Credit: James Melchiorre of Trinity Wall Street
Located in a pocket of wealth in New York City, Trinity Church is known for its affluent parishioners and its rich portfolio of real estate and stock investments. However, one aspect of the church that is at times overshadowed by its well-endowed members is their tradition of philanthropy and charity – one that will soon benefit a community in Haiti.
The Episcopalian church added the northern region of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti as a fifth Mission & Service location, Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper announced on July 30. Following the recommendation of a team who visited Cap-Haïtien earlier this year, the parish’s Faith in Action Committee and Grants Board selected Cap-Haïtien for a mission partnership.
“This new partnership comes at a time of great growth in northern Haiti,” said Cooper. “We’re glad to work with them as they meet the challenges of helping so many people with varied needs.”
The partnership consists of annual mission and service trips by Trinity parishioners, staff, and friends and includes work projects designed and executed to serve a partner’s specific needs. Trinity will be working with Rev. Ogé Beauvoir, Haiti’s Suffragan Bishop, to determine the most effective way to engage participants in mission work and ministry.
Beauvoir recently recorded a sermon outlining the changes in northern Haiti, and how working with partners is responding to change the lives of the people who live there, as well as how church is done.
“We are trying to do church another way compared to the way that we have been doing that in Haiti for the last 150 years,” Beauvoir said. “This is a church completely dependent (on) outside partners. The time has come now to have a church more interdependent and having some self-sufficiency in terms of mission and ministry.”