As most of our readers are already aware, most of the bishops and clergy (but by no means all) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, in May 2007, submitted to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. In Haiti, the two Haitian priests, formerly of the Mission, likewise submitted; but the majority of the faithful, and Fr. Deacon Amboise Noël, declined to do so.
Now part of the newly-constituted Department of Missions of ROCOR (PSCA), under the omophorion of His Grace Bishop Agafangel of Odessa, the Mission is active in two parishes: the Chapel of St. Dorothy at the Foyer of St. Mary of Egypt and the School of St. Nicholas, La Plaine, Port-au-Prince; and the Parish and School of St. Augustine, Cyvadier, Jacmel. By God’s providence, the new Chapel of St. Dorothy was completed just in time to provide a church home for most of the faithful of Port-au-Prince.
Regular readers’ services, under the guidance of Fr. Amboise, began immediately after the submission in May, in the chapel still under construction at that time. In September, a complete set of liturgical books was installed at St. Dorothy’s. The chapel was in readiness for a first liturgy planned for the feast of St. John of Kronstadt at the end of October, but the torrential rains which battered Haiti at that time made access from the rest of the city impossible. The first liturgy was finally served during my December visit, on the feast of St. Alypius the Stylite. The ample chapel was well filled.
After the services at St. Dorothy’s, it was time to visit once again St. Augustine’s — under very different conditions from the struggles of October! That time, I knew there had been some heavy rains just before my arrival, sufficient to make it impossible to reach low-lying La Plaine, but little did I imagine that on the mountain road to Jacmel we would find one landslide after another — one still active; at that site, workers were steadily clearing the road, keeping a wary eye on the mud and rocks above, and waving vehicles through with tree-branch “flags” when all appeared to be quiet for a moment. The return trip to Port-au-Prince was delayed for several hours as futher landslides were being cleared.
But by early December, the worst of the damage had been repaired and the trip was uneventful. This was, indeed, the third visit to St. Augustine’s since the opening of classes at the school on the feast of St. Moses the Black at the beginning of September. Construction of the school had begun only at the beginning of July (see previous issue) — and it opened on time, as planned, with nearly 400 students (a hundred more than anticipated) in two sessions, morning and afternoon. On opening morning, I arrived at the church and school early to find hundreds of students quietly waiting in the courtyard for the prayers for the beginning of school and blessing of the school building. The service completed, an unexpectedly orderly move into the classrooms (all still three-sided, and the nave of the church doing temporary double duty for two of the classes) got underway, and within very short order the classes themselves.
Later visits boree witness to the orderly functioning of the school, even in the aftermath of the floods of October (water had washed through the premises up to the level of the altar floor, but apart from a lot of mud, already cleared away when I got there, damage was minimal).
With the construction of the school, it was obvious that the size of the property was insufficient for our probable needs in the future — the school will continue to grow in number of classes, requiring further construction. Providentially, the owners of the land-holding decided early last year (2007) that they wanted to sell yet another portion, adjoining the existing property on the north, toward the highway. After fairly lengthy negotiation a purchase price was agreed upon (considerably less than originally asked) — including foundations for a substantial building already dug and laid. The survey was completed late in the year (below, Nicolas assisting), and the arduously complicated and lengthy business of getting the titling completed is underway.
It has been possible to accomplish
all this only because of the generosity of several benefactors of the
Mission, and the trust and confidence of the supplier of materials for
the buildling, who not only advanced materials without payment, but as
well loaned substantial sums of cash to assure that the land
transaction was satisfactorily concluded (getting cash into Haiti is a
complicated and often slow business, even when the funds are
available). While he has been repaid in full, for the first time
ever the Mission is actually in debt — some $20,000, borrowed from
private sources in the US, must be repaid as soon as possible. At
the same time, of course, there are the poor to be aided, students in
need of scholarship assistance (severl at university level)… and on and
on. Please, as you celebrate the glorious Nativity and Theophany,
remember these little ones in your prayers and giving.
