The Episcopal Diocese of

North Dakota



Click here to view this Newsletter as Webpage.

Welcome to our email Newsletter!

Highlights from this issue:

• Electing Convention Information
• Annual Diocesan Convention
• Canoeing the Mountains
• North Dakota Episcopal Foundation

Read on for other announcements and the calendar!

Did you miss a copy of the Prairie? The past four editions of the bi-monthly Prairie are now online! Click the button below to be taken to the webpage!

Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley,

Thomas Cranmer

October 16, 2025

Bishops, Martyrs, 1555

Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556

Keep up, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servants Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer, we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

*Read about Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer here.

First Lesson: Zephaniah 3:1-5

Psalm: Psalm 142

Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 3:9-14

Gospel: John 15:18-20

Electing Convention Information

Saturday, October 25, 2025 | 9:00am, Liturgy of the Word

Prairie Knights Casino & Resort, Fort Yates, ND

On October 9, 2025 there was an information Zoom call explaining different parts of the Bishop Election. If you missed that, you can watch the replay below or on our YouTube Channel.

Bishop Nominees

Presented in alphabetical order

The four candidates are:

• The Rev. Lecia Diaz Brannon of the Diocese of Texas
• The Very Rev. Shay Craig of the Diocese of Western Kansas
• The Rev. Dr. Brandt Montgomery of the Diocese of Maryland
• The Very Rev. Benjamin Thomas Th.D. of the Diocese of Minnesota

Further information about each candidate, including a cover letter, short biographical sketch, resume, OTM resume, and brief video clip is available on the Diocesan Bishop Search web page.

Diocesan Bishop Search Collect

O God, creator of the world and sustainer of our lives. We thank you for bringing together the members of the Diocese of North Dakota, a diverse and faithful people. Help us to listen to your Spirit as we discern our choice for a bishop that will live with us, work beside us, and know and understand us as we grow together to serve your people. AMEN.

ANNUAL DIOCESAN CONVENTION

Anchored in Christ's Love: One Body, One Mission

October 24-25, 2025

Prairie Knights Casino & Resort | Fort Yates, ND

Convention website: www.ndepiscopal.org/2025diocesanconvention

Diocesan Convention Business will begin at 2:00pm on Friday, October 24. Please see this email announcement for further information.

The final pre-convention mailing will be out early next week, watch your inboxes for further information.

Display Table:

Trinity Collection Silver Jewelry

St. Paul's, Grand Forks will have a table at Convention to sell silver jewelry from the Trinity Collection. Some of you may remember this religious jewelry from past conventions. After several years since our last sale, we will bring the remainder of this jewelry for one last sale. What we have was originally purchased by St. Paul's in 2005. The prices remain the same so you are getting a deal --2005 prices. Pay by cash or check. Half the money will go to the St. Joseph Food Cupboard in Grand Forks and the other half will go to the Diocese for the 2026 WoDakota campaign. Everyone wins on this sale and you can do some Christmas shopping, too. Looking forward to seeing you at Convention.

Canoeing the Mountains Book Study

By: Ashley Hubbard | Diocesan Missioner

Calling all Clergy and Diocesan Leaders!  The long-awaited for leadership book study will begin November 20, 2025. Join colleagues around the Diocese and the Diocesan Missioner every third Thursday at either 12:30pm or 6:30pm, Central Time as we explore adaptive leadership.

A limited quantity of books is available. Please reach out to Ashley (ashley@ndepiscopal.org or 334-324-6394) to receive a copy in the mail. 

Be on the lookout for a Zoom link invitation closer to Nov. 20, 2025.

Ashley's Intro to the Leadership Book Study

Author's Video

Finally, mark your calendars to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center (Washburn) and attend a celebration dinner at Mary Johnson’s+ farm on Sat., May 16, 2026.

Episcopal Church Organization Explained

By: The Rev. Ryan Fischer | Supply Priest

I often get questions from people unfamiliar with the Episcopal Church regarding matters of our church's organization, practices, and beliefs. I don't know if my answers are informative or helpful, but I do my best to balance nuance and simplification and provide something that represents the church honestly and faithfully.

So, when I speak of the Episcopal Church, I'm referring to a church body, mainly in the United States, with ties to the expression of Christianity that originated in England in the 16th century, which itself belongs to the wider tradition of Western Christianity going all the way back to the first century and the apostles (particularly St. Peter). Just about every church you find in the Upper Midwest, with the exception of a smattering of "eastern" or Orthodox churches, have their roots in this form of Christianity, whether they want to admit it or not!

The "English" version of Christianity is often said to have originated out of a mutual excommumication between King Henry VIII and the Pope during the 16th century, but it could be said that England and Rome, so to speak, had been drifting apart for centuries. Thus, if you hear the term "Reformation" thrown about, typically in reference to reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin, this term could also be applied to England, as the "English Reformation" of the 16th century could be regarded as a legitimate reforming movement that accomplished many of the same results as the reforming work of Luther and Calvin (e.g. allowing priests to marry, holding church services in the language of the people instead of Latin, offering both the bread and the wine at Holy Communion, etc.).

English Christianity became known as the Anglican tradition ("Anglican" is merely a Latin-derived word for "English"), and Anglicanism has spread throughout the world mostly via colonization and missionary work. Many of the colonists in what eventually became the United States of America were Anglicans themselves, most notably George Washington. Following the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, Anglicans also became independent from the Church of England and formed the Episcopal Church.



Today, the Episcopal Church is a member of the Anglican Communion, which itself is composed of 42 member churches across the world. You'll notice a link to the news story about the appointment of the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and, lest anyone be deceived by the sound of that title, the Archbishop of Canterbury is not an Anglican version of the Pope; instead, the Archbishop is a "first among equals" among all the other Bishops of the Communion who reflects the global character of Anglicanism in its unity and diversity.

You'll also notice that the next Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend Sarah Mullally, is a woman. It is appropriate, I believe, given the reforming spirit of Anglicanism, that our global "first among equals" is a woman; while not everyone in the Anglican Communion is as delighted as I am with this prospect, I hope and trust that, with God's help, we can value our unity above disagreements and continue to serve God and God's people through our deeply rooted tradition that also seeks to reform and renew.

(Composed by Ryan Fischer without the assistance of artificial intelligence, October 3, 2025)

North Dakota Episcopal Foundation

North Dakota Episcopal Foundation Announces Fall Deadline of 2025 applications

WHO WE ARE

The ND Episcopal Foundation is a 501(c) 3 organization that is entrusted to receive and manage financial gifts for the purpose of providing grants for projects that focus on outreach, education, and ministry projects.

 

The Trustees are elected and qualified at the annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese and serve 4-year terms. The Bishop of the ND Episcopal Diocese is an ex-officio member.

GRANTS

Grants for projects with a close Episcopal connection are accepted twice a year, Spring and Fall. For details on grant requirements, download a grant application. This year’s deadline is November 1, 2025.

South Dakota Bishop Apologizes to Crow Creek Sioux for Diocese's Involvement in Indigenous Boarding Schools

By: Shireen Korkzan | Episcopal News Service

The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and the Diocese of South Dakota are developing a “beautiful relationship” after South Dakota Bishop Jonathan Folts formally apologized for the diocese’s involvement in operating Indigenous boarding schools.

“[Folts’] apology was one of the most heartfelt, most sincere things I’ve ever listened to coming from another human being. … I had been praying about bringing healing to my people on this level for a long time,” Crow Creek Chairman Peter Lengkeek, the son of a boarding school survivor, told Episcopal News Service in an Oct. 9 telephone interview. “I could actually feel the conviction in every word and every breath. …That was definitely a gateway opportunity to a beautiful relationship and opportunities to heal.”

Hundreds of boarding schools were operated by the government and religious denominations starting in the 19th century as part of a federal policy of forced assimilation of the continent’s native inhabitants. Since then, research has shown that most of the boarding schools with Episcopal ties were in South Dakota, including the Crow Creek Dormitory.

“Our actions have alienated and separated us from you, our Native siblings. Instead of showing ourselves as imitators of Jesus Christ, as our Scriptures call us to be, we instead have acted as divine enforcers of a misguided notion of entitlement and betterment,” Folts said in his apology delivered Aug. 16 to Lengkeek at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church on the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. The apology was first made public when it was read during South Dakota’s Oct. 3-4 diocesan convention in Pierre.

Read Folts’ apology here.

The bishop told ENS in an Oct. 9 email that it’s important for The Episcopal Church to apologize for its historic role in supporting Indigenous boarding schools because it signifies truth-telling and a desire to build positive relationships with tribes.

“The Episcopal Church’s history of participating in a system that took children from Native and Indigenous families – stripping them of language, story, and identity as sovereign peoples – cannot be undone. But it must be named,” Folts said in his email. “A formal apology is the first way the church can speak this truth aloud. It says to those who were harmed, and to their descendants, that we see the pain our church helped cause and that we are committed to walking a different path.”

Last year, The Episcopal Church identified church involvement in operating 34 of the 526 known boarding schools in the United States. The church’s fact-finding commission, established by General Convention Resolution A127, has discovered at least a dozen more schools since then, according to Veronica Pasfield, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and an Indigenous boarding schools historian who works as an archival consultant for The Episcopal Church. These schools included federally operated schools where Episcopal clergy taught Christian education and government schools that required students to attend nearby Episcopal churches for worship services and classes.

Pasfield told ENS that church-operated boarding schools are often referred to as “mission schools,” but they were, in fact, contract schools. She said specifying the language is important because the signed contracts meant the U.S. Department of the Interior would pay churches to operate schools using funds that had been designated to support Native American tribes. This means that church leaders were motivated not just by opportunities to proselytize, but also by money.

“This notion that it was simply these missionaries who wanted to pull these ‘savages’ into the community of God-fearing humans is only half of the story,” Pasfield said. “This is part of why [The Episcopal Church’s boarding schools research and advocacy groups] have pursued dialogue and relationships with tribal governments.”

Pasfield’s academic background includes a doctorate in American studies, specializing in researching Indigenous boarding schools.

During the small gathering where Folts apologized, Pasfield gave an overview of the records found in government and church archives she and the A127 commission have been analyzing since 2024.

The boarding schools were designed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant white culture and erase Indigenous languages and practices. Children were forced to learn English and were violently punished for speaking their Native languages. By official records, nearly 1,000 children are known to have died during the 19th and 20th centuries in boarding schools nationwide, according to a July 2024 report by the Department of the Interior. However, some experts estimate the number is closer to 40,000. In many cases, children faced physical, sexual and mental abuse.

Lengkeek said the generational trauma stemming from boarding schools continues to harm Crow Creek Native Americans today through chronic sickness, addiction and violence. Tribal members’ life expectancy is 45 years, well below the national average of 78.4 years. Lengkeek described the mental and physical health issues as consequences of the “boarding school cycle.” The cycle began when toddlers were forcefully removed from their homes and sent to a school – oftentimes hundreds of miles away – without knowing when they would reunite with their families. They usually couldn’t return home for several years; many children never returned home.

“You’re put into that system at a very young age, and you’re raised by nuns and priests who don’t have your best interests at heart and don’t display any love, kindness, welcoming or nurturing – just a roof and a scant meal. And then you become an adult and age out of the system with no nurturing, housekeeping or basic life skills. Then you have children and raise them the way you were raised by the nuns, and they grow up and raise their children the same way,” Lengkeek said. 

“We’re still seeing that cycle playing out in many of our families today. Families who have broken that cycle raised their children with love; love is how you break the cycle.”

Lengkeek explained the “boarding school cycle” to Episcopalians during his speech at South Dakota’s diocesan convention. He also talked about the tribe’s and diocese’s early discussions aimed at co-developing Indigenous-led truth-telling and reconciliation initiatives.

The Crow Creek Sioux mostly descend from the Mdewakanton Dakota of Minnesota. When they were exiled by governmental order from Minnesota following the Dakota War of 1862, the U.S. government initiated a $250 bounty per Dakota Sioux scalps. Those who escaped settled in present-day South Dakota. Many Crow Creek Sioux continue to practice Dakota ceremonial rituals today, such as the burning of red willow bark, that were incorporated into the August gathering where Folts apologized. Lengkeek also prayed and sang in the Dakota language.

“It was great to see a bishop understand the spiritual needs beyond Indigenous ministries from a Christian lens, right into tribal sovereignty and self-determination,” Miskopwaaganikwa Leora Tadgerson, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of reparations and justice, told ENS. “It established a spiritual, reciprocal sacredness before we officially started the meeting.”

Tadgerson also serves as chair of The Episcopal Church’s boarding schools advocacy committee, which was established by Executive Council through Resolution MW062. She was the keynote speaker for South Dakota’s diocesan convention, where she provided an overview of the advocacy committee’s work. She also brought with her to South Dakota’s diocesan convention the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s traveling exhibit, “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground,” which showcases stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors in Michigan.

Even though the Aug. 16 gathering was small and only a few Crow Creek tribal members were present to hear Folts’ apology, “the land heard it, and it was spoken into existence,” said Lengkeek, who plans to meet regularly with Folts to continue building the tribe’s relationship with the Diocese of South Dakota.

Folts told ENS in his email that the apology is not an end, but a beginning. “It is the first of many steps as we seek to listen again, learn again, and rebuild trust again – with humility, courage and hope.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

CIVIC SPOTLIGHT

If there are things you would like to contribute to the "Civic Spotlight," please email links/articles to Jess in the Diocesan Office.