And lest you think I’m a spiky traditionalist who wants to stick to the Hymnal, I’ll have you know I spent last evening paging through “Music by Heart: Paperless Songs for Evening Worship”, and there’s a fair amount of stuff in there I like and intend to use. All Saints Company seems to be doing a great job of creating a new tradition of Episcopal music.

Here’s what I wrote [text in brackets only added here]:

The more ‘eclectic’ our selection of worship music becomes, the less connection we have to any particular tradition of religious music. To say that we should dabble in many different styles devalues each style and the community that created it.

For example, there is a living tradition of Early American religious music—the Sacred Harp tradition—and there’s probably a weekly (or at least monthly) singing in your area. That community very intentionally sticks to one style, and they practice for years to really make it ring out.

Where the ‘global’ music traditions are concerned, first look around at your congregations. The Episcopal Church is still largely a church of privileged white people. This certainly isn’t the case in every congregation or diocese, but for a mostly white, affluent congregation to appropriate African-American, African, or Latina/o music isn’t just devaluing of the musicianship and tradition of those styles. It willfully ignores our own privilege, both globally as US citizens/residents and within our own communities.

[We can absolutely claim some of the 'eclectic' traditions mentioned in the original article: Early American, in some measure Irish Folk. Some can rightfully be claimed by more diverse congregations than the one I attend, depending on the relationship to the source communities: Gospel, African-American Spiritual, African, Latina/o. (And why no mention of the Native American hymn tradition? It's even attested in the '82 Hymnal.) Others we might do best to incorporate only with fear and trembling: "Hebrew Traditional" (which is really Ashkenazi Jewish), and for white congregations, any of the traditions belonging to people of color or to the commonly-ignored places of the world. Affluent northern congregations might wish to exercise mindfulness even when using Southern Harmony hymns.]

I am all in favor of congregations expanding their musical horizons, to “sing our faith” as authentically and energetically as we can, provided that we do justice (in every sense) to any tradition we may adopt. That means undertaking learning a style well enough to make it sound true (and no, simply “adding a triangle, tambourine, and hand drum” will not “enhance the Irish flavor”). It also means recognizing when, for whatever social or geopolitical reasons, a tradition does not belong to us.

Even when we incorporate traditions of which we have rightful use (that is, some respectful relational connection to), it remains to consider what we can truly connect with. Say what you will about the ‘boring’ old hymns, they have a home in many of our hearts and our congregations (and our skill sets!). Congregations should absolutely go beyond the limits of the hymns they already know, but the purpose of singing in church isn’t to expand our horizons. Try choosing one style from those that the original article outlines, and really learn that style as a community. Start with all the hymns in that style that are in the Hymnal (or WLP or Gather or whatever you have in the pews), but also look into the primary sources of that tradition. Pick up a copy of the Southern Harmony or the Sacred Harp or a Celtic hymnal [from the Celtic Isles]. And practice the style, at least as music leaders, to make it as authentic as possible. You have to be comfortable in a style before you can truly praise God in that style.

I’d also note that passing on a tradition doesn’t just mean teaching our kids the same hymns we sang as kids. Again with reference to the Sacred Harp community, contemporary composers have been writing new hymns in every generation of that tradition, back three centuries. Those new hymns are recognized by the community as fitting with the tradition, and are incorporated as favorites. Handing on a tradition also means keeping the tradition alive, by reinvigorating it with new material. Where are the contemporary hymnodists and lyricists writing in the tradition of Isaac Watts or Charles Wesley or J.S. Bach or Martin Luther, but informed by a contemporary understanding of the Gospel?

And none of the above is simply about what we like or dislike. It’s about what makes it possible for us to authentically praise God and know each other more deeply in song.

The Labordes (Joseph Laborde is the lay leader of St. Philippe – St. Jacques) are all alive and uninjured. Jonas (the oldest son) escaped “by a miracle.” He was at the Episcopal University [in Port-au-Prince], on the roof, when the earthquake occurred. The building collapsed around him, killing many of his classmates and professors. Jonas found a small hole and crawled through “like a snake.”

The Labordes’ home is cracked but standing, but, like everyone in the area, they are living and sleeping outside [...] they are having three or four aftershocks a day. Joseph has led morning prayer outside, in front of the collapsed church.

Kerwin+ himself was reportedly in Port-au-Prince with his brothers, Carlo and Roosnel, when the earthquake occurred. They were stuck in the city overnight, but were able to return to Léogâne on the following day. Kerwin+ has celebrated Eucharist on the grounds at Sainte Croix—Dianne reports, “he thought nobody would come, but in fact 200 – 300 people came.”

With this report, we now know that no one with close ties to St. John’s, at least, was badly harmed, although their situation remains extremely difficult, and virtually everyone there has lost friends or family. We continue to pray for them, and the Minnesota parishes with partners are discussing how best to help our partner congregations as they begin to rebuild.

On Friday, February 5, 2010, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., the Art for Haiti Relief Committee and St. James on the Parkway (directions) will host an ‘Exhibition and Art Sale for Haiti’.

The exhibit will display paintings, sculpture, and a variety of artifacts at a variety of prices. These works are for sale to help raise money for the vast needs of victims in Haiti. All proceeds go to victims of the Haitian earthquake for immediate life saving and sustaining uses.

As everyone now knows, this beautiful but poor country and people have suffered incredible destruction. Haitian history, too, has been rife with difficulties: slavery, colonialism, and natural disasters. Haiti’s people, by nature, are peaceful, honest, creative and family-loving, which makes their plight all the more close to the hearts of us who have an easier, safer life.

The artworks on display are primarily from Haiti, plus others from the Caribbean and from tribal cultures in Africa, North and South America, India and Oceania. These art pieces and artifacts are infused with essential life-loving and native esthetics, often pure, simple and vivid. Such works have sometimes been called Naive or Primitive Art; at their heart, they invoke warmth, hope, resilience, and joy.

Haitian work includes small paintings of landscapes, farming and village life, as well as reliefs in thin steel that express fantastic animals, figures with foliage, and a ‘garden of Eden’, made of metal cut from oil drums. Small wood carvings show native figures and enchanting animals. Other items for sale include posters, photographs and Haitian coffee.

The “Exhibition and Art Sale for Haiti” is free to all. Refreshments will be available.

St. Luke’s and St. Alban’s are among Episcopal and other churches helping this one-day activity.

Please help support this relief effort any way you can. Proceeds will be distributed through Partners in Health and Episcopal Relief and Development.

Dianne Pizey spoke to Kerwin+ on Monday morning:

He told me what we already knew – Haiti is almost completely destroyed, the church has lost almost everything, every person he knows has lost at least one loved one, everyone is sleeping outside and they have nothing but the clothes on their back, everyone is crying [for] their loved ones. He didn’t lose any immediate family, but he lost three cousins in Port au Prince. He lost many, many parishioners from Ste. Croix in Léogâne, including three young people who had just started at the Episcopal University in Port au Prince.

At St. Philippe – St. Jacques, the church is completely destroyed, and the school is very badly damaged, just like all the other churches and schools. He said there were not many deaths there.

Kerwin+’s wife, Rholcie, and daughter, Kercie, are both okay but still shaken. Terry Franzen, who leads the Haiti partnership at Christ Church in Norcross, GA, and joined the St. John’s trip to Haiti last June, reports from a conversation with Kerwin+ on Tuesday:

[Kerwin+] has made arrangements to get Rholcie and Kercie to the Dominican Republic on Friday and then to Ft. Lauderdale, where Kerwin’s cousin will meet them.

St. Joseph d’Arimathie, Jasmine

In the same e-mail, Terry relays news from Kerwin+ about Christ Church’s partner congregation, of which he is also Priest-in-Charge:

Kerwin said that he spoke to Maxo, the lay leader for St. Joseph’s today. He said that the church is badly cracked and that everyone is sleeping outside because of the damage to their homes and their fear of another quake.

Bonne Nouvelle, Bigonet

Maria Roesler, a friend of Ruth Anne Olson of St. James on the Parkway‘s Haiti partnership, spoke to Kerwin+ on Sunday about Bonne Nouvelle in Bigonet, St. James’ partner congregation.

He reports that the church is destroyed and the school was badly damaged, but nobody from the Bonne Nouvelle church or the school died. He did mention another church that is nearby (I didn’t catch the name) and says that a lot of people from that church died. [...] [M]ost people are sleeping outside, as their houses were destroyed. [...]

He says that they truly need prayer in this time, because many people are crying for family that they have lost. He was encouraged to hear about the prayer service that was held here for Haiti.

Epiphanie, L’Acul

Epiphanie, the Episcopal congregation in the town of L’Acul near Léogâne, is partnered with Messiah in Saint Paul. Mike Carlin, co-director of CODEP, which is located across the road from Epiphanie, sent this report to Suzanne Wiebusch, Messiah’s liason for their partnership, on Monday:

Epiphan[i]e has some serious damage to [its] facility. I will be assessing the damage the[re] later today with an architect that is stopping by. We worshipped outside yesterday and had a beautiful service.

This morning’s quake has widened and lengthened cracks in the walls of the School somewhat, but buildings are still in use.

More importantly, they are still serving patients in Léogâne.

Word arrived Tuesday evening that a truck with Dr. Chip Lambert and many supplies arrived at FSIL. Chip Lambert, M.D. is Director, Mission Service, Medical Benevolence Foundation, partnering with the Presbyterian Church USA. This morning we had word that “Chip is miraculously with Hilda doing great stuff after an heroic effort to pack and transport more than 3000 lbs of just what she needed…”

Dean Hilda Alcindor, students, and a visiting nurse faculty volunteer were mobilized within a half hour after the first quake. They have set up 10 first aid stations around the town of Léogâne. The Dean said that 5,000 Léogâne townspeople are being cared for in the yard of the school.

CNP team is in a vehicle on the way to Leogane now to go set up too and jump in with what has been started. [...] Save [the Children] and CNP are working on getting camps set up and we’re addressing food and water issues.

and in another e-mail:

CNP is finalizing a partnership with Save the Children and we will work with FSIL and the Notre Dame Filariasis Program to help in Leogane. Anyone interested in donating to CNP can do so at http://www.cnphaiti.org/.

According to Suzi Parker, who runs the guesthouse at l’Hôpital Sainte Croix and has been in relatively regular e-mail communication with CNP staff, the hospital is helping Doctors Without Borders to set up surgical facilities in Léogâne:

There are 3 areas of medical care in Leogane right now besides at HSC [Hôpital Sainte Croix]. The nursing school [FSIL] which operates under the umbrella of HSC has seen an enormous number of people, and had several babies born there. The soccer field in town also has seen lots of patients, and I hear that the UN compound just outside town has a group there. All over town, tent cities have grown up, and folks are building lean-to’s from salvaged building materials. [...]

Latest news is that Doctors Without Borders is setting up an operating unit in the field behind the hospital, using our electrical and water. We are lending them gas from the generator until they are operational, hopefully by tomorrow. Another NGO, Caritas, wearing Catholic Relief Services t-shirts will come and help in the day clinic. Good news, as they talked about docs, pharmacist, and supplies, and we need more of all of them.

I just talked to Rev. Yyan Francois who told [m]e that Rev. Kerwin Delicat is fine. We do not know Gressier [...]

He and others also report that Fr. Elie Charles, who was at Ste Croix when the first Minnesota-Haiti partnership began, and his wife are fine.

Several updates from around Haiti also came through yesterday, several of them via Lauren Stanley+. One that I missed yesterday:

John Talbird says: Just talked with Jean Jacques Deravil. He is at home. He, his wife, and daughter are safe.

Fr. John Talbird works with the Children’s Nutrition Program. According to the Chattanoogan:

Rev. Talbird was in Haiti to interview a candidate to lead the reopening of the Hospital St. Croix at Leogane.

Rees Johnson reports:

Carmel has set up a medical clinic at Croix des Bouquets and is using all of the supplies we left from our last mission trip and all the meds she has there in her program and those we left. She is making a big pumpkin soup to feed all of those people who are hungry.

which sounds precisely true to form. Mary White of CHAP, the non-profit that funds Carmel’s nutrition program, Lespwa Timoun, reports from a conversation with Carmel and Pere Val’s children:

[T]heir house is still standing but they are afraid to go in for long, just dash in to get something, as most of their neighbors homes have collapsed. They have lost many friends. The water system, church and school in Crois-des-Bouquet are OK, just the wall collapsed, the new walls on the building and the perimeter wall at Lewspa Timoun have all collapsed. The church at Gorman is destroyed. Praise God the school and church at Thomazeau appear to be OK.

The Sisters of St. Margaret posted on their website that they’ve found housing for the Sisters in Haiti. David McNeely has a house in Delmas, and they were able to determine that it was still standing. He reports:

She said they will try to make their way to our place with the help of the driver from St. Vincent’s today. … Soeur Marie was relieved to have a place to go to. She said “Nou pas ka rete la!” [we can't stay there!] [in the field]. I told her to do all they can to get to the house because there will soon be spread of typhoid, malaria, and other illness.

Léogâne

Several bits of news from Léogâne have come up on Lauren Stanley+’s blog. Hilda Alcindor, director of FSIL (the nursing school in Léogâne), had this to say (read more at Lauren+’s blog):

Our students are doing a wonderful job.

FSIL is about the only healthcare facility in Leogane. We need all kind of medical supplies.

The students are delivered so far four babies: 3 boys one girl. All of them are healthy.

We lost three students ( 1 senior, 1 junior, 1 sophomore) The sophomore perished with her little girl. It is overwhelming but I am holding on.

The staff of the Children’s Nutrition Program, all of whom are now back in the US, also sent an update that confirms previous reports about the state of the Sainte Croix hospital compound. They are preparing to send a medical team to Léogâne to set up a field clinic within the week and are requesting donations to assist in that effort.

Dianne Pizey, who has led many of the St. John’s trips to Haiti, spoke with Yoleine Gateau, the owner of a guesthouse in Léogâne where St. John’s members stayed in June 2009 (a different one from the Ste. Croix hospital guesthouse). She reports as follows:

[Yoleine] had just returned to New York from Haiti a week before the earthquake. Today she was able to contact her friends and family at the guesthouse. They are all uninjured. The top floor of the guesthouse collapsed.

Her family tells her that helicopters have arrived in Léogâne with aid. They say that there are many orphaned children in the streets. Yoleine is hoping to get a delelgation together to travel there in February, to try to organize care for the orphans.

Confirmation that aid is reaching Léogâne is starting to come through on the news. A 40-person British search and rescue team has arrived there, as has a first shipment of UN food aid. The attention may have come because of video footage the BBC showed yesterday and another report filed today. According to that report,

The UN base at Leogane is full of vehicles, equipment, food, water and men [...] [b]ut instead of being out in the village, the UN representatives at this base are clustered around the front gate, laughing as they buy shampoo from a local salesman.

This in a town that the UN’s spokeswoman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Elisabeth Byrs, is reporting is “the worst affected area, with 80 to 90 per cent of buildings damaged” (report via Australian Broadcasting Company—the other ABC).

Gressier

News is also beginning to come in from Gressier. The aforelinked ABC article reports 40 to 50 percent of buildings there are destroyed. An account from Haiti Health ministries (not affiliated with the Episcopal Church as far as I know, but they do have a Minnesota connection) from Thursday describes much the same situation as in Léogâne. There, as at FSIL, babies are being delivered amongst all the trauma care being provided, and as in Léogâne, supplies are short.

Other news from Gressier comes from Michele Braithwaite, who commented here on Thursday about the House of Hope orphanage, which is supported by Good Shepherd in Burke, VA, as well as from Tryggvi Arnason of Holy Innocents in Atlanta, GA, who received the following from Precene Louis at St Mathieu in Gressier:

Dear Father, thank you for your message. we are at the residence are alive. we are living out side the gate. let me tell you that this morning I went to father Jean Berthold . I met him. he told me that he has so many people died from the church. And i see the church is destroyed. he told that everything is gone.

keep praying for us because we need help.

Jacmel

Although Minnesota Episcopalians don’t have direct connections to Jacmel, many of us from St. John’s who have been to Haiti have enjoyed an afternoon on the beach there. It’s reportedly hard-hit as well. KONPAY is attempting to get medical aid into Jacmel by boat and by plane. The Miami Herald has posted a video of the destruction there (warning, graphic). The Ciné Institute, a film school for Haitian youth in Jacmel, is regularly posting news, video, and photos, and Gwenn Mangine is blogging from the hospital there.

Episcopalians in the news

I’ll close this post with a roundup of mainstream media coverage of the Episcopal Church’s efforts in Haiti after the quake. Mallory Holding, one of the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps missionaries assigned to Haiti, was interviewed by her local ABC station on Friday (via by Lauren Stanley).

A local TV station in Austin, TX, [interviewed John & Suzi Parker's daughter][3], the content of which is mostly drawn from the e-mail Suzi sent on Friday:

The main news we’ve received recently is a report directly from Suzi Parker, who has been running the guest house at l’Hôpital Sainte Croix with her husband, John. She provides some more details about their situation and the state of the Sainte Croix compound:

Hopital Ste. Croix is standing. John and I are fine. The administration [office] collapsed under the guesthouse, and our apartment collapsed under the story above. [...] John was caught under the wreckage for about 4 hours, but the roof above was supported [b]y the lintel of the slinding glass door, [...] so he was uninjured except for a small cut on the top of his head.

[...] The Ste. Croix church is cracked, I don’t know how badly. Eye clinic looks fine. Pere Ker[w]in’s [the Priest-in-Charge of Ste Croix] house looks OK, Pere FanFan’s [the hospital administrator] house looks OK with some damage, Pere Pierre’s house is damaged, but st[i]ll standing. Doctor’s quarters and penthouse are fine. If we can get it open, John and I may try to move in there for a while.

At night we sleep in the yard behind the hospital where the bandstand was. It has fallen, as has the Episcopal school. The[r]e are 2–300 people who sleep in that field at night. Th[e]y sing [h]ymns until almost midnight, and we wake up to a church service, with hymns, a morning prayer, and the apostle’s creed. The evening sky is glorious. In the field there is a real sense of community. Of course, we are the only blancs [white people] there.

She also reports that there are doctors treating injuries there. They have seen upwards of “300 people with cuts, fractures, etc.”.

I’ve been poring through photos of Léogâne that were posted today (warning: some are graphic), looking for any hint of Sainte Croix. If I’m not mistaken, these three photos are of the compound. If you can confirm this, leave a comment.

FSIL‘s facility has also become a major treatment center for the Léogâne area. (FSIL, the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de Léogâne, is the nursing school of the Episcopal University of Haiti, and is funded by the Haiti Nursing Foundation based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.) From the sound of updates posted to their website, they have plenty of staff but are running extremely short on supplies.

We still haven’t heard anything about the Delicats aside from Roosnel’s short note from yesterday.

Elsewhere

On past St. John’s trips to Haiti, we have visited the Sisters of St. Margaret, an Episcopal order based in Boston, whose convent in Port-au-Prince was destroyed along with the rest of the Sainte Trinité cathedral and school complex. As I posted earlier today as an update to my initial entry on the quake, the Sisters are alive and well, and have provided news of Foyer Notre Dame, a home for elderly Haitians who had been homeless.

The Foyer has partially collapsed, but at least some of the residents survived and are camped out with the Sisters. The Foyer also has a guest house that was completed in 2006(?)—no word on whether it has also been damaged.

We have also heard from multiple sources that Carmel Valdema, the nurse who runs the Lespwa Timoun nutrition program in Crochu and other remote communities and with whom people from St. John’s have done mobile clinics, is safe, along with her husband, Pere Val, the priest of St. Simeon in Croix-des-Bouquets.

I’ve also just noticed on Lauren Stanley’s site that Epiphanie in L’Acul, which is partnered with Messiah in St. Paul, as well as the CODEP (Haiti Fund) compound across the road from Epiphanie, are largely unharmed.

Slowly, but surely and determinedly, help is making its way into Haiti. Having made recommendations of several organizations worth donating to in my last post, I thought it’d be useful to give a rundown of how those organizations (plus a few more) are faring thus far.

You can keep up on most of these organizations by following the Twitter list I’m maintaining, @krbullock/haiti-ngos.

Meeting the immediate needs

Partners in Health has moved staff and supplies into Port-au-Prince, and is quickly setting up mobile clinics there. They have “a large, highly skilled group of about 2000 community health workers, 500 nurses, and 120 doctors“, almost entirely Haitian—that’s how they work, and it’s why I have so much respect for them. If you still aren’t sure where to donate, give to Partners in Health. More about their work.

To assist Partners in Health’s work, charity: water has turned their NYC headquarters into a drop-off point for supplies to be flown to Haiti on Tuesday. Details are on their site.

Episcopal Relief & Development has already released funds to the Diocese of Haiti (the largest Diocese in the Episcopal Church), which has set up a camp in Port-au-Prince for survivors (including Bishop Duracin!) and is working to get them supplies. They are preparing to bring provisions in through the Dominican Republic, and working with the Diocese of the Dominican Republic to receive Haitians coming across the border. More about ERD’s efforts.

Other religious relief organizations are also mobilizing to respond. The most active ones (with the most established presence in Haiti) seem to be the United Methodist Committee On Relief, Catholic Relief Services, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

Oxfam is preparing to set up two tanks in Port-au-Prince to provide clean water to 1,000–2,000 people.

Doctors Without Borders seems to be struggling, but working doggedly. Their Twitter feed provides hourly updates on their progress. As for all the health organizations working with the injured, supplies seem to be their bottleneck. They’re flying them in from their stocks in other parts of the world, along with more staff.

The Red Cross, among other things, is deploying “family linking specialists”, which I can only assume will be helping family members find each other amid the turmoil.

Preparing to rebuild

AIDG is already requesting the assistance of French-speaking structural engineers to help with long-term rebuilding work. (For short-term assistance, they’re directing people to donate to Partners in Health.)

Episcopal Relief & Development will also be doing long-term redevelopment, continuing the work they were already doing especially in the areas of nutrition and education.

Fonkoze will need what sounds like significant financial help to rebuild and continue their microlending program. Their facilities have been largely destroyed and they can’t yet reliably communicate with their staff in Haiti. More on Fonkoze’s situation.

Organizations such as Floresta and KONPAY, who assist Haitians in doing reforestation and other environmental work, will also need funding to help in long-term recovery.

Update: Melinda Miles of KONPAY and Catherine Lainé of AIDG were both interviewed about their work. The boingboing interview with Catherine Lainé is here, while the CUNY TV interview with Melinda Miles is posted here as part of the Brian Lehrer Live podcast.

And of course, all the organizations listed above doing immediate relief will also be working long-term. All of them are in Haiti for the long haul—I wouldn’t recommend them if they didn’t already have a strong presence there.