Oakerhater Guild Resolution

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September 28, 2026

Oakerhater Guild Brings Resolution to Diocesan Convention

This week, as Episcopalians from across Oklahoma gather for the 85th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, the Oakerhater Guild of St. Paul’s Cathedral will bring forward a resolution asking the Diocese to consider immigration, detention, and human dignity through the lens of our Baptismal Covenant—and through the continuing witness of St. David Pendleton Oakerhater.

The “Resolution on Migration, Human Dignity, and the Witness of St. David Pendleton Oakerhater” begins with a fundamental Christian conviction: every person is made in the image of God, and our Baptismal Covenant calls us to seek and serve Christ in all persons, love our neighbors as ourselves, and respect the dignity of every human being.

The resolution also draws upon existing positions of The Episcopal Church, including the Migration with Dignity framework affirmed by the 81st General Convention in 2024, which connects the Church’s approach to migration with the teachings of Jesus and the baptismal promise to respect human dignity.

For the Oakerhater Guild, this conversation carries particular significance because of Watonga.

Before becoming a deacon and missionary, Oakerhater was among a group of Native prisoners taken by the United States government to Fort Marion in Florida. After his baptism and ordination, he returned to Oklahoma, where he devoted his life to ministry among his people. The Episcopal Church remembers David Pendleton Oakerhater as a Cheyenne spiritual leader, deacon, and missionary, with his feast observed September 1.

Today, the Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga—the same region in which Oakerhater lived and ministered—is being used to hold people detained for federal immigration enforcement. The resolution asks what Oakerhater’s story and Christian witness might require of the Church when people are again experiencing confinement in this place.

Among its provisions, the resolution asks Convention to affirm the God-given dignity of every person, regardless of citizenship or immigration status; affirm both the lawful responsibilities of government and the necessity of justice, compassion, due process, and humane treatment; oppose over-reliance on prison-like immigration detention; call for transparency and accountability at the Diamondback facility; and support pastoral care for immigrants, people in detention or immigration proceedings, and their families.

It also calls the people and congregations of the Diocese to pray—for immigrants and refugees and their families, for immigration and law-enforcement officers, for elected leaders, and for all whose lives are affected by immigration enforcement—and to listen to those directly affected.

At its heart, the resolution asks the Church to consider what it means not simply to remember Oakerhater, but to allow his witness to shape our response to the circumstances of our own time.

As the resolution concludes:
“Honoring St. David Pendleton Oakerhater requires more than remembering his story.”
As our Oakerhater Guild carries this work to Diocesan Convention, we invite the St. Paul’s community to hold the Guild, our diocesan delegates, Bishop Poulson, and all who will participate in the Convention’s prayer and discernment in your own prayers this week.
[READ THE FULL RESOLUTION HERE]

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