25691: Nlbo: (locally published) A Model of Secular and Religous Collaboration (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

 The following appeared in the June 2005 issue of the Boston Haitian Reporter
under the title of:

        Looking Elsewhere for a Better Model to Unify Boston Haitians


  While Haitian American United, Inc(HAU) members were working ardently for a
successful Flag Day parade, others were in the Creole airwaves asking
Haitians to stay home.   Personally I will not boycott any event that brings Haitians
together.   I will instead ask  Haitian stake holders to come to the
âdialogue and solidarityâ table to assess and set long term goals and objectives for
the Haitian community as I have been doing in writing since l999.

   The first gathering initiated by State Rep St. Fleur  in the fall of 2001
was promising.  However since there has not been any follow up, the content of
that day - long conference is now forgotten.   I will use an announcement
made in the April issue of a trilingual newsletter from the Long Island Haitian
Community to contextualize Haitian media disputes that surrounded the Flag Day
Parade and to exemplify how churches and the public arena can collaborate to
enhance the future of  Haitian Americans in the commonwealth.

   Four years ago, the staff and board members of Haitian American Apostolate
& Ministry (HAAM) of the diocese of Rockville Centre (Long Island) had
replaced âthe one dayâ Haitian Flag  celebration by a week  of spiritual, cultural,
educational, and social activities.  HAAM along with Haitian Family of Long
Island ( HAFALI) held a Haitian Cultural Awareness Week  from May 15 to May 22,
2005 with a âpreludeâ on May 13th in collaboration with the Elmont School
District.  The week long âTaste of Cultureâ  opened with a liturgical
celebration followed by a reception at St. Marthaâs church in Uniondale, New York.  It
ended with a mass at Our Lady of Micarulous Medal church in Wyandanch, Long
Island.

    On Tuesday May 17, a cultural celebration occurred at Westbury High
School and the same evening, a Community Health Forum in collaboration with
Legislator Roger Cobinâs office was held at the Community Center in Westbury.   On
Wednesday May 18, there was a âMeeting of the Mindsâ  at the Pastoral Center of
the Rockville Centre diocese.  Haitian paintings and many objects of art that
represent Haiti were the highlights.  Maryse Emmanuel-Garcy, the Long Island
apostolateâs coordinator told me they also displayed the internationally known
rhum Barbancourt, Haitian salt in its original grain form, beans and lesser
known Haitian art and crafts, food and condiments.  On Saturday May 25th, there
was a special day long celebration at the Brentwood Library and Sunday May
22nd, an all day event at Central Islip Public Library.  The Haitian Apostolate
of Long Island and the Haitian American Family agency  sponsored a âCultural
Nightâ at Kellenberg High School  in Uniondale on May 21rst.

   Every time I read this 4 page newsletter written in French, Creole, and
English, I would murmur,  âWhy canât these engaging activities occur in Boston,
an area with much more material,  educational, and theological resources than
Long Island?â  Maryse Emmanuel-Garcy, HAAMâs coordinator, Father MoÃse AimÃ
its director, and Bambou Barbara Payen, the secretary run a model of a Vatican
II church.  Together, with six advisory board members,  the staff employed by
the diocese of Rockville Centre strive to meet not only the spiritual needs
of an estimated 30,000 Haitian Americans in Suffolk and Nassau counties of Long
Island but their temporal,  integration and cultural assimilation needs in
the United States as well.  Notre Dame dâHaiti had established herseself as
âThe One Stop Multi Purpose Centerâ for  Haitians in the Miami Dade area.
Haitian Catholics who are involved in the building of the Church are now looking at
the Long Island Apostolate that started fifteen years ago as an exemplary
model.
    Those aforementioned interactive and enriching programs would not have
happened without training and formation on Vatican II teachings, an idea that I
have been suggesting since l995 to the Boston Haitian apostolate.   Haitian
members of the Long Island apostolate have graduated from two year Lay training
programs offered by the diocese.  Twice a year the Rockville Centre Apostolate
 holds day long seminars in Creole for the Haitian community.  They have had
11 week training sessions in Creole for the Haitian brethren as well.  Each
January HAAM distributes to the Haitian communities and churches a year long
calendar of scheduled cultural, spiritual, social, cultural, and educational
activities.   Bishop William Murphy, the episcopal leader of the Rockville Centre
diocese attends many of the Haitian trainings, cultural liturgies,
celebrations, and even the diocesan wide pilgrimages.  Rockville Centre diocese through
the Haitian apostolate tries to have a ministry that appeals to various taste
and educational levels of its Haitian American brethren, from the charismatic
prayer services, to programs for US born youth, to âMeetings of the Mindsâ for
the intellectuals. Whether one has a Phd, a MD, a JD, a M.Ed, or limited
education, there is something for your level.  Haitians born in the United States
in l951 as well as in 2001 are actively engaged in Long Islandâs Haitian
churches.  I hope local Haitian pastoral agents could imagine what the Boston
ministry or community would have been liked if they were learning about the US or
western church and society in the past three decades and adapt exemplary models
like Long Islandâs in the last ten years.

   It is historically known during 19th century European migration, the
Catholic church played a significant role in helping the immigrants of that era
assimilate in the Anglo protestant culture.  They built schools, printed books,
and newspapers to inform the new migrants.  Todayâs immigrant churches are not
educating their brethren or playing the role of a âlong term support system.â
  I would recommend that the Haitian Catholic and Protestant ministers  learn
about the history of the previous immigrant groups.  The state of the
ministry in Boston Haitian Catholic community, the first Haitian apostolate in the
United States is very disheartening.  Except for the Euro Oblate missionary who
started working with the Haitians in Cambridge in l998,  clerics ministering
the  Haitians in the past three decades have either retired, died, or left
without leaving a strong foundation.    In the past four years, they have been
replaced by newly arrived Haitian priests and one lay Haitian woman who have not
yet demonstrated the skills or the intention to communicate with  established
Haitian professionals in order to set goals and vision to gather an
intergenerational Haitian community as it occurs in Long Island, Miami, New Jersey, and
New York area dioceses.

      Factors such as lack of creativity and vision, lenient attitude
vis-Ã-vis learning, and constant internal rift and dissonance that put Haiti in this
chaotic state are present right here in Boston.   A Harvard undergraduate
sociology major used the Catholic church of Miami as a âHope for the Hopelessâ
theme of his thesis.  I like to use the model of the Haitian Catholic life of
Rockville Centre - an ecclesial community collaborating with legislators, public
schools, colleges, libraries, the medical arena,  as an example if followed
can set a sense of hope in Boston.  This model might move the Haitians from the
ball rooms next January or the streets in May to indoor cultural, social,
spiritual, educational activities and dialogue that might bring the community
closer, for a systemic long term educational intervention is urgently needed in
the Massachusetts Haitian American community.

Nekita Lamour, an experienced educator in the Field of ESL/Bilingual and
Multicultural Education received a Masterâs degree in Theological Studies from the
Weston Jesuit School of Theology this past May.