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'We stand together'

Religious leaders unite to pray, pledge ongoing help to Haiti

Thursday, February 04, 2010
Ana Rodriguez-Soto - Florida Catholic

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Father Reginald Jean-Mary, pastor of Notre Dame d'Haiti, and Imam Fred Nuriddin of the Masjid Al-Ansar, were among more than a dozen religious leaders who gathered at Notre Dame d'Haiti Feb. 3.

MIAMI — The wail of the shofar and the strains of “Amazing Grace” provided the emotional bookends to a night of prayer dedicated to Haiti — a night when prayer transcended religious divisions and rose, as Rabbi Frederick Klein put it, “from the heart.”

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Rabbi Frederick Klein, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, opens the interfaith prayer service for Haiti by blowing on the shofar.

Rabbi Klein, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, was among more than a dozen religious leaders who gathered at Notre Dame d’Haiti Feb. 3 to express their solidarity with the Haitian people as well as their commitment to rebuilding the nation.

They were joined by more than 300 worshipers, white and black, Haitian and Anglo, who listened as an imam chanted from the Qur'an in Arabic, a rabbi proclaimed the scriptures in Hebrew and a Christian read a Gospel passage in English.

The scriptural passages expressed sorrow and lamentations along with abiding faith in the Almighty — a theme best captured in the Old Testament Book of Job.

“Haiti is the Job of the nations of the world,” said Rabbi Ralph P. Kingsley, president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami. “She has had to endure unspeakable tragedy time and again throughout her history. But like Job of old, she and her people have never lost faith.”

“It is that faith that we affirm tonight, in the midst of our sorrow. May it be a source of new life for the people of Haiti and inspiration to us all,” Rabbi Kingsley said.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Cantor George Mordecai sings a prayer for healing in Hebrew during the interfaith prayer service for Haiti.

“Nobody has suffered as much as the Haitian people, at least not in the Western Hemisphere,” said Archbishop John C. Favalora. “Yet you do it with such dignity because you believe that you do not suffer alone. Gran Mèt la avèk nou tout (God is with us always).”

“We must not let the focus of the world move from Haiti until Haiti is brought back to where it ought to be in this hemisphere,” the archbishop said.

“What we must do is to come together and find a consensus to rebuild Haiti,” said Archdeacon Jean Fritz Bazin of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. “And believe firmly that day will come, we don’t know when, that Haiti will be beautiful again.”

Father Reginald Jean-Mary, pastor of Notre Dame d’Haiti, who just returned from a relief mission to Haiti, said he had found “a sign of hope” in his homeland: “The fact that this catastrophe has brought the world together around Haiti” and that it has brought Haitians together as well.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Restchild Despeignes is moved to tears while listening to "Amazing Grace" at the end of the interfaith prayer service for Haiti.

He told the story of a woman in the Dominican Republic who heard him speaking Creole as he bought food supplies. She went up to him, embraced him, and said, “Father, I never thought of Haitians as human beings. But if I could, I would give all that I have to help the people of Haiti.”

He said Haitians over the past few decades had forgotten to live by their own motto: L’union fait la force (Unity makes strength). They had grown distrustful of their countrymen and put “the love of power over the power of love.”

But during his visit he saw a child who, when given a piece of bread, broke it into pieces to share with his brothers and sisters.

“Haiti will not perish,” Father Jean-Mary said. “It will live to testify the glory of God. Because that sign of unity is our hope as people.”

He added that the earthquake was not a punishment from God but “the grain of wheat that falls on the ground so that there can be love and peace among us.”

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Imam Ismet Akcan reads from the Qur'an during the interfaith prayer service for Haiti.

“I needed to be here in solidarity with these people,” said Father Roger Holoubek, pastor of St. Maurice Parish in Dania Beach, who attended with some of his staff. “I felt a tremendous need for it so I had a meeting tonight and I canceled it.”

“I think it’s important for the Haitian community to know that in a time of trouble and pain, we’re all one. We stand together,” said Roberta Shevin, executive director of the Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews, which sponsored the event along with the Archdiocese of Miami, the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, the South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee.

“I believe all the faiths have to come together,” said Rabbi Klein. “This is not a Haitian tragedy. This is a human tragedy. And if we don’t respond, that’s even a greater human tragedy.”

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Students from St. Mary Cathedral School light prayer candles during the interfaith service for Haiti.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC Notre Dame d'Haiti's choir members sing "Amazing Grace" at the end of the interfaith prayer service for Haiti.