The Rev. Dr Bude VanDyke

Bude grew up in Huntsville, Alabama during the exciting times of the Space Race. His family had a construction business in Huntsville and a farm in Limestone County. He attended Lee High School and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Bude and his family went back to Sewanee in 1995 where he earned his Masters of Divinity in 1999 and Doctor of Ministry in 2004.

Bude has been in recovery from alcoholism since 1990 and has participated in many healing groups and individual sessions to walk the recovery road with many others in the last 3 and a half decades. He has written numerous songs about recovery, spirituality, and being a Cherokee descendant. He has been active for two decades in the Episcopal Indigenous Ministries efforts in the National Church. He served as the Fire Keeper at the Oklahoma IV Consultation of Indigenous Elders and the Presiding Bishop in 2010.

He has articles published in the Sewanee Theological Review, the First People’s
Journal, is a speaker in the Native Voices video produced by the Department of
Episcopal Indigenous Ministries, and wrote and recorded a song, Broken Treaties, for an upcoming documentary on the Black Horse Ranch at the Cheyenne River
Reservation.

Bude believes that we come to the Holy Eucharist to give and live thanks for all of God’s abundance, grace and mercy. Also, we come to heal so we can be better equipped to embody God’s abundance, grace and mercy to those we encounter. The anointing with healing oil is an integral part of what we do after taking communion