Sunday, July 24, 2016 - Day Two - A Visit to Saint Jude Catholic Church, Église Shalom Tabernacle De Gloire, Atis Rezistans
Lizzie Ward reports:
Lizzie Ward reports:
Our second day in
Haiti was full of complex and controversial emotions. It was Sunday, and due to the deep
spirituality of Haitian culture, we went to church. Two churches to be exact.
The first was Catholic, located in an upper middle class area (which looks
completely different in Haiti than it does in the US). The service was beautiful,
and though the priest was speaking in Haitian Creole, due to our familiarity
with Catholic liturgies we understood the content and tone of the mass. The
service also had a heavy component of music, the chorus sang earnestly and
beautifully, with drums as accompaniment, speaking of Haiti’s connections to
Africa. The church was packed, standing room only, and the people who filled it
came in all shapes, sizes, and ages. The
sense of community was in the air.
The second church
that we attended was Église Shalom Tabernacle De Gloire (or, Shalom, for short), a Pentecostal Protestant megachurch that stared less
than ten years ago. In the years of its existence, Shalom has grown from one man
preaching in a small room to a massive open-air megachurch that can seat over
a thousand people and has numerous pastors. The church was full of intense
energy and emotion, and the air was filled with the sounds of singing and
shouts. The congregation of Shalom is
extremely earnest and kind, and when they sing their emotions saturate their
voices. One of the songs that touched our group as a whole was repeated for
almost the whole service.
The Creole lyrics were Bondye ou san parey Ou toujou la pou
defann muien Si ou pa te pal Yo ta deja fini ave Kmwen Pote ba ou tout pwoblem
yo Pote ba ou tout Kirye nou yo.
The song is a prayer
to God for deliverance out of their suffering in the form of a miracle. The beautiful emotion conveyed in Shalom is
somewhat tainted by the corruption of the original pastor. The people who
attend Shalom are very, very poor, but they donate their last dollar to the
church, which goes toward the lavish lifestyle of the pastor instead of back
into the community. It is impossible to
convince the congregation of the pastor’s immorality though, partly because it
is not our place, and partly because, as Daniel, our guide, said in regards to Shalom:
“When you have a health system that has failed and a government that provides
no jobs and an education you cannot trust, this is what you know is real: hope,
faith, and love, with a depth of conviction and resignation to the divine.”
Despite the unjust sacrifice that the poor of Shalom believe they must make in
order for God to grant them a miracle, they have found a beautiful community
that they believe strongly and earnestly in, and though we may think it wrong
we cannot deprive Haiti of that.
The other aspect of
our day was a visit to Atis Rezistans, a project aimed at empowering at risk youth through the
production of art. The art is made out of trash collected from the streets of
Haiti and depicts mostly voodoo themes, such as snakes made out of rusty nails and
human skulls covered in paint. Some in our group found it fascinating and some
found it terrifying, but it was certainly unique.
After a very long
and intense day, we headed back to the Eucalyptus Guest House tired. That
didn’t stop us from discussing the complexity of Shalom and Haiti itself for
over two hours though. We are not much closer to a definitive answer, but we
are “wrestling with it” as Mr Palladino says.
Best wishes to all
our friends and family at home.
Bon Bagay!
