God answers our prayers. While hardly a startling statement, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that God does hear and respond to all of our prayers — even those we sometimes think go unanswered. Prayer is our conversation with God.
A year ago this past fall at our Diocesan Convention I called the Diocese to prayer of a particular kind, a prayer for reconciliation leading to unity. Throughout the year and throughout the Diocese we used the Collect for Unity found in The Book of Common Prayer:
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our corporate or common prayer for reconciliation and unity has been answered. Events over the past few months point to a growing awareness of the need for reconciliation and unity within the Church and state of South Dakota.
On January 16th I addressed the state legislators at the Legislative Prayer Breakfast which is held annually in Pierre. In my homily I called on our elected leaders of the state to reconciliation in three ways.
First, to proclaim Martin Luther King, Jr. as a true holiday for the state.
Second, I called on our legislators to establish a state holiday for reflection and thanksgiving for the contributions that Lakota people have made to our state. In that call I noted that it was particularly appropriate that some legislative action be taken this year, as we anticipate the centennial of Wounded Knee on December29, 1990. In calling for these legislative actions, it seemed to me that it was not only important for us to acknowledge reconciliation at a national level but also within our own state.
Third, I called on our elected officials to mandate legislation that would bring about a new respect, reverence and reconciliation with the Earth. I specifically cited the need for us to establish a recycling program, craft the necessary legislation to protect the Black Hills from the ravages of unbridled open trench mining and protect our environment and state from becoming a garbage dump.
Following the Legislative Prayer Breakfast I had an opportunity to meet with the governor and members of his staff concerned with Indian affairs. I pressed these same concerns on our governor and asked for his support in serving as an agent of reconciliation in matters of improved education, health care, economic development and issues pertaining to justice. Following our conversations the governor asked me to serve on his newly established committee for a “year of reconciliation” along with Gary Pechota of Rapid City; state Indian Affairs Coordinator, Francis Whitebird; Flandreau Sioux Tribe President, Judy Petersen; Shirley Bordeaux from the American Indian Services in Sioux Falls; Germaine Means from Eagle Butte; Wesley Elwood, a South Dakota legislator from Batesland; Dr. Charles Woodard, an Episcopalian from St. Paul’s, Brookings and member of the South Dakota State University faculty; and Ruth Ziolkowski, manager of Crazy Horse Monument near Custer. The task of this particular committee is to find ways to work toward and celebrate reconciliation leading to unity in the up-coming year with the hope that this might inaugurate a decade of reconciliation.
Later in the week as we celebrated the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I had an opportunity to preach at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Cathedral in Rapid City at the annual ecumenical judicatory service. In my sermon I called for reconciliation and emphasized a need for unity within our Christian churches in sharing our common ministry.
I share these recent events with you because I think they reveal that God has answered and is answering our prayers for unity and reconciliation. The reversal of the vote on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, the establishment of a state holiday for the recognition and honoring of Indian persons in the state of South Dakota and the governor’s new committee on a “year of reconciliation” for the state of South Dakota all suggest that the prayers and hard work of the people of the Diocese of South Dakota, as well as other Christians who have been praying and working for unity, have indeed brought results.
God’s answer to our prayers are causes for celebration and thanksgiving as we anticipate a new century as a state and a new decade of L.I.F.E. (Leadership In Faithful Evangelism). Such celebration and thanksgiving, as an affirmation of God’s acting in and through us as agents of prayer, also reveals the need for ongoing prayer and intentional efforts in working for reconciliation. Much remains to be done.
Our prayers have been answered in the changing of minds and hearts and the establishment of new opportunities and symbols of reconciliation for unity within our state between peoples and the environment. In such response arid revelation. God calls us to a deeper understanding of stewardship, stewardship of human life and “this fragile Earth, our island home.”
A response to prayer calls for a prayerful response. In recognizing God’s hand at work among us in these new and surprising opportunities for reconciliation, we offer thanksgiving for the reconciliation and unity that we enjoy as a sign and encouragement of the unity that we aspire to as God’s people.
During this year of prayer and preparation for L.I.F.E., (Leadership In Faithful Evangelism), I call on all Episcopalians in the Diocese to pray and work for ongoing reconciliation and unity.
In recognizing an answer to our prayers for unity this past year, we remember the words of St. Teresa of Avila: “We are always in the presence of God, yet it seems to me that those who pray are in his presence in a very different sense.”