During the weekend of June 16-18, I had the privilege, honor, and blessing to visit four Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission congregations: Gethsemane, Wanblee; Mediator, Kyle; St. Katherine’s, Martin; and St. Michael’s, Batesland.
My time in the Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission began on Friday, June 16th, with an opportunity to catch up with the Rev. Michelle Dayton, Superintending Presbyter of the Pine Ridge Mission, and her husband, Lee. Apparently, Martin, SD, has been blessed with a new pizza place – the Pizza Shoppe – and I highly recommend it. The owner/pizza creator can be seen chopping fresh vegetables for every pizza he creates! We took our pizza and salads to the Dayton’s home, the rectory of St. Katherine’s, and the three of us had a wonderful time catching up.
On Saturday, June 17th, it was time to begin our weekend celebration. We visited Gethsemane, Wanblee, and the Church of the Mediator in Kyle. On Sunday, June 18th, we continued by conducting services at St. Katherine’s, Martin, and at St. Michael’s, Batesland. At all four churches, new members of the Episcopal Church were confirmed. At three of the four churches, new Christians were baptized. In total, eight persons were confirmed, and six people of a variety of ages were baptized! It was truly a celebratory weekend!
Additionally, at all four churches, people were invited to tell the story of how their congregation were responding to the needs of their communities. Personally speaking, I am extraordinarily happy that the congregations I visited in the Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission took me up on my challenge at the Diocesan Convention of last year to share “their stories,” and I appreciate the information they shared. They took my request seriously, and I am grateful for what they offered.
The final blessing of this visit occurred after the last service had concluded at St. Michael’s in Batesland. A young couple with a fourteenth-month-old baby girl arrived whom they wanted to have baptized. She was a relative of Ben Conquering Bear, one of St. Michael’s elders, who leads us in singing hymns from the Dakota hymnal. Because of car trouble, they could not be at the 12:00 service where they wanted their baby girl, Everleigh Leeann Gomez, baptized and, as a result, they arrived over an hour late.
My friends – my brothers, my sisters, my relatives in the Diocese of South Dakota – this is what it means for our Diocese to be “the kind of Church that no one expects us to be.” This couple was invited to join us for lunch and afterward, a small group of us gathered back into the church, and we baptized and welcomed Everleigh into the Christian community.
Some in the Episcopal Church believe that baptisms should only occur publicly during a Sunday morning worship event, and I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Although that is always preferable, there was no way on God’s green earth that we were ABOUT to tell this couple to bring Everleigh back to a regular Sunday morning service. We were there. Everleigh was there. The Holy Spirit was there. We had water, we had faith, and that was all that we needed to proceed – and one more member of God’s kingdom was initiated and welcomed into the family. And I am convinced that God smiled. I am convinced that God – and all of God’s holy angels – were smiling broadly! Just as all of us were.
We are going to be the Church that many people don’t expect us to be. We will not be sold short. We will continue to risk something big for something good. We will strive to break every negative stereotype that non-Christians have of the Church as a whole and of Christians in particular. We will be the kind of Christians that many people don’t expect us to be. Not just in Pine Ridge…but everywhere in our Diocese where we follow, love, and serve God through Jesus Christ.
(My HUGE thanks to Lee Dayton for his gifted eye and these wonderful photos!)
