wfn.org | [ENS] Haiti struck by devastating earthquake; diocese suffers heavy damage

[<mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

>Episcopal News Service
>January 13, 2010

Haiti struck by devastating earthquake; diocese suffers heavy damage

Prayers, support urged for western hemisphere's poorest nation

>By Matthew Davies and Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Church leaders are urging prayers
and support for Haiti as the largest earthquake ever to hit the island
nation has caused widespread devastation amid fears that thousands may
have perished in the disaster.

Four people were killed by the earthquake during an Episcopal church
service in Trouin, about 23 miles southwest of Haiti's capital
Port-au-Prince, the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Church
missionary in Haiti who was home in Virginia at the time of the
earthquake, told ENS. The earthquake destroyed Cathédrale Sainte
Trinité (Holy Trinity Cathedral), the diocesan cathedral in
Port-au-Prince.

The magnitude 7 earthquake, whose epicenter struck 10 miles southwest
of Port-au-Prince at 4:53 p.m. local time on Jan. 12, was immediately
followed by two aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. About a third of
Haiti's approximately 10 million people live in Port-au-Prince. With
power outages and phone lines down, communication is proving difficult
and the full extent of the disaster has yet to be determined.

Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin's home was destroyed in the earthquake
and his wife injured her foot, according to news received mid-morning
on Jan. 13 by the Rev. Christopher A. Johnson, the U.S.-based
Episcopal Church's officer for social and economic justice. Duracin
was not injured in the earthquake. The Roman Catholic Archbishop
Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince died in the earthquake, according
to the Associated Press. The Roman Catholic Cathedral was badly
damaged.

The Episcopal Church has four U.S.-based missionaries working Haiti,
three of whom were in-country when the earthquake hit: the Rev. Oge
Beauvoir, dean of the theological seminary in Port-au-Prince, and
Young Adult Service Corps volunteers Mallory Holding of Chicago and
Jude Harmon of Massachusetts.

The Rev. David Copley, the Episcopal Church's mission personnel
director, began attempting to contact the three in-country
missionaries Jan.12. He has not yet been able to confirm their
whereabouts or condition, he said.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_118410_ENG_HTM.htm