January 19, 2010
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

Close to a week after the worst earthquake to rock the country in 250 years devastated Haiti, Episcopalians there might be recalling a Creole Haitian proverb that says God tells people: "You do your part; I'll do mine" ("Bondye do ou: fè pa ou, M a fè pa M.").

The Rev. Lauren Stanley told ENS Jan. 19 that she has been using that proverb to help tell the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti's story after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"God has always done God's part and the Episcopal Church of Haiti has always done its part" for that last 150 years, forming Christians, teaching the children of the country, healing the sick, aiding the hungry and thirsty, helping the lame to walk by way of prosthetic limbs, she said.

"And we are prepared to do our part again and what we ask of [U.S.-based Episcopalians] is that they do their part because we are brothers and sisters in Christ, related not by the blood of our birth, but by the waters of our baptism," said Stanley.

One of four Episcopal Church missionaries assigned to work in the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, Stanley, 49, was at home in Virginia when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit on the outskirts of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince just before 5 p.m. local time. News reports estimate the death toll may be 200,000. Estimates are that more than 70,000 bodies have already been buried and 1.5 million people are homeless.

Stanley spoke by phone with ENS from Chicago where she had gone to be with Mallory Holding, one of three Episcopal Church missionaries who was in-country at the time of the quake.

Stanley said that Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin has asked her to remain in the U.S. for the next few weeks in order to tell the diocese's story, and coordinate information emerging from the country and offers of help that have come flooding in.

"We cannot have people coming down yet," Stanley cautioned. "We are still in first-responder mode. The time will come and it will go on for years … because God says to you: ‘You do your part; I'll do mine.' And in Haiti we believe that."

Duracin reported Jan. 18 that more than 100 of the diocese's close to 170 churches and preaching stations have been damaged or destroyed, including the demolished Cathédrale Sainte Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral) in Port-au-Prince. Couvent Sainte Marguerite, adjacent to the cathedral and operated by the Boston-based Sisters of Saint Margaret, was heavily damaged.

At least four of the diocese's 254 schools, which range from pre-schools to a university and seminary, were destroyed. They include College Ste. Pierre (a primary school in Port-au-Prince) and the Holy Trinity school complex adjacent to the cathedral, which house a primary school, a music school and a trade school.

Initial reports indicate that all 37 of the diocese's active clergy are accounted for, although some of the clergy have not been heard from directly, Stanley said, adding that she is posting confirmed information about clergy and other news of the Haitian diocese at http://web.me.com/merelaurens/GoIntoTheWorld/Go_Into_The_World/Go_Into_The_World.html. The Sisters of Saint Margaret reports that the three nuns in residence in Port-au-Prince survived and were at the survivors' camp initially.

The bishop has been quoted in some reports out of Port-au-Prince as saying he has lost everything. While his house was destroyed and his wife, Marie Edithe, suffered a severe leg wound in the collapse, Stanley said Duracin was not just referring to his personal losses.

"Bishop Duracin is looking at a devastated diocese and all the work that has gone on there for 150 years is gone," she said. "We have to start all over again, but as the bishop says, the people are strong and we have the people of God."

Holding, 23, who went to Haiti in September for a one-year placement as a Young Adult Service Corp missionary, told ENS in the same interview that Pierre Wilnique, a first-year seminarian at the diocese's theological school, treated Duracin's wife in the hours just after the quake.

Duracin is directing the operations of a growing encampment of survivors of close to 3,000 people on the rocky playing field near College Ste. Pierre, a short walk from the heavily damaged presidential palace in downtown Port-au-Prince. Wilnique, a doctor trained in Cuba, attempted to take some severely injured people to a hospital after they arrived at the growing camp on the evening of Jan. 12, Holding said.

Episcopalians outside of Haiti need to pray, pay attention to what is happening in Haiti "and when the time comes to give us the work of your hands, the strength of your back and the sweat of your brow," Stanley said.

Meanwhile, Holding said she echoes those wishes as she considers her options.

"I wouldn't want to go back if it meant I was going to be in the way and wouldn't be able to be of much help," she said.

Holding also recalled what she termed the deep connections between the diocese and the rest of the Episcopal Church. She said that her first Sunday in Haiti in September, the congregation sang one of the same hymns she'd sung during her last Eucharist in the U.S.

"It was just in French and that was the only difference," she said. "So there's this huge connection between the people and I just don't want people to forget that because this is going to be a problem that stays with Haiti for a long time and we should be there for the entire time, if it's one year or 10 years or 20 years."

Another Episcopal Church missionary, the Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir, 53, the dean of the diocese's seminary, is still in Haiti and working with Duracin. Holding, and Jude Harmon, 28, another Young Adult Service Corps missionary, left the country late last week.

Episcopal Relief & Development has said that, at this point in the relief effort, monetary donations are the best way for most individuals to partner with Haitians. Independent volunteer travel to Haiti is being discouraged for the foreseeable future given the country's instability.

To donate to Episcopal Relief & Development go to http://www.er-d.org/donate-select.php; call the agency at 1-800-334-7626 ext.5129, or mail a gift to Episcopal Relief & Development, PO Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058. Please write "Haiti Fund" in the memo of all checks.

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is ENS national correspondent and editor of Episcopal News Monthly.