November 20, 2009

Love unites sister parishes an ocean apart

The Co–Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee and St. Elizabeth Parish in Fond Tortue, Haiti, “twin” parishes since 1994, share blessings, fellowship and support.

KATHY GROBE | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Posted: 10.23.09

TALLAHASSEE | Stretched across hundreds of miles and spanning the Caribbean Sea, a relationship begun in Christian love and nurtured with prayer has blossomed. The Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee and St. Elizabeth Parish in Fond Tortue, Haiti, “twin” parishes since 1994, have shared blessings, fellowship and support ever since.

The Parish Twinning Program of the Americas, a nonprofit organization, has helped to develop more than 350 “sister parish” partnerships between churches in the United States and Canada and parishes in Haiti. The program “planted” the relationship between the co-cathedral and its Haitian partner, and the two congregations have nurtured it in the 15 years since then.

Jeri Winkelblack, president of the St. Thomas More Pastoral Council, credits the late Sheila O’Brian with getting the ball rolling. “Sheila had been to Haiti with Pax Christi and found out about Haiti Parish Twinning (now the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas). She presented the idea to Msgr. (Mike) Tugwell (rector of the co-cathedral), and he was very enthusiastic.”

St. Thomas More’s program began in earnest when the Tallahassee parish was paired with St. Elizabeth under the guidance of Father Yvan Museau. Both O’Brian and Winkelblack, the original and only members at that time of the Haiti Committee, realized that a visit to Haiti would be a good way to learn about St. Elizabeth and Haiti, and to better know and understand how the co-cathedral could support the Haitian parish. The women returned to Tallahassee with excitement, enthusiasm and various ideas, many of which have borne fruit throughout the years. Things started with a monthly second collection dedicated to supporting the teachers in the outlying chapel schools associated with St. Elizabeth.

“Over the years, we had a few fundraising activities,” Winkelblack recalled. Sheila and I sponsored a young man who wanted to set up a business, and I arranged a sponsorship program whereby a St. Thomas More parishioner ‘adopted’ a St. Elizabeth child and sent $25 a month to support that child’s secondary education. We’ve had potluck dinners, and we also held a ‘raise the roof’ fundraiser and sold refrigerator magnets; we raised $1,000 to put a new roof on the church.”

Winkelblack recalls a trip through rugged Haitian landscape. “We were on our way to Fond Tortue and on the last leg of our journey saw a young couple walking. The woman was pregnant and ill, and they were returning home from a clinic,” she said. “Now remember this is a two-and-a-half-hour drive, so I have no idea how long it would have taken them to walk.” One of the American visitors spoke some Creole, so the group offered the couple a ride. The couple assisted the driver in navigating some very difficult mountain roads, and “the next day the husband came and found us and offered us a chicken, a live chicken, for our kindness. Out of his nothing … his thanks was just so humbling.”

A Tallahassee delegation has made three trips to Haiti, and now-Msgr. Museau has visited the Florida city three times as well, most recently in early October. His relationship has been essential to the twinning partnership, as he speaks English and is eager to share his country’s needs and its fondness for its Tallahassee “sister.” Since the relationship was established, the men who followed him as pastor were unable to do as much as Msgr. Museau, whether because of a language barrier or something else, and at times the relationship languished. He shared his hopes for the future of the relationship and for new relationships for other parishes in his diocese; the Diocese of Anse-à-Veau and Miragoâne is Haiti’s 10th and newest diocese.

“Some of my parishes have ‘twins,’ but others don’t,” he said. “I hope you can encourage others in the United States to help us. In some places, the need is bigger because they have more population, and they need help with the work that is being done there.” Citing St. Thomas More’s assistance with teachers, he notes that “it will always be difficult for us to find teachers. The state can pay public school teachers but they cannot help us.”

And, while education is important, Msgr. Museau has other items on his “wish list,” that the co-cathedral hopes to address. After their most recent visit to Haiti (in January 2009), parish representatives want to help hire a full-time nurse and stock medical supplies for the dispensary; add a canteen to provide one meal a day for the school; and assist in implementing a coffee cooperative at a local mill and exporting the coffee crop to the U.S. As for her personal “wish list,” Winkelblack hopes to increase participation in the twinning program at the co-cathedral and would like to see more parishioners visit their “sister” in the future, perhaps for some service trips to make the dreams come true.

“The ministry is first a ministry of fellowship,” she said, “it is intended to develop relationships. It is a true sister program.”

 

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