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In growing Haiti diocese, ecumenical partnership builds new churches and schoolrooms
"We go where the people are. If we need to drive for two hours, then walk for an hour, then ride a donkey for another hour, that is what we do. We go to the people, and the church grows."
At the beginning of October, to mark the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Duracin, head of the largest diocese in the Episcopal Church, did all three things just to get to one of his parishes, St. Simon and St. Jude in Platon Balai. The drive over non-existent roads took nearly two hours and required a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Parking at a church compound, the bishop then led a group of American visitors, American missionaries serving in Haiti and several Haitian seminarians up the path for nearly another hour before donkeys were brought to help with the ascent. The group, many on donkeys, continued for another 45 minutes or so before arriving at Platon Balai.
The weekend's activities -- consecrating two new church buildings and their schoolrooms, baptizing and confirming more than 120 people, and ending with a grand celebration of St. Francis of Assisi at a parish named for the saint -- were a celebration of ecumenical partnership as well.
The two new churches and their schoolrooms were built with help from La Gonâve Haiti Partnership, an ecumenical group that brings together Presbyterian, Episcopal and Anglican Mission in the Americas congregations across the United States, local Rotary chapters as well as Rotary International, non-profit organizations, foundations, and private individuals.
Episcopalians in Haiti have long been working with other denominations to help the people. "We've worked with the Presbyterians for years," Duracin said. "At the General Convention in Anaheim, the Episcopal Church just adopted the resolution (A075) on working together with the Presbyterian Church (USA). I said, 'Look at Haiti. We've led the way on this.'"
St. Simon and St. Jude in Platon Balai, a congregation under the mother parish of St. Francis of Assisi in Anse a Galets, on the island's southeastern coast, is part of the La Gonâve Haiti Partnership.
Some of the partners who came to St. Simon and St. Jude for the celebration are from St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, a member parish of the Anglican Mission in America.
"The great joy of working in partnership with the Episcopal Church in Haiti," according to Dr. Sandra Chai, who has been part of the La Gonâve Partnership for 11 years, "is that it is a Body of Christ phenomenon on a global level."
Chai, a member of St. Andrew's Anglican, along with her son Colin and mission minister Dustin Freeman, came to La Gonâve for celebration after having spearheaded the effort to raise $40,000 to build the church and schoolrooms at St. Simon and St. Jude.
"Christians here in the U.S. are more materially resourced than most people in Haiti," Chai said. "Yet, particularly in remote, impoverished areas like La Gonâve, the Haitian Christians become the soldiers on the front lines of battle against human misery, serving and caring for people holistically as they are uniquely positioned to do better than we.
"And we are blessed," she said, "to be able to come alongside them, to equip them with the financial resources to do this extraordinary work and to encourage them."
Chai said she could look back over time and remember seeing a thatched-roof church building. "After a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of expense, now there's a church there and people see that and they come and the congregation is doing the evangelizing. They go out and tell other people and bring them in."
During the celebration, nearly 40 people, ranging in age from 3 years to their late 60s, were baptized and confirmed. The Rev. Soner Alexandre, priest in charge of St. Francis of Assisi parish and its nine other congregations on the island, said that people had been waiting for the bishop's visit, and for the church building to be completed.
St. Simon and St. Jude was the second congregation visited by the bishop that weekend. On Thursday, Oct. 1, he visited St. Bartolomy in Nan Mangot to consecrate that church and its new school buildings. The drive there took more than an hour, over paths littered with rocks and even some boulders.
Alexandre explained that whenever a church is built, the first thing the parents ask for is a school. "Now," he said, "they have a new church and new schoolrooms."
At St. Bartolomy, another 40 or so members were baptized and confirmed. Most of the women and girls wore white dresses and veils; the men and boys wore dress shirts and dark pants. More than 200 people attended the service, during which Duracin preached about the people's responsibilities.
"This church has been built for you. Now you have schoolrooms. But your work is not done," the bishop said. "It is up to you now to go out and build up this church, to preach the Gospel, to take care of the people in this area. Your work continues."
Another member of the visiting delegation, James Ingvoldstadt, from Covenant Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, has been working in Haiti for more than 10 years, working primarily at the Bill Rice Community Health Center in nearby Nouvelle Citi. Covenant Presbyterian is one of four parishes in the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta that participates in the La Gonâve Partnership.
Visiting St. Bartolomy in Nan Mangot five years ago, "there was the beginnings of a church, but it had been abandoned five years earlier. The people kept saying, 'We'll never get a church built,'" Ingvoldstadt said. "So we said, 'Let's build a church for them.' We went home and raised $40,000" for the church and its schoolrooms.
Speaking of the partnership with the Haitians and the Episcopal Church of Haiti, Ingvoldstadt said, "They give and we give; they receive and we receive. It's not just a partnership between denominations. It's a partnership between people."
The weekend's activities were capped by a huge celebration at St. Francis of Assisi in Anse a Galets. More than 50 people were baptized and confirmed, three choirs sang joyfully, and Duracin again preached about the work of the people.
"The church is strong because the people are strong," he said. "We go to where they are and take care of them, and then the church grows."
Further information about the La Gonâve Haiti Partnership is available here.
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