Head of Episcopal Church to lead Native convocation

About 3,000 people are expected at Eagle Butte for Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
By Mary Garrigan, Journal staff
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Dozens of tiny Episcopal congregations scattered across South Dakota’s nine Native American reservations will get a big blessing this weekend when the top cleric of the Episcopal Church in America comes to Eagle Butte for the Niobrara Convocation...

...“My primary purpose is to be with the people, to listen to their experience and to learn about this diocese,” Jefferts Schori said after arriving at the Pierre airport Thursday. She’ll be on the Cheyenne Eagle Butte Reservation through Sunday, where she’ll preach at the closing Eucharist. “I’m still working on it,” the bishop said of her Sunday sermon. “I’m going to do a lot of listening in the next few days so that what I say is relevant.”....

...“I can’t speak directly to the Lakota tradition, but many aboriginal traditions have a place for gay and lesbian people, so that there may be a different understanding than there is in many Anglo cultures,” Jefferts Schori said about homosexuality. “But at the same time, many Native communities are very traditional from a Christian perspective.” Full Article