A pole barn structure rises at Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Parmelee, South Dakota, and will become the new church building when it is finished, replacing a historic church that was destroyed in a 2023 fire. Photo: Diocese of South Dakota
[Episcopal News Service] A small South Dakota congregation whose church was destroyed by fire two years ago is rebuilding this summer – with support from two similarly named congregations on opposite ends of the United States.
Holy Innocents Episcopal Church was established in the Rosebud Reservation community of Parmelee in 1890. When the original wood structure succumbed in October 2023 to a fire, likely set by an arsonist, the news caught the attention of two other Holy Innocents congregations, in Lahaina, Hawai‘i, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Holy Innocents in Lahaina also was the victim of a catastrophe that year; its church building was destroyed by the August 2023 Maui fire. Leaders of both churches began conversations about their losses. They exchanged artifacts from each church and promised to pray for each other.
“Losing a church to fire, especially a historic church that served as an anchor for a community, is especially painful,” the Rev. Lauren Stanley, South Dakota’s canon to the ordinary, said in an online story. Given that both were Indigenous congregations, it was natural that they “reached out to each other in our grief,” she said.
At the time, Zollie Stone Moran, senior warden at the church in Parmelee, expressed her congregation’s desire to rebuild: “As a community, we will get it done.”
Holy Innocents in Lahaina also plans to rebuild. Like many Maui institutions devastated by the 2023 fire, it has benefited from the generous outpouring of donations to assist local relief efforts. The congregation anticipates a long path toward rebuilding in the coming years. In the meantime, it has been worshipping temporarily in a United Methodist church.
Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Parmelee, South Dakota, dating to 1890, was destroyed by fire in October 2023. Photo: Lauren Stanley, via Facebook
The rebuilding project in South Dakota has taken time as well. Since the fire, the congregation and diocese have secured insurance payments from Church Insurance Corp., along with donations from across the United States and as far away as England. The congregation also has a supportive fundraising partner in Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Atlanta.
“We reached out because there are precious few Holy Innocents’ Episcopal churches” in the United States, the Rev. Bill Murray, rector of Holy Innocents in Atlanta, said in the diocese’s article about the project. “To see two locations that share the name burn in the same year was eye opening.”
Parmelee is located west of the city of Mission in the northwest corner of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, about a half hour from the Nebraska state line. The church there was established 135 years ago when the area reportedly was a ration station for the Sicangu, the ancestors of today’s Rosebud Sioux.
The congregation, ranging from about five to 25 worshippers on Sundays, has hired a contractor for its rebuilding project, and in May, the foundation was poured for the new church in Parmelee. Last month, a steel pole barn kit arrived, and the contractor began assembling it to form the church’s structure, next to an existing guild hall that was not destroyed by the fire.
Based on the current timeline, the congregation hopes to celebrate the new church building on Aug. 22 with a consecration ceremony.
“For seven generations Holy Innocents has stood on this hill, and we’re going to have it for seven more,” Stanley said.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.