Pine Ridge congregations vote to form new church
Interesting quotation:
"In September 2008, Bishop Creighton Robertson announced plans to close the nine churches because of falling attendance and failing finances and to return the buildings and land to the original owners, or to the tribe. Some of those churches, including Christ Church, Inestimable Gift Church in Allen and St. Barnabas Church in Kyle, which Montileaux serves, continued to hold services in defiance of diocesan orders."
So they don't have the people or finances to keep these mission congregations open, but the parishioners have the fire and gumption to keep worshipping in the face of both canon and civil law. The folks that brought Anglicanism to this part of the world sure earned their 87 cents a year. Still, there must be more to this story....
[One thing that comes to mind is that the bishop is a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota tribe and most of the leadership of the "closed" parishes is Oglala Lakota; tribal issues and rivalries run deep, even (surprise!) in the the Episcopal Church. It's much easier to be Shawnee.]