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Black Leaders Meet in Haiti

Episcopal News Service. December 13, 1984 [84249]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (DPS, Dec. 13) - In an effort to strengthen ties between black Episcopalians in the U.S. and those over-seas, the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries held its fall meeting here in November, bringing gifts for a medical mission and sharing in the life of one of the world's poorest countries.

The Commission, a 15-member advisory board to the Office of Black Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, was in Haiti at the invitation of Bishop Luc A. J. Garnier and as the culmination of talks that began two years ago with Canon Harold T. Lewis, staff officer for Black Ministries.

Citing the founding of the Episcopal Church in Haiti by James Theodore Holly, a black priest from the United States who was consecrated first Bishop of Haiti in 1874, Garnier expressed delight that the Commission had come to learn something of the legacy of Holly's ministry. "I can't really welcome you, because black Americans have always been part of our life," the bishop said, "so, I welcome you back." With 120 parishes and missions, Haiti is the largest missionary diocese in the Episcopal Church.

Garnier and Lewis began talking about greater ties between domestic and overseas Black ministries at the 1983 House of Bishops meeting. "This was an opportunity for us to see not only some of the major institutions of the Church," Lewis said, "but some of the village life as well."

The Commission members visited Holy Trinity School, St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped and the Diocesan seminary at Montrouis. At St. Vincent's, the Rev. Dr. Orris J. Walker, rector of St. Matthew's and St. Joseph's, Detroit, and the Commission's chairman, presented, on behalf of the Commission, five braille writers and four wheelchairs. They were accepted by Sister Joan Margaret, SSM, founder and director of St. Vincent's, which for 50 years has been the only facility of its kind in Haiti. These items were an in-kind grant of the Episcopal Commission for Black Ministries in response to a request from the School.

Lewis noted that for most members of the Commission, the visit was their first to Haiti, and what came through to them -- in addition to the poverty -- was the "sense of joy, commitment, and hope on the part of the Church people and of the school children. The education the Church is giving them is such a strong sign in the face of that poverty."

In the course of its business meeting, the Commission altered its charter to ensure that overseas black Episcopalians have regular representation.

The Commission was honored at the Sunday Eucharist in Holy Trinity Cathedral, at which Lewis celebrated and preached in French. He told the 500-member congregation that the work of the Church in Haiti bespoke a commitment to the radical Jesus of the Gospels, who expressed a concern for the physical and material, as well as the spiritual needs of humankind.