma. He underwent surgery, which was successful, and he will continue his recovery in the hospital in Raleigh. Please pray for Bishop Curry, his family, and his medical team. Updates will be provided as they become available.

From our church's Racial Reconciliation Office “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”​ And written by The Rev, Shaneequa Brokenleg ​ As many of you know, November is Native American Heritage Month. As an Indigenous person and an enrolled citizen in my tribe, the fact that Native American Heritage Month happens in the same month as Thanksgiving is not lost on me. It’s a time when many people like to harken back to the first Thanksgiving, thinking about settlers and Indians enjoying a meal together, in some sort of romanticized version of history. It is one of our quintessential “American” holidays. Unfortunately, those who colonized North America saw the First Peoples of the land as other and not American. In fact, the right to vote, something citizens do, was originally restricted to White-land-owning men. Native Americans were not declared citizens until 1924; and until 1957, some states still barred Native Americans from voting, whether we owned land or not. From an Indigenous perspective, the land was never something that we “owned.” We see the land as our relative, sibling or mother; it is something that we all have to care for. Relatives aren’t something that you own. In Western culture, we often think of ourselves as being autonomous individuals and having “rights.” In Lakota culture, we think of ourselves as part of a community, being related to all of creation. We don’t think of ourselves as having “rights,” insomuch as we see ourselves as part of the family of creation and having responsibilities and obligations to that family. We have a phrase in Lakota, “Mitakuye Oyasin,” which means “all my relatives,” “we are all related,” or “God bless all my relatives.” It’s what we say when we end a prayer. When we say “we” and “relative,” we aren’t just talking about people but about plants, animals, rocks, and all of creation. As citizens of creation, we are called to be good relatives and care for it all…to build right-relationship with all. God sent her son, Jesus, to show us how to be a good relative, how to build that right-relationship. Throughout his ministry, that is what Jesus was doing. Building relationship, bringing reconciliation, bringing healing, and calling us back into that sacred relationship, of love…as relatives, as family, and as interconnected citizens of creation. Jesus fed folks, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That is certainly something to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is important, gratitude is important, and generosity is important. In fact, in Lakota (and most Indigenous) cultures, one’s wealth is not measured by how much one owns or has, but rather by how much they can give away. Wouldn’t our world be such a better place if we were all so wealthy that we only kept what we needed and gave the rest away? Wouldn’t our world be a better place if we focused more on our obligations and responsibilities to one another as relatives in the family of creation? This Thanksgiving, I encourage us to follow Jesus’ example by reconciling, building relationships, and sharing a meal with those who live, play, pray, and love differently than you do. Mitakuye Oyasin. —The Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg is the staff officer for racial reconciliation at The Episcopal Church and the associate rector at Church of the Good Shepherd in South Dakota.

From the Office of Public Affairs: November 7, 2023 Presiding Bishop Michael Curry on 10,000+ dead in Gaza: "Stop the killing" You may know me as the pastor who is always talking about love, and I am. But today I am mindful that the urgency of love—true, sacrificial love that respects all of humanity—is not just a good feeling, and it is not easy. We are called to a love that demands much from us. We are called to a love that tells the truth. Today I raise my voice for love because more than 10,000 people have died in Gaza, including more than 4,000 children. The violence is horrific, and the geopolitics are complex, but my call to love is simple: Stop the killing. Stop all of it. Stop it today. We will not be silent while an entire population is denied food, water, electricity, and fuel needed to run hospitals. We cannot stand by while thousands of civilians die. Our partners in the region tell us they live in terror—that they feel they have died even while alive. They feel that the international community is tacitly sanctioning the killing of civilians and the bombing of schools, hospitals, and refugee camps. Staying quiet in this moment would be a stain upon our souls and would deepen our complicity. U.S. leadership must tell Israel to stop bombing civilian areas and allow access for full humanitarian aid to flow freely into Gaza. Every human child of God—Palestinian and Israeli—deserves safety and security. We need to stop the killing. Today. Vengeance will not bring back the dead. Retaliation will not repair the harms and the hurt. We are called to love, even and especially when it seems impossible. We must stop the next 10,000 from being killed. As Episcopalians, we must call upon our leaders—President Biden, members of Congress, and others—to be unequivocal that we need to stop the killing. Today. This is clearly what love demands of us.

Dear Ones in Christ Jesus: Earlier this morning, I notified all clergy and lay leaders in charge of congregations that we had learned that Holy Innocents' church, Parmelee, located in Rosebud Mission West, had burned to the ground. This is devastating news for the parishioners of Holy Innocents, for all members of the Rosebud Mission, and for all of us as a diocese, and we are in mourning at this time. Blessedly, there has not been and continues not to have been any reports of injuries or deaths. Our first fear was that someone had broken in the church and built a fire to stay warm as has happened in other places and had perished as a result. This has not been reported as being the case so far. However, and most unfortunately, it is strongly suspected that the fire may well be the work of an arsonist. Authorities already have begun their investigation and we will be supporting them to our fullest extent. I ask you all to please keep all of Holy Innocents in your prayers, This is a tragic day of loss that is being felt far and wide. Please, too, pray for Zollie Moran, their Bishop's Warden, and all members of their Bishop's Committee, and for Erroll Geboe, the Itanchan of Rosebud, and all members of the Mission Council. May God be with all of us who mourn. May the Holy Spirit bring promised comfort. And in due course, may we rise from the ashes of this loss and show everyone that our Lord and his Church remain undefeated, unwavering in our faith, and ever confident in our ability to love and to serve as our Creator has made us to be and do. Faithfully, Bp. Jonathan

The Presiding Bishop has bid all of our continued prayers for this conflict, and I know that we will continue to faithfully respond. For Peace: Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever. Amen. -- Prayers for the World, Book of Common Prayer, p. 815.

Due to pastoral concerns, the installation service for the Rev. Michelle Dayton on the Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission, has been postponed. There will NOT be a service on Saturday, Oct. 21. When it is rescheduled, the date and time will be announced.

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2023/10/10/christian-leaders-call-for-end-to-violence-after-hamas-attack-ignites-new-war-with-israel/ Please join me in prayer for peace in the Middle East, and a cessation of all violence. "Blessed are the peacemakers," said Jesus, "for they shall be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9) Faithfully, Bp. Folts

Continued prayers for Presiding Bishop Curry. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry hospitalized for reoccurrence of internal bleeding Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was admitted to the hospital this past Thursday night, Aug. 17, with a reoccurrence of the internal bleeding that required him to be hospitalized over Memorial Day Weekend. Doctors were able to intervene and monitor earlier in this instance, and Bishop Curry’s whole medical team is weighing the potential benefits and risks of surgery to remove his right adrenal gland and an attached mass, which appears to be the source of the internal bleeding. Please pray for the doctors’ discernment. “I am so grateful for your prayers,” said Bishop Curry. “I expect that the work of the medical team will lead to healing that will make a difference. Fervent prayer plus good medical care is a powerful combination. In all things God is good.” Bishop Curry is expected to be released Tuesday, Aug. 22, and updates will be issued as they become available.

Save the Date: "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30

From the Office of Public Affairs Electing the 28th presiding bishop is a decisive moment for The Episcopal Church. Today we joyfully announce the release of our profile and invite you to join us in our journey to nominate individuals to stand for election. Help choose our next presiding bishop. https://bit.ly/3W1kaeN #JNCPB #episcopal

Check out the Diocesan Websites page for Niobrara Convocation. https://www.episcopalchurchsd.org/page/niobrara-convocation Here is where you will find hotel information, who their guest speaker is, and where to send your hospitality checks.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. We explore where this dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings. You'll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voice of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink

Hello ladies, the 2023 Nomination form for our Honored Women is ready and available now. Please go to the Diocesan Website at episcopalchurchsd.org and look 2/3 of the way down the page. Here you will see a block under PROGRAMS, Episcopal Church Woman. By clicking LEARN MORE you will be directed to the ECW page and there you will find the Nomination form. Don't forget the deadline is April 15. Clergy we hope you will share this with your congregation members.