A most blessed and joyous 150th Anniversary of Christ Episcopal Church to you!
(A brief reflection)
150 years ago, The Reverend M. Hoyt and congregants gathered in a small village on the Missouri River for its first worship service on June 30, 1861. What was first called “St. John’s Church” grew and developed with that new settlement named “Yankton” after the Dakota native people of the region. The Civil War had begun that spring and when it was over, the nation and the Episcopal Church had changed. Our country, including Christian denominations, began to undo “institutional racism.” The Episcopal Church’s mission into Dakota Territory begun later that decade as a part of President Grant’s “Peace Policy” with the Dakota/Lakota people. While the church made many mistakes and did not always respect the dignity of the indigenous people, we can celebrate that more than half of today’s membership of the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota are Dakota/Lakota people.
Throughout the remainder of the 19th century and into the next, the men and women (and children) of Christ Church were an important part of our growing river town. The 20th century would endure two world wars and “The Great Depression” and tremendous changes would occur around the world…through it all, the ministry of Christ Church persevered. Along with the “Civil Rights Movement,” perhaps the most significant change in the church during the 20th century was the emergence of “Women’s Rights” in American society and in main-line denominations. Episcopal women were finally ordained as priests in the ‘70s at the same time that the church was going through a revision of the Book of Common Prayer. While some Episcopalians are still perplexed if not uncomfortable about parts of the 1979 prayer book (multiple revisions have occurred since the first Book of Common of 1549) there is no question that “the church is more the church” as it overcame embedded racism and sexism. Now the challenge for the church, for its members individually and corporately, is to overcome completely any and all forms of discrimination, regardless of race, sex, religion, culture, and sexual orientation.
In this still young 21st century, not only is it an exciting and good time to be alive, I think it is an exciting and good time for Christ Church. As we begin, by God’s grace, the next 150 years, we are living in a time that finds the world more and more connected. We have more opportunity than ever before to learn from others, including their experience with God (or by what name they call God) and to share our experience and the love of Christ as well. My hope and dream is that Christ Episcopal Church will be that place…that people…that continues to preserve in faith and the spiritual journey, but will, in the words of St. Paul, “outdo one another in love” …a love that welcomes anyone and everyone just as they are in the spiritual journey and together “God will give the growth.”
Let the party begin!! Jim+