St. Mark’s and St. Andre — Over Twenty Years Together
The Latest from Canon Serena
Long-time St. Mark’s member Canon Serena Evans Beeks, D.Min., is US Coordinator for Haiti Episcopal School Partnerships. Over the past 20 years, whenever political conditions allowed, she has traveled to Haiti, sometimes several times a year. Read her latest posting below about the country, the people, and our paternership with St. Andre in Trinon.
You are invited…
If you will be in the area, you are invited, but RSVP to Karen Wires before January 24 in order to give the seminary and accurate head count for lunch and for seating. Many thanks to Virginia Theological Seminary for their sponsorship. Serena Evans Beeks Canon Serena...
Heureuse annèe 2026
Dear Haiti Friends, Below my signature is a lovely New Year's letter from the Rev. Pere Jean Alphonse to his partners in the area around Mirebalais. I try to imagine how busy our friends are just trying to get through these difficult times, and I am inspired that...
The Governance Issue
Dear friends, Welcome to the first issue of Haitian Leaders on Haitian Change (forwarded below; please share widely!) Here, Haitian civil society leaders speak directly to you about the change they are working to make real. While headlines focus on violence and...
Haiti Governance
Welcome to the first issue of Haitian Leaders on Haitian Change (forwarded below; please share widely!) Here, Haitian civil society leaders speak directly to you about the change they are working to make real. While headlines focus on violence and political...
Singing Rooster, Micro-loans, Shelter in the Central Plateau
Dear Haiti Friends, Deep thanks to everyone who has or will be supporting the shelter project in the Central Plateau. So many of our long-established partnerships are in this region, and our families, teachers, and clergy are directly affected. As you know from the...
TPS Termination & Action for Haiti; World Cup Schedule
Dear Haiti Friends, Courtesy of Roger Bowen, the World Cup schedule for Haiti: Haiti's World Cup-bound soccer [football] team is now scheduled as follows: + Opening match against Scotland in Boston on June 13. + Second game against Brazil at Lincoln Financial Field in...
Message of thanks from Haiti
Dear Haiti Friends, The Rev. Kesner Gracia, Coordinator of the Partnership Program for the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, has asked that I share this Thanksgiving message with you: Dear partners, friends, and benefactors, May the grace, peace, and goodness of our Lord...
New UN effort in Haiti; Holiday shopping
Dear Haiti Friends, Courtesy of Cynthia Hertlein, here's a very interesting article about the UN's new approach to Haiti: The UN is reinventing peacekeeping – Haiti is the testing ground The UN is reinventing peacekeeping – Haiti is the testing ground Bulbul Ahmed A...
Hurricane Melissa, note from Pere Kesner Gracia, and a fundraiser in Southern California
Dear Haiti Friends, It's hard to get specific information about the effect of Hurricane Melissa on Haiti, as of course Jamaica and now Cuba are suffering the brunt of the storm; however, there is a report that Petit Goave (located about halfway between Leogane and...
Updates and an Article
Dear Haiti Friends, I have heard from a couple of different sources in Haiti that people are cautiously optimistic about the defeat of gang members in their intended takeover of a police station north of Mirebalais. This was a collaboration between police, local...
The partnership of St. Mark’s with St. Andre’s Episcopal Church and School in Trianon, Haiti began in 2001. That year, one and then two parishioners began making regular visits, taking with them the offering from the St. Mark’s School’s Christmas Eucharist.
The relationship grew until 2007, when St. Mark’s members were able to make our first group visit. Since then, groups from the church and school have visited annually when conditions in Haiti have permitted.
Students at St. Mark’s School took the lead on such projects as a new four-room classroom building, a water project, and new school uniforms. Support from St. Mark’s pays teachers’ salaries, covers the occasional hot meal, and provides for repairs on the water system—which was damaged in the hurricanes of 2008—and the replacement of the old classroom building, which was damaged in the earthquake of 2010.
St. Andre’s was the first church and school on Haiti’s central plateau established by Bishop James Theodore Holly when he founded the Episcopal Church in Haiti in the early 1860s. Since its founding, St. Andre’s has offered a primary school for the children of local subsistence farmers. In Haiti, only 50% of the children have access to any education at all.
Please pray for the people of St. Andre’s, especially the children. If you can, give your financial support.
