Michael Cunningham, Missioner for Administration and Missions, Diocese of Los Angeles, and the Rev. Robert Two Bulls, Program Officer for Native American Ministries, Diocese of Los Angeles, have spent the past five years leading pilgrimages of young people to Red Shirt, South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Rev. Two Bulls is a member of the Oglala Lakota  tribe and a second-generation Episcopal priest. This reservation is listed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as the poorest in the United States.

In 2004 participants, youths and adults from 9 churches, worked on several projects such as constructing a skate park for local youth. They also scraped and painted the parish hall, installed new windows in the church, built outhouses and attended a Vacation Bible Study program at Christ Episcopal Church in Red Shirt. They attended a powwow in the arbor that was constructed by the group in 2003, and journeyed to the sacred site at Wounded Knee. They experienced wonderful fellowship with all the village children, sharing meals with them. The participants encountered more goodness than they knew what to do with and learned much about our Lord's unconditional love and the abundance He has given this world. Needless to say, their lives are forever changed.

In 2005 Sarah Dennison represented Christ Church, Redondo Beach, and traveled to Red Shirt with other young people from the diocese to help build a Baseball Diamond and continue working on the church. Here in Redondo Beach, Christ Church sponsored the first Red Shirt Art Gallery, featuring artists of the Northern Plains. This very successful venture created a blueprint for other parishes in the diocese of Los Angles to host similar Gallery events.

For more information on the Red Shirt Project, please visit the web site at http://redshirtartproject.org.
 

MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER

Through our mutual ministry association with Christ Church, Red Shirt Table, we have an opportunity to grow spiritually by extending ourselves through prayer, attention, and support to the people of Christ Church on the Pine Ridge Reservation and the village of Red Shirt.

      We continue to offer prayers for the people of Christ Church and the village of Red Shirt each week, and request that they remember us also in their weekly prayers.

      We consider ways to learn more about the people of Christ Church and Red Shirt including their history, their customs, their worship, and their needs.

      We continue to be deeply involved in the Red Shirt Art Project, a program that has grown out of our involvement with the Rev. Robert Two Bulls and our visit to the Village in March 2005.

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