Worshippers fill the sanctuary of the Church of the Mediator in Kyle, South Dakota, for Easter services in April 2025. Photo courtesy of Michelle Dayton
[Episcopal News Service] The Church of the Mediator in Kyle, South Dakota, has long been a fixture in the life of its community on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The small congregation’s Sunday services typically draw about 20 worshippers, and it also is a place where Episcopalians and other residents gather for personal and social milestones, from baptisms, wakes and funerals to the church’s large celebrations on Easter Sunday.
Those gatherings, however, have always been limited by what the 115-year-old Church of the Mediator does not have: running water.
That is about to change. The congregation has secured a United Thank Offering grant to help pay for a construction project that will connect the church to tribal water lines, install a septic system and add restrooms and a kitchen sink to the church building. Visiting the hill-top church will no longer require carrying up water or using outhouses.
“We’ve been talking about it quite a while,” Mona Vocu, a lay minister at Church of the Mediator, said in discussing the plumbing project with Episcopal News Service. “I’m sure people will really appreciate it.”
The South Dakota project received $69,050 from the churchwide United Thank Offering program, one of 27 projects awarded more than $1 million in June. This round of UTO grants was focused on projects providing water access, sanitation and education.
“The grant awards emphasize both the physical and spiritual importance of water in our lives,” Karin Elsen, president of the United Thank Offering board, said in a UTO news release. “These funds will be used for the construction of many practical things, such as showers and wells, while also fostering service, hospitality and renewal through the projects.”
The Church of the Mediator in Kyle, South Dakota, was built in 1910 atop a hill. It finally will be connected to the Pine Ridge Reservation water system with help from a UTO grant. Photo courtesy of Michelle Dayton
That certainly is the case at Church of the Mediator, where the spirit of service and hospitality is alive despite the building’s limitations. The church normally would host the large, multiday wakes that are traditional for the Oglala Lakota, but the congregation has faced challenges in accommodating such gatherings. They often are held instead at facilities closer to town that have running water.
“Without indoor plumbing and a water source, our community has not been able to have their services” at Church of the Mediator, the Rev. Michelle Dayton, superintending presbyter for the diocese’s Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission, told ENS. “It’s just not convenient. It’s just not possible.”
Even so, Dayton said, there is a clear longing for such big gatherings at the church. Last Easter, she estimated about 80 people attended the congregation’s Sunday service and celebration.
“We had the little children up in the bishop’s chair,” she recalled. “All the youth, I had them sitting around the sanctuary, and we added extra chairs around the pews, because it was standing room only.”
It was festive and well-attended, but the celebration didn’t last as long as it would have if the church had the convenience of drinking water and restrooms inside the building. The closest water source is a hand pump down the hill from the church. That is as far as the tribe’s water main extends. The congregation, despite wanting to install a connection to the tribal water pipes, has not been able to afford it until now.
“They are wealthy in community and not in bank accounts,” Dayton noted, so the UTO grant will have a transformational impact.
The new restrooms will be accessible for people with disabilities. Adding a sink to the church’s existing kitchen area will mean readily available drinking water and water for brewing coffee. The congregation will be able to wash dishes after hosting gatherings at the church. Running water even will solve liturgical challenges.
“We’ll have water for baptism, for goodness sake,” Dayton said. “It will make a huge difference.”
Church of the Mediator is one of nine congregations that make up the Pine Ridge Episcopal Mission. Dayton celebrates Holy Eucharist once a month at Church of the Mediator as part of a worship rotation with the other Pine Ridge congregations. On the other Sundays, lay ministers lead Morning Prayer at Church of the Mediator.
In addition to worship services, the church has hosted vacation Bible school, sewing groups and birthday and anniversary celebrations, as well as about 40 wakes and funerals a year – all of which will benefit from the plumbing project.
“UTO has been actively participating in God’s mission with us in South Dakota for quite some time, and they are a valued partner in ministry,” South Dakota Bishop Jonathan Folts said in a diocesan article about the project. “I also want to commend Mother Michelle and the people of Mediator for dedicating the time and effort to organize this project. It was no small task. They took both initiative and responsibility, placed themselves in the Spirit’s capable hands, and transformation occurred.”
Congregational leaders now are working to schedule contractors to begin the first phase of the construction, including installing the water connection and underground septic system, possibly this fall. Indoor work can be conducted over the winter, with the hope of having the project completed by the spring.
Vocu said worship attendance had declined during the pandemic, but despite that disruption and the challenges posed by the lack of water in the church, the congregation is hopeful for the future.
“We’re growing,” she said. “We’re getting back our congregation, but it’s taking time.” She expects attendance to continue to grow once the plumbing project is complete.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.