Hope for Haiti

Episcopal Relief & Development head finds cause for hope during recent trip to Haiti

Agency supports efforts for new houses and cash-for-work programs

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, August 03, 2010



[Episcopal News Service] An accompanying video report with Episcopal Relief & Development President Robert Radtke is available here.

Despite the enormous challenges still facing Haiti nearly seven months after the magnitude-7 earthquake of Jan. 12, the president of Episcopal Relief & Development says he returned from a recent visit there with "tempered hope" for the country's future.

"I went to Haiti prepared to be horrified and depressed and heartbroken, and I came away from Haiti feeling hopeful," Robert Radtke told ENS July 29. "That is not to minimize the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who are living in woefully inadequate shelter or struggling in other ways, but I came away feeling convinced the Haitians are determined to help themselves. We owe the Haitians -- and anyone else for that matter who wants to help themselves -- our support."

Radtke, Abagail Nelson, the agency's senior vice president of programs, and Tammi Mott, its Haiti recovery consultant, spent July 20-22 in Haiti visiting with workers and Haitians helped by programs being run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and its development arm, Centre Diocesain de Development et de Secours (CEDDISEC).

"There are signs of hope, but it's not going to be fast," Radtke said of Haiti's long-term recovery. "It's a long, long, difficult period ahead for Haiti for many years but the Haitians have proven themselves to be resilient -- determined to overcome adversity -- and there was nothing on this trip that led me to think that they won't continue to be that way."

Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting two CEDDISEC initiatives: a cash-for-work program and a plan for building transitional housing.

In recent months, Radtke said, Episcopal Relief & Development has mostly moved out of the initial post-quake relief work. However, because some diocesan churches are still the sites of survivor settlements, the agency is lending some support to that effort. During the first phase of the agency's support of rescue and relief efforts, it assisted more than 60,000 people with health care, food (some 217 tons), water, shelter, sanitation and other non-food items such as clothing, blankets and kerosene.

The transitional housing program, which Radtke called "the most hopeful for the long-term," centers on a new model for houses, developed by a CEDDISEC engineer after field visits and consultation with other international shelter organizations and the United Nations-recommended standards.

The houses are made of treated plywood with corrugated tin roofs. They are designed to be hurricane- and earthquake-resistant, because they are anchored 30 centimeters into the ground and into 50 centimeter high cinderblock and concrete foundations and have reinforced angles and joints connecting the roofs to the walls.

The size of the homes, which can be built in four to seven days, "respects the structure of Haitian families and their needs," which tend to be large and multi-generational, Radtke said. The houses are 18.2 meters long, larger than many of the provisional shelter models of other organizations, according to Episcopal Relief & Development. They also include an adjacent shower and latrine, which "mitigate against gender violence which is sometimes a problem in shared latrines and shared public bathing facilities," he added.

The families contribute "sweat equity" to their new homes by helping to build them or supplying meals to the laborers who do. Most often the houses are built on the sites of the families' previous home that was destroyed in the earthquake, Radtke said.

The homes are "transitional" because they are designed to last three years and it is expected that families will be able to afford to improve and reinforce them with such materials as cinder blocks as they continue to live in them.

"The sense of excitement and joy that people expressed as they were going back into a home was really delightful and exciting," said Radtke, who met with five female-headed families who were moving into their new houses.

CEDDISEC's cash-for-work program employs people mainly to clear rubble and recycle it to supply gravel for improved dirt roadbeds and to reinforce erosion-prone hillsides. The diocesan development agency has thus far employed 770 people in the program, about 40 percent of whom are women. For 20 days of work, team leaders earned an average of $154 and workers earned an average of $102.

The cash-for-work program is meant to give Haitians a short-term source of income, but "it's not going to be a long-term solution" the way the transitional housing program aims to be, Radtke said. However, the program is tied to CEDDISEC's efforts to promote community recovery through having Episcopal Church parishes lead communities through a process to identify the work that needs to be done and collaborate in accomplishing it.

Radtke called CEDDISEC an "extraordinary organization."

"They were doing really good work before the earthquake. They've been at the cutting edge of responding to the disaster since the beginning," he said of the staff. "But, they themselves are the victims of this disaster. Many of them are still living in tents in order to get their work done, sleeping on the pavement in tents in the rain. And, yet, they get up every morning and come to work and are professional and are committed. So, I have nothing but admiration for CEDDISEC."

"And our role at Episcopal Relief & Development is to support them, which is one of the reasons we have had people like Tammi and some of my other colleagues in Haiti as much as we have." Radtke added. "That goes outside our normal way of responding to disasters, but we felt it was very important to be present, to do as much as we could directly with CEDDISEC and their staff."

Radtke said that "the biggest challenge for anyone working in Haiti right now is infrastructure," which creates "a supply-chain bottleneck."

"The solution is for the Haitian government and the global community like the United Nations and the United States, to get a strategy in place to make the infrastructure in Haiti more robust so that aid and services can get to people," he said.

For instance, the New York Times reported early in July that international experts say it would take three to five years to remove all the debris from Haiti if 1,000 or more trucks worked daily; fewer than 300 trucks are hauling rubble now. Often those trucks are hampered by steep alley streets and unpaved roads.

Radtke, noting that Haitians were "not in great shape on January 11," were traumatized the next day by "one of the worst disasters one could imagine" and are now facing national elections in November.

"Elections in Haiti have almost always been proceeded by and taken place under political instability so you have a very volatile situation," he said. "You get the feeling that people's nerves are frayed and quite reasonably so."

Radtke also said that "the story in Haiti is the things that haven't happened since the earthquake," including epidemics, mass starvation and political violence.

"That's because of a lot of good work is being done, first by the Haitians themselves and being backstopped by the global community, which really stepped-in in important ways for Haiti," he said.

Nets for Life campaign in Diocese of SW VA

Here are the latest figures. Let me know if you have additions & corrections.
My last report is dated 6-30-2010 from ERD.

OrganizationName Total
Abingdon - St. Thomas $- 0
Altavista - St. Peter's $648.00
Amherst - Ascencion $24.00
Amherst - St. Paul $- 0
Bedford - St. John's $- 0
Bedford - St. Thomas $-0
Big Stone Gap - Christ Church $- 0
Blacksburg- Christ Church $- 0
Blue Grass - Good Shepherd $-0
Bluefield - St. Mary $- 0
Bristol - Emmanuel $- 0
Buchanan - Trinity $- 0
Buena Vista - Christ $- 0
Callaway - St. Peters $- 0
Christiansburg - St. Thomas $60.00
Clifford - St. Mark $- 0
Clifton Forge - St. Andrews $240.00
Covington - Emmanuel $740.00
Fincastle - St. Marks $- 0
Folly Mills - Good Shepherd $- 0
Forest - St. Stephens $- 0
Galax - Good Shepherd $473.00
Glasgow - St. John $- 0
Hot Springs - St. Lukes $- 0
Lexington - Robert E. Lee $430.00
Lynchburg - Grace Memorial $1,236.00
Lynchburg - St. John's $36.00
Lynchburg - St. Paul's $96.00
Lynchburg - Trinity $620.00
Marion - Christ Church $- 0
Martinsville - St. Paul $- 0
Martinsville- Christ Church $500.00
Massies Mill - Grace $- 0
Moneta - Trinity Ecumenical $- 0
Nellysford - Peace in the Valley $-0
Norton- All Saints $900.00
Pearisburg - Christ Church $- 0
Pedlar Mills - St. Luke $- 0
Pocahontas - Christ $- 0
Pulaski - Christ Church $- 0
Radford - Grace Church $- 0
Richlands - Trinity $- 0
Roanoke - Christ Church $- 0
Roanoke - St. James $1,387.00
Roanoke - St. Johns $- 0
Roanoke-St. Elizabeth's $- 0
Rocky Mount - Trinity $- 0
Salem - St. Paul's $274.00
Saltville - St. Paul $36.00
St. Paul - St. Mark $- 0
Staunton- Trinity $- 0
Staunton-Emmanuel $- 0
Tazwell - Stras Memorial $- 0
Waynesboro - St. Johns $- 0
Wythville - St. John $- 0
7/26/2010 Dioces Total $7,700.00

NetsforLife® Presented with Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award

NetsforLife® Presented with Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award

June 10, 2010

NetsforLife®, Episcopal Relief & Development’s program partnership to fight malaria, has received the Global Business Coalition Excellence in Business Action Award for outstanding Partnership and Collective Action. The award was presented on June 8 in Washington, DC, during the Global Business Coalition Awards Dinner.

The Global Business Coalition (GBC) was established in 2001, when Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, called for more business involvement in fighting AIDS. Today, the coalition’s 200-plus corporate members engage with a network of governmental and civil society partners to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The Awards for Excellence in Business Action Dinner was part of GBC’s 2010 annual conference, Work Smarter: Global Health Action. Special appearances at the dinner included Annie Lennox; Ashley Judd, Board of Directors, Population Services International (PSI); and Michele Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius gave a keynote address and awards were presented by Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA, and Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

“This award is a visible reminder of the real benefit that this innovative partnership represents,” said the Rt. Rev. Robert J. O’Neill, Board Chair of Episcopal Relief & Development. “Whether we work in the corporate or religious sphere, we all have considerable gifts and resources to bring to the table and put to use saving lives and restoring the God-given dignity of every human being. I am grateful beyond words to all our partners both here and in Africa.”

Managed by Episcopal Relief & Development, NetsforLife® is a collaborative partnership of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, the ExxonMobil Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank, Starr International Foundation and the J. C. Flowers Foundation that implements integrated malaria prevention in 17 malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The collaborative partnership NetsforLife® is a shining example of the possibilities that come from close collaboration between businesses and NGOs,” said Shaun Walsh, Executive Director of NetsforLife®. “The program’s core partnership is a critical one, forged out of recognition that diverse perspectives and strengths are necessary in the fight to eliminate malaria.”

The success of the NetsforLife® program is a result of relationships with a network of faith-based organizations working on the ground in Africa. As active members of local communities, these organizations have helped the program reach 5 million people through malaria messaging, the distribution of nearly 2 million nets and the training of over 14,000 malaria control agents.

NetsforLife® empowers communities by providing life-saving prevention training and long-lasting insecticide-treated nets at no cost to remote communities. The program’s methodology is to collaborate with national malaria programs to mobilize, train and educate volunteers in working together to eliminate the disease and to develop a community-wide understanding of the protective value of nets and the right way to use and maintain them.

The program partnership’s next challenge will be to meet its goal of mobilizing 30,000 volunteers and distributing 7 million nets in sub-Saharan Africa by 2013.

To support the NetsforLife® program, please visit www.er-d.org or call 1.800.334.7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please put “NetsforLife®/Malaria” in the memo line of all checks.

Haiti32

Life still is not easy in Haiti nearly four months after a magnitude-7 earthquake devastated the country, but the Episcopal Diocese of Haitiis working on reconstruction plans and has begun again its long-standing education ministry.

That was the report April 29 from the Rev. Kesner Ajax, Diocese of Haiti partnership coordinator, during a day-long meeting at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. Ajax, who holds a number of positions in the diocese, is also the executive director of the Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes in southwest Haiti.

"It is not easy right now," Ajax said at a briefing for church center employees.

The diocese is dealing with the same problems of poverty that it tried to alleviate before the earthquake, he said. The earthquake damaged or destroyed most of the diocese's churches and other institutions, and shifted the country's population, with many Port-au-Prince residents now living in the countryside. Thus, the diocese, along with the nation, must make decisions about where and how to rebuild, he said, adding "life is supposed to continue."

To that end, a crisis committee convened shortly after the earthquake by Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin will release its master plan for rebuilding "very soon," Ajax said. The plan is expected to guide the diocese's efforts and give other Episcopalians opportunities to partner with Haitians in those efforts.

Meanwhile, he said, some of the 250 schools run by the diocese before the earthquake have re-opened in recent days and weeks. Many are in the countryside, but in Port-au-Prince they also include an elementary school and the College St. Pierre high school, the site of an earthquake survivors' settlement run by the diocese. The diocese's seminary has relocated outside of the capital.

Ajax told the briefing meeting that the Haitian government helped the diocese clean and prepare the elementary and secondary schools for the students' return, but "they did not care about universities and tech schools." While Episcopal University in Port-au-Prince remains closed, its nursing school campus in Léogâne and BTI in Les Cayes are operating again, Ajax said.

The schools reopened despite the fact that some of them have no desks, chairs, toilets or administrative offices. In addition, he said, school officials have been trying to locate the students and their parents. Some moved out to the countryside, while others have left for the U.S., Canada and the Dominican Republic.

In response to questions about the impact of the approaching rainy season on recovery efforts, Ajax said "we cannot talk about a season for disaster in Haiti" because another natural calamity seems to occur before the country has regrouped from the one just past.

Ajax said the work in Haiti is long-term. "We can work together, not to change our situation in one day, but step by step," he said. "Partners are welcome. We have to figure how to go forward with the partnerships. We want to do things right."

"We need your prayer, we need your presence. We would love your money," he said. "All of them are welcome … we feel that we are not alone."

Ajax told ENS later in an interview that "the kingdom of God is always in the process of being built. We have to continue to take care of his church -- take care of his people -- until Jesus comes back."

Alex Baumgarten, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. and its international policy analyst, told the briefing via an email that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori earlier this week conducted a series of "advocacy visits" with the Obama Administration and congressional offices. She focused on U.S. funding for the rebuilding effort, expansion of trade preferences for Haitian exports to the United States, broadening and extending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States while waiving application fees, ending a backlog of 55,000 visas that have been approved, but not actually granted, to Haitians wishing to come to the United States and ending "the unfair interdiction policies of the U.S. Coast Guard, which place unique burdens on Haitians coming to the United States that are disproportionate to those placed on migrants from other countries."

Jefferts Schori also convened a dinner with Haiti experts from non-governmental organizations, academia, and the ecumenical and legal communities as "an opportunity to share experiences and trade wisdom among those supporting the relief and rebuilding effort," Baumgarten's email said.

One of the advocacy visits came April 26 with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti Task Team Coordinator Paul Weisenfeld and Deputy Director of the Department of Health and Human Services'Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Ari Alexander

"The meeting touched on internally displaced persons and the short- and long-term strategies for developing permanent housing settlements, boosting economic investments and partnerships, and leveraging involvement of the Haitian Diaspora," an USAID news release said.

Weisenfeld and Jefferts Schori agreed that USAID and the Episcopal Church will "increase information sharing and outreach," according to the release.

At the end of the church center briefing, Canon Margaret Larom, Episcopal Church global partnerships team leader, told Ajax that "words really fail us to describe the sympathy we have to you and others trying to cope with this day by day. We hope that this day as you are meeting individually with people that you will feel affirmed in your ministry and that we will find more ways to be supportive."

Haiti 31

My colleague Tammi Mott has been stationed in Haiti to work with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti on recovery efforts following the January 12 earthquake. She shares below her experience of the beginning of the rainy season and what it will mean for Haitians already struggling in the quake’s aftermath.

One evening a few weeks ago, as we were winding down the day in Port-au-Prince, heavy rain started falling. Those drops announced the arrival of the rain and hurricane season that will continue through October.

The rainy season is bringing yet another layer of trials for people hit hard by the January 12 earthquake. Philogène Magalie and her family are currently living with about 3,000 others in a tent camp at College St. Pierre, a school run by the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti (our program partner). “The water was coming down on our heads and up around our ankles,” she told me. “All we could do was hold on… and now we are trying to dry out before the rain falls again.”

The biggest and most obvious hardship is for people like Philogène, who is among an estimated 1.3 million that lost their homes to the quake. But really, the rain’s arrival is a huge blow for all. As Père Frantz Cole said, “The rain falls on everyone. It falls on those in camps and those in temporary shelters or homes in disrepair. It falls on people in the flood plains and on the sliding mountainsides, and it falls on the rich and the poor alike.”

Père Cole is Director of CEDDISEC, the development arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. The agency has supplied over 710 tarps, 900 tents and materials for building temporary shelters to more than 2,000 homeless families in Port-au-Prince and around Léogone (the quake’s epicenter). With the rain’s onset, CEDDISEC is helping people raise their tents off the ground with platforms and making sure that drainage systems are in place so shelter areas won’t flood.

It’s bad enough that the rain is adding new challenges to everyday life for people who have already gone through so much. But it’s also dashing the hopes of many who wanted to try to recover their belongings from the rubble. And even those who were lucky enough to salvage items are now struggling to keep them dry, like Philogène’s neighbor in the camp—a local university director who chose to get soaked himself so he could keep his precious books safely covered.

Please pray for the people of Haiti in the face of these ongoing hardships, and for our partners—Bishop Duracin and the diocesan and CEDDISEC staff—who have suffered as much loss as the people they serve, yet continue ministering to the overwhelming needs while trying to plan for the long road to recovery.

_____________

Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting the Diocese of Haiti in addressing the urgent need for transitional housing that will withstand the rainy season. To learn more about our work in Haiti, please visit our Haiti Crisis web page.

Haiti 30

Easter joy comes in the midst of death

Haitian Episcopalians welcome risen Lord, pray for the future

By Pat McCaughan and Mary Frances Schjonberg, April 06, 2010
[Episcopal News Service]

A spirit of resurrection was evident in Haiti's Episcopal churches from the capital city Port-au-Prince to the rural countryside during Holy Week and Easter.

"The devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010, does not stop us from singing in joy and gladness, 'Alleluia, He is risen' in this Easter season," Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin said in his Easter homily, which was read in every Haitian Episcopal Church congregation on Easter morning,

"Even though we are in trouble, we are not alone," Duracin said, calling on Haitians to move into what he has called a "new creation."

"We have to put our faith in action so that the Lord can come deliver us, because he is not far from us, he is in us and he is among us. He is suffering with us, so he can lift us up to rejoice. So we have to be just, we have to love one another, in solidarity, in fraternity, with respect for each other and with respect for our environment, for we cannot destroy God's marvelous creation."

Proclamations of resurrection in the midst of Haiti's devastation and challenging future echoed across the diocese. At St. Andre's Episcopal Church in Hinche, a central Haiti town of some 50,000 located about 80 miles northeast of the capital, organist and school headmaster Etienne Balde said "There is much joy here today. Jesus Christ is risen and we are celebrating."

Duracin preached his homily to several hundred people gathered in what he has been calling the diocese's open-air cathedral, a mostly roofed, wall-less structure of two-by-fours erected on the site of the wreckage of Holy Trinity Cathedral. The ruins of the cathedral are visible behind and to the right of the structure. To the left is an open space where the diocese's Holy Trinity school complex once stood, its ruins recently demolished and carted away.

The last body was removed from the school ruins in late March, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, Episcopal Church-appointed missionary in Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S.

"In the midst of nothingness and devastation, the Haitians welcomed the risen Lord," Stanley told ENS in a telephone interview on Holy Monday April 5 as she drove to Cange for the diocese's annual synod, set for April 6-7.

Stanley returned to Haiti for Holy Week and Easter Week, celebrating her first Easter Eucharist in Haiti on April 4 at the St. James the Just Episcopal Church in Petionville.

"It was beautiful and holy and very hard all at the same time," she said. "The Haitians have known death intimately, and yet proclaimed the resurrection with both great joy and tears."

In his Easter homily, Duracin spoke of "the awful odors from the many bodies [that] have invaded us and invaded us again" and loss of Haiti's traditional mourning rituals in the aftermath of the quake.

"As we reflect on biblical themes such as repentance, conversion, forgiveness, we remember as well a relative, a friend, one who was close to us, all of whom, in most cases, were denied funeral ceremonies where we could say goodbye with human dignity," he said. "Thus, crossing the desert has been and still is long and extremely difficult."

The feeling of celebrating resurrection while walking through the desert was not limited to Haiti's Episcopalians, of course. On Good Friday, a procession of several hundred Roman Catholics paused to pray at the site of the diocese's Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, which as was the case with their own Notre Dame cathedral, was reduced to a pile of rubble during the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 earthquake.

Setting up a portable altar, the officiant prayed while the faithful chanted and sang responses, holding rosaries aloft before they continued through the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Also at Holy Trinity on Good Friday, Duracin and other clergy preached on the Seven Last Words of Christ and venerated the cross.

The Rev. Pierre Auguste, rector of Paroisse Epiphanie in L'Acul in the Léogâne area, which was 85 percent destroyed by the earthquake, compared the earthquake to the Scriptural story of Jesus stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee.

"I was with my family in the car, on the way to Léogâne," he recalled. "The car went up and down three times, and during that moment I experienced a moment like I imagine happened with the apostles when they were crossing the sea with Jesus. Peter saw Jesus coming and was very afraid because of the movement of the sea. But Jesus said 'take
heart, I am with you.'"

Auguste said the feeling remained after he arrived in Léogâne and learned several of his parishioners had died.

"We are in this world to share the glory of the Lord," he added. "I discovered the love of God in that event. Churches fall down, houses fall down, people die, but the love of God is still there, a known force. While on earth we share that, people continue to magnify God of love, love is I Jesus and it must continue among us."

Paroisse Epiphanie's building was destroyed, but the congregation meets on the site every Sunday, he said. The school, which had 124 primary students, is structurally unsound and unsafe, but Auguste hopes to restart classes within the next few weeks using tents.

Meanwhile, at St. Simeon Episcopal Church in Croix-de-Bouquets, about ten miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, the Rev. Frederic Menelas prepared family members and godparents for Easter vigil baptism, and organized a Holy Week youth festival and acolyte retreat for 60 young people. Menelas said he felt a spirit of resurrection throughout the church in Haiti.

"We are without a cathedral, our diocesan institutions have been destroyed, but even though the buildings are not here anymore, the church is still alive," he said.

About 65 miles further north in Hinche, the courtyard of St. Andre's buzzed with activity on Holy Saturday April 3, beginning with the sounds of choir rehearsals as early as 7 a.m.

Later in the day, the voices of participants in two retreats -- one for women's ministries and the other an acolyte festival -- could be heard raised in song.

During the vigil that evening, the Rev. Waldin DeCamps told a packed church that the good news of the resurrection was that they, too, could enjoy new beginnings and new life.

"As Christ is risen so we, too, can rise to a new way of thinking, a new way of reflecting, a new way of enlightenment … a rebirth to renew our daily life in the way we think and act and behave," said DeCamps, St. Andre's rector, who also oversees 14 mission congregations, and is training five seminarians, some of whom are assigned to the mission congregations near Hinche.

On Easter Sunday, St. Andre's three-hour service included worship in French and Creole with several guest choirs and bands. A bus from St. Matthias Church in Thomond arrived with about 50 people including the Union Brothers, guest singers and dancers who performed during the service.

At St. James the Just, Easter vigil was followed by an early Easter morning English Eucharist which was attended by many relief and aid workers from various denominations, Stanley said. That service was followed by a Eucharist in French.

As they celebrated, Haitians looked to the future. Each congregation took up a collection on Easter for the rebuilding of Holy Trinity Cathedral.

"Haitians are putting up the forward the first dollars for reconstruction of the cathedral," Stanley said, adding that the collections will be presented and tallied during the diocese's annual synod.

Echoing Duracin's call for solidarity and fraternity, Stanley said churches, aid organizations and all those who want to help Haiti rebuild have to cooperate.

"The problem is it's been more competition than it has been cooperation. It's the people at the bottom who have suffered from that," she said. "In this new creation, we're going to have to learn to cooperate on everything and if we do that, then the people's voice will be heard and then the people will be helped."

That help is desperately needed, Duracin said, describing in his homily that "with millions of people without proper shelter, without work, living in desperate conditions, the situation is truly lamentable."

Haiti 29

Plans to rebuild Holy Trinity in Port-au-Prince

A coordinated plan to rebuild the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti's world-famous Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince is getting underway.

Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has asked Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe Bishop Pierre Whalon to guide what is expected to be a multi-step, multi-year and multi-million-dollar effort.

It is hoped that the cathedral project can be a model of the sort of cooperation that Haiti has said it wants to promote among its partners as the numerically largest diocese of the Episcopal Church develops and implements its plan to rebuild following the devastating magnitude-7 earthquake of Jan. 12.

The first step for those who want to help Haitian Episcopalians, Whalon said in a telephone interview from Paris, is to "adopt a much more Christian-family point of view. It's their house that got torn down. They have to say how they want to rebuild it."

The next step for what is being called the Partners with Haiti project is connecting with people who want to help, Whalon said. He has already appointed a small steering committee to expand upon a desire among members of the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris and elsewhere to aid in the rebuilding, Whalon said. The bishop, president of the Francophone Network of the Anglican Communion, said that many other French-speaking Episcopalians and Anglicans have already pledged their support.

Once the diocese has envisioned a new cathedral, the next step will be helping the diocese solicit an architect that can turn that vision into an actual building, Whalon said. He suggested that there would be some "non-negotiables" involved in the choice of architects, including experience building churches and earthquake-resistant structures, and being willing to commit to having a long-term physical presence in Haiti, to employing Haitian workers and to teaching local architects about earthquake-resistant design and construction techniques.

But first comes the listening, Whalon said.

"We have to be the friend of the Haitians rather than telling them how it's going to be," he said. "There are a lot of people there now saying 'this is what we're going to do for you' and aren't really asking 'is this what you want us to do for you?'"

"We simply cannot continue to think of Haiti as people who are dependent on outsiders. That's how they were considered to be when they were slaves," he said. "They couldn't think for themselves and if they had any inkling that they could, that was taken care of pretty quickly."

Calling Whalon "the right person to guide this effort," the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an appointed Episcopal Church missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that "Bishop Duracin has entrusted Bishop Whalon to guide the effort to rebuild the cathedral, in great part because he has promised to listen and that the cathedral will be rebuilt according to what the Haitians want."

Part of that listening, Whalon said, has to do with waiting for Haitian Episcopalians to develop a complete master plan for rebuilding all of their diocese. Duracin has spoken repeatedly about the ongoing work involved in formulating the plan, most recently in a March 5 letter to the church. Whalon predicted that the diocese's eventual plan will dovetail with the Haitian government's rebuilding efforts.

While some people may wonder about the progress being made more than three months after the quake struck, Whalon suggested that "people need to be very patient because you're talking about rebuilding an entire nation from the ground up. Therefore, the things closest to the ground are the things that need to be dealt with now" such as sanitation, hurricane-resistant temporary housing, restoration of the educational system and electrical power generation.

"There's a hierarchy of needs here and the most basic [of them] need to be met first," he said, adding that many people are calling for a rethinking of how those basic services were provided before the earthquake and how changes can be included in the rebuilding.

Whalon said that the project's pledge to listen to and respond to Haitian Episcopalians' desires for rebuilding "is crucial in terms of this project being a model for the reconstruction of the country as well as the diocese."

Holy Trinity was established in Port-au-Prince during Pentecost, May 25, 1863. Its church has since been destroyed six times, often by fire. The cathedral destroyed in the earthquake dated to the 1920s.

World-famous frescoes adorned the walls of that cathedral building. The paintings, completed in 1950-51, portrayed biblical stories in Haitian motifs and were crafted by some of the best-known Haitian painters of the 20th century. Portions of only a few of the frescoes are still standing among the ruins, including the baptism of Christ and, possibly, the Last Supper. Photos of the destruction of the cathedral can be seen here.

The cathedral is still operating on the site, albeit without walls. Whalon preached at Holy Trinity earlier this month, standing in what Duracin is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral." It consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins. A week later Whalon preached the same sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

The bishop told ENS that a fund for Haiti reconstruction, called for at the February meeting of the church's Executive Council, could prove to be an excellent way to coordinate efforts to aid the Diocese of Haiti's rebuilding in general and Holy Trinity in particular.

"My eye is set on that fund as the locus for fundraising so that it all goes to one place and we all know what we have," he said.

As the effort continues to jell, Whalon plans to brief the March 19-24 House of Bishops meeting about the project, and the Very Rev. Zachary Fleetwood, dean of the American Cathedral in Paris, will do the same at the April 15-19 North American Cathedral Deans Association Conference.

Stanley echoed Whalon's larger hopes for the project. "Our hope is that, as we begin to rebuild after we develop our master plan, our partnerships will improve and will become more of a true partnership that will last for decades," she said. "What we want to do is to have each player at the table be a full partner listening to each other, caring for each other and working together hand-in-hand."

"We have a good partnership program; we want to improve it," she added. "We know that many of our partners are frustrated sometimes because of the linguistic challenges and the communications challenges and we are hoping that in strengthening the partnership program we will lessen frustrations on both sides and increase our ability to work together as brothers and sisters in Christ."

Haiti 28

'Now is our new creation,' Haiti bishop tells Episcopal Church

March 05, 2010

Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has written to the wider church saying that the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck the country Jan. 12 "was our baptism."
"Now is our new creation," Duracin wrote on March 5.

Duracin also asked for Episcopalians' patience as the diocese develops what he called a master plan to replace the physical structures of the diocese, which was devastated by the earthquake. The goal of that rebuilding will be to "continue to serve Haitian people with the same love, the same care, and the same support that we have always shown," he wrote.

Most of the diocese's churches and schools were destroyed or heavily damaged. The convent of the Sisters of St. Margaret, adjacent to the cathedral, was also destroyed.

The lost schools include the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools next to the demolished diocesan cathedral, the university and the seminary, all in Port-au-Prince. A portion of the St. Vincent School for Handicapped Children, also in the Haitian capital, collapsed. Students and possibly staff were killed at some of the schools.

The diocese, known locally as Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 to 30,000 Haitians in roughly 60 settlements around the country. The earthquake left an estimated 230,000 people dead and many towns in ruins; countless people have left the capital for the countryside.

The text of Duracin's letter is below and available here.

The earthquake has not destroyed our hope in the future

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Seven weeks after we were hit by the 7.0 earthquake on the Richter scale, the situation is still very serious in Haiti.
As you know, many people were killed, perhaps as many as 300,000. Thousands and thousands of others have been injured. In the Church, we have lost many people. Millions of Haitians have no place to live; many are sleeping in the streets in tents, and some of them still have not found any shelter at all. All the infrastructure of the country, as well as all the key institutions of the Diocese, have been destroyed, especially in the capital of Port au Prince. The situation is very difficult.

Many of our famous churches are gone, especially Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was not only a place of worship, but a place of culture. The Cathedral was a very important institution for the whole country. Yes, it has been physically destroyed, but our faith is still here and our communities are still alive. The earthquake has not destroyed our hope in the future. Despite the difficulties we face, many of our parishes have grown larger since the earthquake, because more and more people trust our Church and are turning to us for help spiritually, socially and morally.

We are still a strong Church and we will continue to work with you in partnership to be able to build up the Kingdom of God on earth through evangelism, education, health care and our development programs. We will work together to preach a holistic Gospel so that human beings may become more fully human in the face of God.

We will have to rebuild all of our communities. We in the Diocese are working very hard to have a Master Plan to replace the physical structures of the Church, so that we may continue to serve Haitian people with the same love, the same care, and the same support that we have always shown. Our mission will not change. We pray that God will continue to give us strength to do all this work despite so many difficulties. We ask you to please be patient and wait for our guidance as we put together this plan so that we can determine how our resources can be used most effectively. Once we have made our decisions, we will announce the plan. To assist us in using all of our resources in the best possible way, and to provide the best accounting of donations, I ask all of our partners in traditional programs to resume sending donations through the Partnership Program. The fastest and safest way to do this is by wiring the money into the Partnership Program account; the Rev. Kesner Ajax, Partnership Program Coordinator, can provide that information to any who require it.

I am grateful for all of the support and assistance of The Church Center and especially of the Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. Her visit to us in February, even though it was short, gave us great strength here in Haiti, and I am deeply thankful for our time together. We appreciate very much the willingness of The Church Center to continue to work with us in the Master Plan to rebuild the Diocese.

In addition, I give thanks for the visit of The Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, Bishop Suffragan of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, who is visiting right now on the Presiding Bishop’s behalf. I also give thanks to all of the bishops and dioceses of The Episcopal Church for their prayers and support, and for telling our story. Some of them have been directly involved in supporting me and my wife, Edithe, during our difficult time; all of our family is especially thankful for this.

Special thanks must be given to Episcopal Relief and Development; all of us are grateful for its assistance and work in providing us food, shelter, water, medicines and all other forms of support to help us survive these difficult times.

In addition, it was very good to receive The Most Rev. Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Primate of Cape Town, and The Rt. Rev. Laish Boyd, Bishop of Nassau and The Bahamas, who are visiting at this moment. I also give thanks to all other bishops and archbishops of the Anglican Communion who have expressed their support to us.

The earthquake of Jan. 12 was our baptism; now is our new creation. In this new creation, we pray to all work together, and we ask that you give us the time we need, first to care for our people, then to rebuild the Kingdom.

In this Lenten season, the season of repentance, conversion and intense prayers, we ask you to remember our Diocese and all the people of Haiti in this difficult moment. We also ask you to continue to support us by your prayers and your gifts, so that by Eastertide, we will be able to sing together with great joy, "Alleluia! He is Risen!"

I bid you my blessings for this holy season.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Jean Zaché Duracin
Bishop of Haiti

Haiti 27

The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti: Beginning the Long Journey to Recovery

“The grace of the Haitians I’ve met has been astounding,” said Katie Mears, Episcopal Relief & Development’s Program Director for US Disaster Preparedness and Response. Mears has been working on the ground with partners in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic since the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010.

“You encounter people who don’t even have enough food to take care of their families, and they’re so thankful that you’re trying to help them that they cook a meal in your honor. It’s truly amazing.”

As the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti was already suffering due to lack of a strong central infrastructure. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori commented on January 13 that “Even under ‘normal’ circumstances, Haiti struggles to care for her 9 million people.”

The magnitude of this was disaster overwhelming. The quake had a crippling effect on both the government and the other agencies that usually spring into action during times of disaster. As a result, the mechanisms usually employed to coordinate large-scale relief efforts in times of emergency were not enacted. Because of the damage, airports and seaports were ill-equipped to handle an influx of international relief workers. Rubble covering the roads meant that the aid organizations able to reach Haiti were unable to easily transport goods inside the country or quickly provide care to those in need.

“Thankfully, our pre-existing partnerships in the area enabled us to react swiftly to this catastrophe,” said Abagail Nelson, Episcopal Relief & Development’s Senior Vice President for Programs. “The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, which is one of the largest and most socially-engaged dioceses in the Church, has been able to offer refuge and deliver assistance in the absence of other systems for the provision of relief.”

Immediately after the quake, the Diocese of Haiti used support from Episcopal Relief & Development to give assistance to survivors throughout the greater Port-au-Prince and Leogane area, including the provision of food, water and shelter. Since that time, the diocese has expanded its reach and is now serving over 25,000 people at 60 sites throughout the country. Episcopal Relief & Development continues to work with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti to expand its capacity to serve those in need.

However, as described by the Rt. Rev. Zaché Duracin, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, the stress of the situation is unimaginable: “Dear ones were lost, houses, clothes, possessions, memories – lives are reduced to nothing.” Despite suffering great personal and professional losses in the wake of the disaster, including the destruction of the cathedral, clergy and diocesan staff immediately took up the mantle of caring for those who turned to the Church in this time of need.

Bishop Duracin has remained steadfast in his commitment to the people, refusing to abandon his post even when his wife was evacuated to receive medical care for injuries sustained during the quake. He has continued to work closely with clergy and with staff of the diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development to coordinate relief efforts. He commented, “We are taking care of so many people…we are in very, very serious need.”

Haiti’s Diocesan Development Officer and the diocese’s 28 development agents have been crucial human resources in the face of this tragedy. Prior to the quake, they were participating in an ongoing program run by the diocese in partnership with Episcopal Relief & Development. Established in response to the series of tropical storms that slammed the island in 2008, the program focuses on training in disaster response and community development. This training and the network of relationships created through the program have been invaluable in the wake of this most recent emergency.

“One of the most difficult things about this disaster is the ever-changing landscape of needs left in its wake,” said Nelson. “There are so many challenges to face - transportation and communication issues have greatly complicated relief efforts.”

One of the agents’ most important tasks has been to conduct needs assessments in their respective communities. They are collaborating closely with Bishop Duracin and his emergency committee to communicate their findings and set priorities for ongoing relief and recovery efforts. Bishop Duracin said in a letter to Episcopal Relief & Development President Rob Radtke, “We…have a vision and a plan for this relief and recovery effort. We know the situation on the ground [and] we are directing emergency relief to those who need it most.”

In addition to assessing needs, the development agents are assisting with the distribution of aid and coordinating the disbursement of supply shipments to communities in which they work. They have also delivered emergency water purification systems to 20 sites throughout the country and have trained community members in the systems’ proper use and maintenance.

“Many people don’t realize that there are immense needs not only in Port-au-Prince, which is receiving the majority of the media attention and focus from aid organizations, but also in communities around the country,” said Rob Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief & Development. “Getting food and water to remote areas has been a huge challenge that we’re working to address. We’re deeply concerned that not enough assistance is being provided to those living outside the nation’s capital.”

Reaching these communities continues to be a key priority for Episcopal Relief & Development and its partners. “The creativity and commitment of the Diocese of Haiti in getting supplies to the people that need it has been incredible,” commented Nelson. “In the absence of other reliable methods, donkeys have even been used to transport critical materials to remote areas. The flexibility of our partners in the face of such challenging circumstances has been a critical aspect of our success in dealing with an extremely complex disaster.”

While the rescue phase of disaster response has ended, the relief phase is still well underway. Haiti’s President, Rene Preval, has stated that it will take at least three years to clear the rubble left in the wake of the earthquake. With that in mind, one can only imagine how long it will take for Haiti to fully recover.

However, Episcopal Relief & Development is fully committed to supporting its partners in Haiti throughout this process. While needs are still being identified, initial discussions have indicated that activities in the coming months and years may include the rebuilding of lost houses, the construction of sanitation systems and the rejuvenation of livelihoods .

“During Lent, we are given a unique opportunity to reflect our commitment to self and community,” said Radtke. “The road to Haiti’s recovery will be a long one and we are immensely grateful for the continued support of the Church, which will be invaluable as we work with our partners to help these communities bounce back from this disaster.’’

Haiti 26

Prayers for Haiti

The Rev. Nicole Janelle, a member of Episcopal Peace Fellowship, is vicar and chaplain at St. Michael's University Chapel in Isla Vista, California.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti destroyed the tools of many empowering Episcopal ministries in the Diocese of Haiti. Episcopal churches, primary and secondary schools, universities and vocational schools, hospitals and clinics no longer are able to serve the countless Haitians who depend on these institutions for their spiritual, educational and medical needs. One of the many ministries in the diocese that will need to be rebuilt in the future is the Episcopal Peace Fellowship nonviolence library at the Bishop Tutu Center.
In 2008, EPF initiated a partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti focused on providing nonviolence training to young adults and professionals in the diocese. That summer, before the hurricanes struck, EPF held its first nonviolence training in Port-au-Prince. Approximately 70 young adults from around the country attended, spending several days studying nonviolence theory and practice at College St. Pierre, one of the diocese's many primary schools that was destroyed in the earthquake.

EPF board member Will Wauters and I made the journey to Haiti to attend that training, eager to make connections with the participants and to support the workshop facilitator.

Three months later, back in Haiti to attend the annual Haiti Connection conference and accompany the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori on her first pastoral visit to the diocese, I met with some of the same young adults who participated in the nonviolence training to talk about ideas for subsequent trainings. The young adults were keen on receiving more instruction and didactic tools that would allow them to train their peers in their schools and churches. They especially spoke of the need to receive training to deal with domestic, gang and political violence.

During that visit, I gifted on behalf of EPF several books on nonviolence written in French. These books found a home at the Bishop Tutu Center based in the diocesan cathedral complex. As books are scarce in Haiti, the nonviolence library at the Tutu Center enabled groups and individuals within the diocese to read and discuss important texts. In fact, shortly thereafter, a group began to meet weekly at the Tutu Library to engage in this sort of conversation.

Though the Diocese of Haiti is still in an emergency-response mode, plans to rebuild the diocese will soon emerge. EPF stands ready to engage in that process of rebuilding as directed by the bishop and people of the Diocese of Haiti. Ongoing sales of the EPF nonviolence organic tee shirts are being donated to Episcopal Relief & Development for immediate relief work. Donations to EPF earmarked to rebuild the nonviolence lending library will allow EPF to replace the books and nonviolence manuals lost in the rubble of the quake.

During her recent pastoral visit to Haiti, our presiding bishop remarked to Bishop Duracin: "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday." This Lenten season I hold in my prayers the faces and names of the young adults I was privileged to meet in Haiti. As I flip through the many pictures on my computer of our training, I realize that I do not know who in that group is still alive.

Along with Bishop Duracin, I pray that we will soon be able to sing our Alleluias with Episcopalians in Haiti. Until then, I wait in solidarity with my Haitian brothers and sisters in the Lenten desert, praying that they will find the strength to emerge from the unimaginable destruction of this tragedy.

Haiti 25

Executive Council vows long-time support for Haiti, gives church $10 million challenge

By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 22, 2010

[Episcopal News Service – Omaha, Nebraska] The Episcopal Church's Executive CouncilDiocese of Haiti as it continues to minister to earthquake survivors and plans its long-term rebuilding efforts, while challenging the church to raise at least $10 million to help pay for that rebuilding. pledged Feb. 22 to stand by the

The council said (via Resolution WM011) that "Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must be directed by the Haitian people" and affirmed "the authority of Bishop [Jean Zaché] Duracin and the leaders he appoints to request and direct the resources required to rebuild the damaged institutions and impacted congregations of the diocese."

Meanwhile, Executive Council also issued a message to the church, saying that during its meeting it "was exhorted to humility and patience, inspired to action in the cause of justice, and reminded of the importance of the seemingly mundane."

"Meeting in the beginning of Lent we were constantly reminded of the power of God in Jesus Christ to redeem and save, in the moment and for all time," council said before going on to outline the results of its work in Omaha.

The $10-million Haiti challenge grew out of council member Mark Harris's call to the council to set aside a tithe from the remainder of the church's 2010-2012 budget for the reconstruction of the church in Haiti. He said that "the hurt to the family" in Haiti "requires a pledge on our part that doesn't come from the largess or the abundance of our lives, but comes from the core and, I would suggest, essentially our flesh." Without such support, Harris said, the future of the church in Haiti will "suffer in ways which we would be very sad to see happen."

Council members said they stand ready to receive Duracin's assessment of the diocese's needs and will review the church's support for the rebuilding effort at subsequent meetings. They also said the council "strongly supports" Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's "efforts to marshal the resources of the wider church" in support of Haiti, and to work directly with Duracin "in ensuring these resources are provided in the most effective manner."

Martha Gardener successfully asked her colleagues to commemorate the death of Lisa Mbele-Mbong during the earthquake by having the council's Haiti resolution state that relief and development efforts ought to recognize the human rights and dignity of all Haitians, especially vulnerable groups, and to ensure that Haitians are fully involved in the planning and execution of all relief and development projects.

Mbele-Mbong, the daughter of Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe General Convention deputy Helena Mbele-Mbong and her husband, Samuel, was a human rights officer for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. She died in the collapse of the UN building during the quake.

The resolution also commends the work of Episcopal Relief & Development and Haiti's neighbors in the Diocese of the Dominican Republic for their assistance.

In addition, the council urged Episcopalians to continue praying for "our brothers and sisters in Haiti" during the Prayers of the People and other occasions, and to support the long-term recovery effort through continued donations to Episcopal Relief & Development's Haiti fund, "recalling that, as our Lord taught us, to care for the least fortunate among us is to care for him."

Earlier in the day, Abagail Nelson, Episcopal Relief & Development senior vice president for programs, described the agency's efforts in the month since the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 quake. Although dealing with an almost unimaginable level of chaos during the two weeks after the quake, Nelson said, the agency has thus far provided more than 60 tons of food to survivors, is supplying at least 100 tents each day after coping with a worldwide shortage, and continues to work on various medical, sanitation, communication and other logistical needs.

She reported that the agency and diocese now believe that between 25,000 and 30,000 survivors are living in more than 60 settlements connected to the diocese.

Nelson showed council an ongoing mapping project designed to help the diocese and the wider church assess the extent of damage to diocesan institutions and track relief efforts. The "extraordinary information-gathering effort" is being led by the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., who is working with "an amazing crackerjack team" of four young people using a map provided by the U.S. Army's Southern Command, Nelson said.

A partnership between the Episcopal Church in Haiti and the U.S. Army "has rapidly formed since the earthquake," Nelson said. "We're really the first religious organization to be working with the government this way and the hope is that, longer term with a lot of this information, we'll be better able to serve the people."

As rebuilding plans become clearer, Nelson said, her agency wants to ensure that the work is done "in a way that doesn't just build back to what was there before" but to add improvements "to invest in a better future for everyone."

Meanwhile, Nelson said, Episcopal Relief & Development also continues to work with its 46 partner countries and urged council members to tell people not to forget "the wide need" around the world.

"We believe in a God of abundance and we know that as we move forward we can help rebuild the church in Haiti and help engage with all these other ministries," she said.

Haiti 24

As we enter the Lenten season, my colleague Luke Fodor has shared some thoughts on Ash Wednesday and what it means to be “marked” as followers of Jesus:

Today many of us will go to church and experience that familiar annual ritual of receiving an ashen cross marked on our foreheads. Since the 9th century, the Church has commenced the holy season of Lent with the imposition of ashes, as a reminder that we “are dust and to dust we shall return.” This ritual is the highlight of the service. On the streets of Manhattan, like in other cities across the country, many do not even have to darken the door of a church to receive ashes, as priests stand ready to mark passersby.

Last year, the terror of this simple penitential service shook me as I took my eight-month-old son forward to receive ashes on his forehead. Seeing the ash on his head brought me out of any isolated, individual or maudlin thoughts about my own mortality or my own sin. Seeing the ash on his soft skin caused something to crumble inside of me. Even the newly born—so pure and so innocent—are marked for death.

This year, as I prepare to again enter into the terror of Ash Wednesday, my thoughts are with our Haitian brothers and sisters. It seems their whole existence is marked with dust. Today, as our Haitian brothers and sisters receive that mark on their heads, how can they not remember the dust in their mouths left by the quake that has turned their lives upside down? How can they not remember their loved ones and their homes that are now nothing but dust and rubble? And yet, we have all seen news footage—the inexplicable singing of hymns and banding together as a community—that shows the resilient spirit of the Haitian people.

Yes, on this Ash Wednesday as we collectively receive ashes, let us all remember that we are marked for death. That simple ashen cross reminds us of our mortality—but it also speaks of hope. It is a reminder of another cross, one marked in oil, that once adorned our head at our baptisms. And though that oil has long ago soaked into our skin or been wiped away, it has indelibly marked us. In dying with Christ, we live again. We live again, and not for ourselves, but for others. We have taken a covenant at our baptism “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

As we see ashen foreheads, turbaned foreheads or blank foreheads all around us, how can we as followers of the Anointed One love them? We are marked for death and we are marked for a life of selfless service. On this Ash Wednesday, I echo that sacred invitation to a Holy Lent. I invite you to meditate on this simple question: How can you, like our Lord Jesus, be a person marked for others?

Hait 23

We'll do some links for this Monday morning:

New York Times article:

Episcopal Relief & Development Haiti Page with Bulletin Inserts

Why did so many die in Haiti?

Hurricane Season may Batter Haiti

Haiti 22

Presiding Bishop says Episcopalians must commit to Haiti's future
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 10, 2010

The wider Episcopal Church can most effectively help the earthquake-ravaged Diocese of Haiti by praying, contributing to emergency relief efforts and planning how it will help the diocese achieve the rebuilding priorities that it will eventually set.

That is the assessment Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori came away with after visiting Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey the damage wrought by Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.

Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin and other surviving members of the diocese need help now and they need time to discern a plan for the future, the presiding bishop told ENS during a Feb. 10 interview.

"The challenge is that they're still very much in emergency-response mode and I think will be for some time to come," she said. "They're still not able to get food and water and shelter to everybody who needs it, so that's got to be the immediate focus."

Jefferts Schori also said she felt moved by the people who were hard at work at every site she visited. For example, she said, at the ruins of the Episcopal University of Haiti "it was just incredibly touching to see those folks at the university using mauls to break up the building pieces so that they can look for bodies -- and they are clearly there, you can smell them."

The presiding bishop said she went to Haiti after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba because it was essential to assure Duracin of the wider church's support. Plus, she said she wanted "to get a sense of how we might be most helpful for the long haul."

The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. The earthquake left an estimated 230,000 people dead and many towns in ruins; countless people have left the capital for the countryside.

Jefferts Schori said that the wider church must remember that Haitian Episcopalians, including Duracin, are struggling to get their basic needs met, and that long-term planning will come later.

"The bishop is going to need his own support system in order to return to highly functional leadership," she said. "Don't expect the bishop to have a strategy; it is far too early for that. He's dealing with his own immense losses."

For instance, Duracin has only seen his severely injured wife Marie-Edithe three times since she was evacuated from Port-au-Prince a few days after the earthquake. Her injured leg was initially treated at Zanmi Lasante in Cange and later on the USNS Comfort hospital ship. From there, she and son James were transported Feb. 9 by the by U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to Tampa General Hospital in Tampa. Diocese of Southwest Florida Bishop Dabney Smith is coordinating pastoral care for the Duracins.

Jefferts Schori said that once the emergency-response phase is behind them, Haitian Episcopalians will be able to begin stabilizing their diocese and strategizing about the future. While Episcopal Relief & Development is well-positioned to help the diocese with emergency needs and help it begin to set priorities for the future as well as develop strategies for meeting those priorities, she said, "ERD cannot do all of that. They do not, for example, rebuild church buildings."

The presiding bishop suggested that "there's going to be immense need for partnership for the longer term."

"Dioceses [in the U.S. part of the Episcopal Church] can probably be most helpful by thinking about how they can mobilize people to assist in that work," she said.

She suggested that those dioceses could "begin their own rebuilding funds with the trust that direction for how to use those funds is somewhere down the road."

Meanwhile, Jefferts Schori said she wanted to discourage dioceses from deciding on their own that they will rebuild a specific Haitian church or diocesan ministry building.

"The priorities are going to need to come from the Diocese of Haiti -- the priorities and the strategy -- and it's going to be some months before they begin to emerge," she said.

Individual Episcopalians are called to prayer for their brothers and sisters in Haiti, she said, and to giving to Episcopal Relief & Development.

"You [also] can begin to challenge your parish and your diocese to begin to think about the longer-term rebuilding efforts," she added. "Collecting funds for that is probably the most appropriate thing to do."

Jefferts Schori urged Episcopalians to commit themselves to helping in what will be a multi-year process of recovery and redevelopment.

"The Diocese of Haiti has had a major impact for 150 years on the nation of Haiti," she said. "They will be again, but it's going to be a number of years before they are able to function at the same level they were before the earthquake."

The presiding bishop acknowledged that such a long-term focus can be a challenge in itself.

"Maintaining an awareness of the ongoing nature of this tragedy is going to be the toughest for at least those of us who live in a society that moves on to the next issue," she said.

Jefferts Schori visited Port-au-Prince with the Rev. Lauren Stanley, one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.

"She's a powerhouse. She's working overtime. She's working at 150 percent," Jefferts Schori told ENS, noting that in Stanley's first five months in Haiti she had established good working relationships with the Haitian clergy and learned to speak Creole.

"She understands very clearly the challenges and the systemic complications, so she is an immensely effective witness both here [in the U.S.] and in Haiti for the ongoing challenges and needs," Jefferts Schori said.

Haiti 21

Presiding Bishop pays pastoral visit to Haitian bishop

'You have already had your Good Friday,' Jefferts Schori tells Duracin
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 08, 2010

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori paid a poignant visit to Port-au-Prince Feb. 8 to survey with Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin the devastation wrought by the Jan. 12 magnitude 7.0 earthquake.

After climbing over the ruins of the diocese's Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the presiding bishop turned to Duracin and said "You should skip Lent this year; you have already had your Good Friday."

"Yes, we can all sing Alleluias together," Duracin replied, according to the Rev. Lauren Stanley, who accompanied Jefferts Schori on her five-hour visit. Pointing to some of the cathedral's 13 bells that were visible among the ruins and that appeared to be salvageable, Jefferts Schori said "they will ring again" and that the cathedral "will rise again," according to Stanley.

While at the cathedral, Jefferts Schori and Duracin said prayers at what the Haitian bishop is calling the diocese's "open-air cathedral," which consists of some plastic sheeting stretched over a frame of two-by-fours that shelters some pews rescued from the cathedral ruins.

The two bishops each prayed aloud with those who happened to be at the site. Some of the older women members of the cathedral were combing the ruins for pieces of the building's world-famous murals depicting biblical stories in Haitian motifs. The gathered congregation also sang "How Great Thou Art" in French, Stanley said.

During the visit, Stanley said, Duracin asked her to "tell the world that physically the church is broken, but the church is still there in faith. Our faith is still strong." She said the bishop asked for the support of Episcopalians everywhere to help Haitians rebuild the structures of the church because that work "will have a positive impact on our faith. It will bring us courage, confidence and a good future." "We are approaching Lent," Stanley quoted Duracin as saying. "I ask people to be with us in the desert so that on Easter, all of us in Haiti and all the Episcopal Church may sing together in joy: 'Alleluia, Alleluia, the Lord is risen indeed.'"

The trip was also meant for Jefferts Schori and Duracin to talk about the immediate and future directions of the diocese. The presiding bishop assured Duracin that the entire Episcopal Church stood with his diocese in prayer and support, and would continue to do so, according to Stanley.
Stanley is one of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to Haiti and the only one who was not in-country at the time of the Jan. 12 quake. Duracin has asked Stanley to help the diocese coordinate offers of relief and recovery made by others in the Episcopal Church, and to tell the diocese's story.

Stanley said part of the discussion in Port-au-Prince centered on how she can continue to assist Duracin and the diocese by splitting her time between Haiti and the U.S. As part of that work, she will begin to help coordinate the work of Episcopalians elsewhere in the church who have interests in or connections with specific places and ministries in Haiti, she said.
Stanley said she was gratified to hear Duracin's confidence in her ability to help the diocese connect more strongly with "our partners who are working together to help God's beloved children in Haiti."

Stanley, who spoke with ENS by phone from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, after the visit, said that Duracin wanted the presiding bishop to see the extent of the devastation the diocese suffered. While the full extent of damage is still being assessed, it is clear that most of the diocese's churches and schools were destroyed or heavily damaged. The convent of the Sisters of St. Margaret, adjacent to the cathedral, was also destroyed.

The lost schools include the Holy Trinity complex of primary, music and trade schools next to the demolished diocesan cathedral, the university and the seminary. A portion of the St. Vincent School for Handicapped Children, also in the Haitian capital, collapsed. Students and possibly staff were killed at some of the schools.

Stanley said that Duracin, Jefferts Schori and she visited the Holy Trinity school complex, the Episcopal University and the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake. (The diocese, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps around the country. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside.)

The three also surveyed Duracin's home which collapsed in the quake, trapping and severely injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe. Duracin has told ENS that he is been spending his night sleeping in a tent outside another home that he was having built for his family.
The Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, drove the three around the city. Everywhere they where they saw evidence of destruction and death, Stanley said. The Holy Trinity music school once housed the country's only concert hall, but now "you can see where it came smashing straight down and there are still bodies of our students in there as well," Stanley said.

Duracin told them that "this is why we cannot just use a bulldozer" to clear the wreckage.
There is a common grave just outside of the Episcopal University and Stanley said they stopped to pray at that grave. One of the lower level classrooms that was destroyed usually had more than 100 students in it, she said, but only nine bodies have been found. People are going through the rubble by hand searching for the dead.

On the street outside the university, there is an outdoor holding cell for prisoners, Stanley said.
At the diocesan trade school, only the façade is still standing, Stanley said.
"There nothing left except bodies," she said. "We could actually see one body at the ruins."
Stanley said: "It was heart-wrenching to see the city that I love -- to see the things that this church has done for so many years that makes me so proud to be an Episcopalian in Haiti -- totally gone," Stanley said. "It is beyond heart-breaking. I don't have adequate words to describe the devastation."

Jefferts Schori flew to Santo Domingo on Feb. 7 from Havana, Cuba, after being a co-consecrator at the Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio's consecration and ordination as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Church of Cuba. She and Stanley, who met her in the Dominican Republic capital, flew into Port-au-Prince the next day for the visit. They brought with them a number of gifts and supplies for Duracin and the diocese, including six episcopal clergy shirts for the bishop that were a gift from the Church Pension Group, three liturgical stoles and 3,000 communion wafers from the presiding bishop, and pants and socks for Duracin and a bottle of Taylor tawny port communion wine from Stanley.

She also gave the bishop an alb and cincture that was purchased by Rhonda Bush, an administrator at Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Virginia. The church, where Stanley was priested and which still supports her missionary work, offered a requiem mass Feb. 4 for the victims of the earthquake who were members of the Church of St. James the Just in Pétionville, Haiti. Stanley serves the English-speaking congregation there.

"In our culture it is very important that the leader look like a leader," Stanley said. "In the church in Haiti, it's very important that the bishop look like the bishop because when he is properly dressed and properly vested then we know that he can take care of us and we know that we have not been forgotten."

Duracin told Stanley that the bread and wine will be used Feb. 12 during the Episcopal Church's part of the nationwide prayer services planned to mark the one month anniversary of the earthquake.

Stanley also brought with her a nearly 150-year-old brass cross that had once been part of a processional cross used by missionaries. She was given the cross by the Woodson family of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, whose members attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church there. While looking through the rubble at College Ste. Pierre, Stanley said, the presiding bishop found a staff that might have been a short processional cross or a verger'swand and which the three discovered fit the cross perfectly.

HAITI 20

G7 nations pledge debt relief for quake-hit Haiti

The world's leading industrialised nations have pledged to write off the debts that Haiti owes them, following a devastating earthquake last month.

Canada's finance minister announced at a summit in Iqaluit, northern Canada, that Group of Seven countries planned to cancel Haiti's bilateral debts. Jim Flaherty said he would encourage international lenders to do the same. Some $1.2bn (£800m) of Haiti's debts to countries and international lending bodies has already been cancelled.

"We are committed in the G7 to the forgiveness of debt, in fact all bilateral debt has been forgiven by G7 countries vis-a-vis Haiti," Mr Flaherty said at the end of the two day gathering of finance ministers. "The debt to multilateral institutions should be forgiven, and we will work with these institutions and other partners to make this happen as soon as possible," he added.

At least one million people are in need of aid in Haiti after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake which struck in mid-January, killing more than 200,000 people. The G7 group - which includes Canada, the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - has been under pressure to help Haiti recover since the 12 January quake by cancelling the money owed by Haiti. Haiti was rated as the poorest nation in the western hemisphere even before the earthquake struck.

Though exact figures are difficult to obtain, the exact amount owed bilaterally to G7 countries is believed to be quite small.

Brown's pledge
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the pledge, saying: "It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt". "The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt," he added. "We will work with others to make sure this is delivered."

On Friday, the US voiced support for the plan to extend international debt relief for Haiti.
"The earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to the Haitian people who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs, and meeting Haiti's financing needs will require a massive multilateral effort," said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He said the US would seek to reach an agreement for the funds owed to the multilateral donors, which include the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the International Development Association. Mr Geithner also echoed the call by the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, to provide full relief of the country's outstanding debt to the body, including a $102m emergency loan approved in January.

Last June, the international community agreed to cancel some $1.2bn (£800m) of the country's total debt of $1.9bn owed to bi- and multilateral lenders including the IMF, World Bank and the US government, as part of a programme for heavily indebted poor countries.
UK-based charity Oxfam has urged the writing off of about an additional $900m (£557m) that Haiti still owes to donor countries and institutions.

Haiti 19

Haitian Episcopalians struggle in the present, look to the future

'The church is the people,' bishop says
By Mary Frances Schjonberg, February 04, 2010

[Episcopal News Service] There may not be a single Episcopal church standing in Port-au-Prince today but that lack of walls and roofs does not mean that the church in the Haitian capital is dead.

"As the largest diocese of the Episcopal Church until now, we are physically destroyed but the church is there because the church is the people,"Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin told Episcopal News Service Feb. 4. "Even though we have lost our buildings, the people continue to gather. The communities are there."

Duracin spoke to ENS in both English and French as he described life in Haiti and the work of the diocese in caring for survivors of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit just outside of Port-au-Prince in the later afternoon of Jan. 12.

The quake left an estimate 200,000 dead and made homeless hundreds of thousands of people. About a third of Haiti's approximately 9 million people lived in Port-au-Prince before the quake.

The Episcopal Church of Haiti, known locally as L'Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti, is caring for about 25,000 Haitians in roughly 20 makeshift camps. Since the quake, many people have left the capital for the countryside. While the exodus could eventually improve the country's economy and its ability to sustain itself, the out-migration isreportedly straining the meager resources of rural communities.

Duracin said almost all Episcopal Church buildings -- schools as well as churches and the Sisters of St. MargaretConvent -- in Port-au-Prince "are gone," but "every Sunday there are services, even at the cathedral … everything has been lost but … our communities are alive." For instance, the bishop said, a group gathers behind the ruins of Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) "to continue to pray and to receive communion."

"In spite of everything that happened to Haiti -- that happened in Port-au-Prince -- the church is alive and strong," Duracin said, through translator Margareth Crosnier de Bellaistre, Episcopal Church Center director of investment management and banking.

"They look at the future and they see hope, and they are optimistic about the future," Duracin said. "They invite all their brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion to help them physically to re-build the church."

However, Duracin warned that the diocese is not now prepared to welcome people. He said he understands that many people would like to come to Haiti and help in that work, but "there is no way for the church to receive any visitors right now."

Everyone, including himself, sleeps outside, the bishop said. Even at the few hotels that are still standing, guests must sleep outside for fear of aftershocks and the unknown condition of those buildings that are still standing, he added.

Thus, he said, the best way for Episcopalians to aid the diocese right now is to contribute to Episcopal Relief & Development.

"We are grateful to ERD. They are really helping," Duracin said. "They have come here. They have started working with us in this emergency, but now we have to think about the future."

Since shortly after the quake, Katie Mears, Episcopal Relief & Development's program manager for USA disaster preparedness and response, and Kirsten Muth, the agency's senior program director, have been operating out of the church center in New York and the Dominican Republic, the country that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. They have been assisting the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic's efforts to aid its neighbors to the west, as well as the Haitian diocese itself.

"It is very difficult for us to plan for the future now because we have so many people who have been injured so we have to take care of them," Duracin said. "So many have died, so many people have no houses so we are taking care of them to see how we can provide tents for them. We need a lot of things now in Haiti."

Duracin has begun to steer at least part of the diocese's focus toward the future. He appointed a 15-member special commission to help him in that response. The commission is made up of clergy, laity and one of the Sister of St. Margaret -- "people who reflect the whole diocese," the bishop said.

One of the commission's subcommittees is looking specifically at building reconstruction, Duracin said. "We have to wait before beginning reconstruction because I suspect we have to re-think the type of construction in Haiti now," he said.

Meanwhile, many people, including Duracin, are living in tents or makeshift shelters. The bishop said he splits his days between the survivors' camp on a rocky field at College Ste. Pierre, a diocesan school destroyed by the quake, and a room at the diocesan offices. The building that housed the diocesan offices is the only Episcopal Church building in Port-au-Prince that survives relatively intact, according to Duracin.

At night, he said, he sleeps in a tent in the yard of a house that before the quake was being built for the Duracin family in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. When the quake hit, the house in which the bishop and his family were living collapsed, trapping and injuring his wife, Marie-Edithe.

Within a few days of the earthquake, the Rev. Kesner Ajax, head of the diocese's Bishop Tharp Institute of Business and Technology (BTI) in Les Cayes, managed to take the bishop's wife, their children and two diocesan employees to Zanmi Lasante, the Partners in Health (http://www.pih.org) hospital at Cange on the central plateau outside of the Haitian capital.

Mme. Duracin, whose leg was severely injured, was later transferred to the USNS Comfort hospital ship. The Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church-appointed missionary to Haiti and Duracin's liaison in the U.S., told ENS that George Packard, bishop suffragan for federal ministries, and others helped the Haitian bishop and his wife relay messages to each other. An Evangelical Lutheran Church in America chaplain, Commander David Oravec, has been visiting Mrs. Duracin on the ship.

"Here in Haiti, we are not well," Duracin told ENS. "If someone is alive in Haiti now, it is a miracle."

"I would like the church at large to know we are in a very, very difficult situation," Duracin said, adding that relief workers have told him that they have never seen such devastation or such a complicated relief effort, even after the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia.

Haiti 18

Episcopal Relief & Development Collaborating on Earthquake Response in Haiti

Updated February 1, 2010

In the wake of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, Episcopal Relief & Development has been working closely with local partners to assist those most impacted by this disaster. It is estimated that one in three Haitians were affected by the quake, roughly three million people.

In the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, Episcopal Relief & Development is offering technical support and funds to help secure critical supplies for those in need. In addition to supplying food and water, the agency has secured vehicles to assist the diocese in delivering supplies, fuel for those vehicles and camping supplies to provide shelter. These efforts are expanding the diocese’s capacity to help the 25,000 survivors who are currently residing in 23 diocesan camps. Episcopal Relief & Development is also helping the diocese increase its capacity and human resources by enabling them to hire camp liaisons and logistics personnel.

The camps, many of which are located at the sites of the Episcopal churches and schools, range in size from a few hundred people to 8000. Camps are located in the following areas:

Crois des Bouquets Grand Colline
Leogane 17th section de Poucey
Port au Prince Petit Harpon
Delmas Bouteau
Carrefour Miragoane
Bolosse Petit-tron de Napps
Taifer Bainet
Pointe Rouille L'azile
Cape Haitian Kompan
Montrouis


Prior to the earthquake Episcopal Relief & Development was partnering with the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti’s Development Office. This diverse program included fostering a network of 28 community development workers trained in disaster management. Since the quake, these development agents have completed initial needs assessments in their own communities, and they are providing their data to the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development. Their information is enabling the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development to work together, setting priorities for ongoing relief and recovery efforts.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, activities supported by Episcopal Relief & Development include:

Episcopal Diocese of Haiti

•Supplying over five tons of food to survivors living in diocesan camps. This includes both purchased and donated food.
•Delivering food by helicopter to six camps not accessible by vehicles. These camps are inhabited by more than 15,000 survivors. Each drop contains 216 pounds of rice, 204 pounds of beans, 12 gallons of oil and 36 kilograms milk powder.
•Constructing permanent latrines and clean water sites in eight camps. These new facilities will be earthquake-resistant. In addition to providing sanitation and clean water, the construction is creating jobs in affected communities.
•Working closely with the Diocesan Disaster Council, which has been charged by Bishop Duracin to coordinate the earthquake response and long-term recovery plans.
IMA World Health

•Providing 25 medicine boxes to diocesan community health workers. Each box contains enough pain relief medications, nutritional supplements, antibiotics and basic first aid supplies to assist 1,000 people in diocesan camps.
Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic

•Procuring and purchasing three trucks to transport supplies. Two of these trucks are being used by the Diocese of Haiti and the third is being used by the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.
•Gathering critical supplies and taking three supply shipments from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince each week.

As often as possible, Episcopal Relief & Development prefers to purchase items locally. This practice supports local economic recovery, creates local employment and ensures Haitian leadership in program design and management.