Fire destroys small Episcopal church in South Dakota in suspected arson: 'We will rise from these ashes'

Vandals 'desecrated the church' in earlier attack

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, November 01, 2023

A small Episcopal congregation in South Dakota is mourning the loss of their historic church building after it burned to the ground last weekend in an act of suspected arson.

The Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Parmelee stood in some form since 1890 until being destroyed in a fire that reduced it to rubble on its foundation Saturday, according to the Episcopal News Service.

Parmelee is a small, census-designated place of approximately 600 people on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, about 30 minutes from the Nebraska state line. The Rosebud Episcopal Mission was established in 1875 and has 10 active congregations.

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The Rev. Lauren Stanley, who serves as Canon to the Ordinary, told The Christian Post that they suspect the church's destruction was an act of arson because the church "had received threats previously from a person p---ed off and said they would burn the church down."

Citing the ongoing investigation, she said now involves the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Stanley said she was not at liberty to disclose the reason why she believes the potential suspect had threatened her church.

Another reason they suspect arson is because that particular area of Parmelee "has a little gang of arsonists going around," Stanley said, adding that "they've burned houses, cars and hay bales" locally.

"Nobody knows how [the fire] started," she said. "What we do know is that our beautiful 133-year-old church is totally gone."

Stanley also noted that the church was vandalized and "desecrated" last December.

"They took things off the altar, threw them on the floor, defecated and urinated on them," Stanley said. "It wasn't just 'let's break a bunch of windows,' they actually desecrated the church."

Stanley said she doesn't suspect a satanic element to the desecration, but rather "just a bunch of people out of control."

Episcopal Bishop of South Dakota Jonathan Folts released a statement regarding the church burning on the day it happened, describing it as "devastating news for the parishioners of Holy Innocents, for all members of the Rosebud Mission, and for all of us as a diocese, and we are in mourning at this time."

Folts, who noted that church leadership had first feared that someone had perished after breaking into the church and starting a fire to keep warm, echoed Stanley's suspicion that the burning was "the work of an arsonist."

The bishop urged prayer for church leadership and the community.

Stanley noted that the small congregation, which ranges from five to 25 people on Sundays, was able to salvage portions of the brass altar cross and the damaged church bell from the collapsed steeple.

She also noted that the church was insured and that they will continue to meet in their nearby guild hall until they can rebuild.

"We will rebuild. We will rise from these ashes because we are resurrection people," she added.