Standing with Standing Rock

Earlier this month, the CDSP Community Leadership Team passed a resolution calling on the entire CDSP community to stand in solidarity with “water protectors from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies, who are defending sacred lands against the construction of the DAPL [Dakota Access Pipeline].” Read the entire resolution.

Phil Hooper, a first-year MDiv student who organized the effort, writes, “Our response was a natural outgrowth of CDSP’s commitment to the issues of creation care and social justice. I was inspired by the Episcopal Church’s decision to publicly stand with Standing Rock, and there was clearly a desire among the CDSP community to affirm that position. Our formation as seminarians needs to translate into a public witness of faith, and this was a time to speak out.”

Alison Fisher, also a first-year MDiv student, compiled a list of national and local public officials and employees of Energy Transfer Partners, LP, the company that owns the Dakota Access Pipeline. At a community Eucharist, CDSP students and community members pledged to advocate on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe by contacting legislators and stakeholders. 

“The CDSP community is committed to caring for the earth and its inhabitants,” says Fischer. “Our priority was to honor Standing Rock with effective protest and we felt that documented communication to government officials would be productive.”

The Celtic Cross Mission Society, a student group that coordinates grants for outreach, made a $1,000 donation to the Diocese of North Dakota to assist with its work to oppose the pipeline.