Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Worship in the Ruins


Fr. Frantz Casseus, former chair of our diocesan Haitian Commission, returned to Haiti the day before the earthquake and is now a member of the Crisis Commission established by the Diocese of Haiti.

He has been officiating at services “in the backyard” of the rubble that was Cathédrale Sainte Trinité, the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti. On Jan. 31 the first Eucharist since the earthquake was held on the cathedral site, with 143 worshipers sitting on whatever chairs could be found.

Since that first service, a temporary worship structure has been set up at the cathedral site with pews salvaged from the cathedral ruins and sheltered with plastic sheeting stretched over a wooden frame. Casseus sent the photo above, which shows the service on Sunday, Feb. 14, attended by more than 350 people. He said that more than 600 attended a memorial service at the end of Haiti’s nationwide weekend of mourning that marked the one-month anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

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