On November 8th
, 21 students in formation for the diaconate graduated from the Episcopal Seminary in Port au Prince, Haiti. It is the custom of student cohorts in Haiti to ask teachers or advisors to be Godmother and Godfather of the class. Because I visited Haiti in 2015, as the students were finishing their first year of study, and was able to bring them the perspective and good wishes of the Episcopal deacons in the United States, they asked me to be their Godmother. As such I was invited to attend the graduation ceremony at the seminary and to speak briefly to the students. I put together my remarks and decided it would honor the students if I could possibly speak to them in Haitian Creole. When I preached for them in 2015, I spoke English and a student translated. I hoped to be able to speak directly to them this time around.
Deacon Holly Hartmann of the Diocese of Massachusetts, who was also able to attend the graduation, has been to Haiti many times and has studied Haitian Creole. She kindly translated my remarks and I did my best to pronounce her translation correctly. But it was Ms. Gibi Garnier, a parishioner at the Philadelphia Cathedral, who is from Haiti, who was most able to help me communicate. She went over the talk with me several times helping me make sense of this language, which is the language of the people in Haiti. It is based on French, which is the formal language of Haiti, and the language used most often at the graduation ceremony.
When I arrived at the ceremony, I met my counterpart,
Père Vil Jean Mardoche, a priest who is the Godfather of the class. We were asked to help hand out the graduation certificates to the students, and then we were asked to speak. I was able to make myself understood and I think the students appreciated the effort. One student came to me at the end of the ceremony to tell me I speak Haitian very well. If he only knew!
These students will be ordained in the next few months. They are from all over Haiti, some from the city of Port au Prince, some from the distant parishes. There are 80,000 Episcopalians in Haiti, a country that has suffered from political turmoil and natural disasters. The capital of Port au Prince is still not completely recovered from the 2010 earthquake. The Episcopal Cathedral was badly damaged and the Diocese is using a kind of Quonset hut for diocesan ceremonies such as the graduation. There are hopes and plans to repair the original cathedral. Late last September, Hurricane Matthew slammed into the southern peninsula of Haiti reducing churches, hospital and homes to rubble. After my counterpart Father Vil and I both spoke to the students, one of them spoke in response to our words on behalf of the graduating class. At one point he began to speak to me directly in English. He thanked me for sharing the understandings of diakonia and the ministries of the Episcopal deacons in the United States. He said that he had heard me when I said that deacons are to respond in Christ's name to the pain and suffering around them. He said that in Haiti there is a great deal of pain and suffering, and so the ministries of these new graduates would be "very complicated." Indeed. I ask your prayers and help for the people of Haiti and for these courageous new deacons who have worked hard to become diaconal ministers doing Christ's work in this beautiful and wounded land.
Father Vil, Godfather of the class, speaking to
the graduating class of deacons in the Diocese of Haiti
On November 8th
, 21 students in formation for the diaconate graduated from the Episcopal Seminary in Port au Prince, Haiti. It is the custom of student cohorts in Haiti to ask teachers or advisors to be Godmother and Godfather of the class. Because I visited Haiti in 2015, as the students were finishing their first year of study, and was able to bring them the perspective and good wishes of the Episcopal deacons in the United States, they asked me to be their Godmother. As such I was invited to attend the graduation ceremony at the seminary and to speak briefly to the students. I put together my remarks and decided it would honor the students if I could possibly speak to them in Haitian Creole. When I preached for them in 2015, I spoke English and a student translated. I hoped to be able to speak directly to them this time around.
Deacon Holly Hartmann of the Diocese of Massachusetts, who was also able to attend the graduation, has been to Haiti many times and has studied Haitian Creole. She kindly translated my remarks and I did my best to pronounce her translation correctly. But it was Ms. Gibi Garnier, a parishioner at the Philadelphia Cathedral, who is from Haiti, who was most able to help me communicate. She went over the talk with me several times helping me make sense of this language, which is the language of the people in Haiti. It is based on French, which is the formal language of Haiti, and the language used most often at the graduation ceremony.
When I arrived at the ceremony, I met my counterpart,
Père Vil Jean Mardoche, a priest who is the Godfather of the class. We were asked to help hand out the graduation certificates to the students, and then we were asked to speak. I was able to make myself understood and I think the students appreciated the effort. One student came to me at the end of the ceremony to tell me I speak Haitian very well. If he only knew!
These students will be ordained in the next few months. They are from all over Haiti, some from the city of Port au Prince, some from the distant parishes. There are 80,000 Episcopalians in Haiti, a country that has suffered from political turmoil and natural disasters. The capital of Port au Prince is still not completely recovered from the 2010 earthquake. The Episcopal Cathedral was badly damaged and the Diocese is using a kind of Quonset hut for diocesan ceremonies such as the graduation. There are hopes and plans to repair the original cathedral. Late last September, Hurricane Matthew slammed into the southern peninsula of Haiti reducing churches, hospital and homes to rubble. After my counterpart Father Vil and I both spoke to the students, one of them spoke in response to our words on behalf of the graduating class. At one point he began to speak to me directly in English. He thanked me for sharing the understandings of diakonia and the ministries of the Episcopal deacons in the United States. He said that he had heard me when I said that deacons are to respond in Christ's name to the pain and suffering around them. He said that in Haiti there is a great deal of pain and suffering, and so the ministries of these new graduates would be "very complicated." Indeed. I ask your prayers and help for the people of Haiti and for these courageous new deacons who have worked hard to become diaconal ministers doing Christ's work in this beautiful and wounded land.
Father Vil, Godfather of the class, speaking to the graduating class of deacons in the Diocese of Haiti
