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Keynote Address: |
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by Rev. Alain Rocourt |
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(Former Chairman of the Methodist Church of Haiti (twice), Rev. Rocourt also served the Methodist Church of Haiti as Superintendent of the Jérémie, Cap-Haïtien, and Port-au-Prince Circuits, Head of the Christian Education and Lay Leadership Department, and Director of the Lay Leadership Training Center ( DEL) and Methodist Publishing House at Frères. During his exile in Florida following the 1987 Haiti Election debacle, he served as Coordinator of the Haitian United Methodist Mission in Miami. It was in this capacity that Rev. Rocourt called this 1990 Convocation on United Methodist Haitian Ministries. He died in 2003 but his words and works live on.) |
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(Keynote Address at the Convocation on United Methodist Haitian Ministries, Miami, Florida, November 10-12, 1990) |
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INTRODUCTION OF REV. ALAIN ROCOURT We are very honored to have Dr. Alain Rocourt here with us in the Florida Conference and especially in the Miami District. As Coordinator of the Haitian Mission he has encouraged us, he has challenged us, he has given to us the opportunity to see new ministries and to understand those ministries. I'd have to admit that in the Florida Conference (and it's hard for Floridians to admit anything like this) we were sort of floundering around trying to put a handle on ministry with the Haitian people and Dr. Rocourt came and gave that focus and direction. As the District Superintendent of the Miami District, where a great deal of that ministry is taking place, I am extremely honored by his presence. He calls me his boss. Now, if you believe that, you're in trouble because I am constantly listening to Dr. Rocourt to learn. I sort of gather at his feet in order to understand the world and what is taking place. So, Dr. Rocourt, would you come and share with us as we honor you and your presence on this day. [Applause] REV. ALAIN ROCOURT There must be complete confusion between Dr. Fannin and myself in our dialogue if he listens to me and I listen to him - So, I don't know who is talking! [audience reaction] Bishop Hughes, Dr. Fannin, delegates from the various areas and members of the panel who are here, indeed I feel awed here this afternoon for this historic event. It is the first time that the Haitian Mission has the joy and privilege and honor to have so many people interested in what we are doing that I wonder if we didn't ask for too much! Your presence here is a great comfort to us and a great encouragement and we are delighted that you can be here. Indeed, I feel it is a privilege for me and my family to be in Miami under such leadership as we find here in Dr. Bob Fannin, through the companionship of people like Frank Smith, my guide and my mentor here, and my friends, the Haitian pastors and all of those in the Florida Conference who are so kind in the cooperation they are providing to us. Indeed, sometimes in my lighter moments I say in my prayers to God, "Good Lord, what kind of a game are you playing with us! So, we are delighted to be here in this part of the ministry of the vineyard and we feel that the Florida Conference is giving us a new possibility to do mission work here, to do God's will in this part of the world. Quite a few people individually or together have asked me when I have met them, "Now WHY this Convocation?" And I suppose the question was in your mind when you were invited to attend it. You wondered, "What was it going to be about?" This afternoon what I am going to say in a brief way will be just an attempt to answer that question and to put before us the issues I think we are going to discuss or which are going to be occupying our minds these days and perhaps some more days when you go back home. Let us realize at the outset that this Convocation is not intended to be an academic exercise. The situation of Haitians in this country is an issue of such urgency and presents now such a unique opportunity to the Church that we have to look at it in a pragmatic and serious manner, convinced that perhaps God is giving His Church some specific marching orders to which one should listen carefully lest one misses the chance of cooperating with Him as He writes a new chapter perhaps in the history of some of His children. Neither is it the fruit of someone's brainwave receiving an enthusiastic response from others. It is rather the result of a consensus among people from different geographic areas, some of whom are here, from New York, from Boston, and Miami, who met to share their experiences in doing church work among Haitians and who saw that the questions to be dealt with had to be considered in a much wider circle and at the highest possible level. So, necessity has been a determining factor in the preparation of this gathering. Its aim can be divided into three segments: 1) To face and examine the challenge presented to the Church by the Haitian presence in the U.S.A. 2) To pause and look at some of the lessons learned during the last few years by the Haitian Mission. 3) To try and suggest some policies that could perhaps help to deal with the challenge and the problems. Let us briefly look now at the nature and magnitude of the challenge. To understand the nature and grasp the magnitude of the challenge, we have first of all to remind ourselves of the way in which it has been created. There are over a million Haitians in this country, scattered all over the place, the main concentrations being in Florida, Boston, and New York. Large pockets can be found also in Chicago, Atlanta, and several other big cities. In addition, there is a mobile Haitian workforce of no fixed abode that goes wherever work can be found, especially in agricultural areas. They did not come in spectacular or sudden ways like an invasion of locusts. But from around the 70's they have tried to sneak in without attracting the attention of the immigration authorities for the simple reason that they had not been granted the proper documents that would have enabled them to enter the country normally. Let us point out immediately that such a perilous adventure has not been launched into in a lighthearted way by those people. It has always been a dramatic, often tragic episode in the life of the people. They knew that they were wrong in trying to enter the U.S. without a proper visa, but they felt that the only alternative was either death by a bullet or a life so miserable that it was worse than death itself. I cannot forget the image of those 40-odd Haitian women whom I met at Krome Detention Center some months ago. Some of them were Christians who had not been allowed to bring on the boat (a small open boat on which they had travelled) any luggage with them for lack of space. They said to me, "We know that we were wrong when we tried to enter the country illegally, but did we have an alternative?" Knowing the situation in Haiti, I had no answer to the dilemma and I still don't have one. Most of those who have tried to enter the U.S. by coming to Florida have travelled in small open boats. Often we have seen pictures of them in the Miami Herald and perhaps we have wondered how people could endure such a nightmare for 4 or 5 weeks. In recent years they have not often succeeded in slipping through the net established by the U.S. Coast Guard boats on the high seas. When caught, they have ended up at Krome Detention Center, where the Haitian Refugee Center tries hard to provide legal aid. The painful story of the kangaroo court procedures and the discrimination exercised against those Haitians have been too well exposed to need to be described again. In most cases, the more or less long detention period is followed by deportation. Those who managed to land safely and did not discover the promised land they had imagined had to keep a low profile in order that they would not be discovered by the police. At the same time, they had somehow to find some relatives or friends who would welcome them and give them food and lodging until they had a place of their own, handicapped by their not speaking the language and not knowing how they should try to find some kind of employment. They cannot afford to be choosy for they need to survive and survive they do - amazingly enough - gradually getting to understand the layout of the land, helped by Haitian solidarity at its strongest. The dream they had hoped to see fulfilled may have evaporated in thin air, but they do not give up. They finally organize themselves into clusters which gradually may expand into communities. So, in spite of tremendous odds, they have managed to put down their roots. How they have managed to survive is almost a mystery. The only explanation is an indomitable courage, supported by their belief in a generous Creator, Who will no doubt - they think - be merciful unto them. Such is briefly the general profile of almost every member of our Haitian congregations. Behind each enigmatic smile you may see on their face, a whole complex of hair-raising situations looms very large. Now, the U.S. immigration authorities were quick to react to this Haitian presence. The criteria they developed were of course not based on compassion for victims of a bloody dictatorship, but rather on whether such newcomers would represent assets or liabilities for the American economy, and that's quite understandable. When at the same time some members of the Duvalierist regime (notorious criminals who had plundered the country) arrived here, they were granted residency without much difficulty and they now live here as wealthy business tycoons. The Haitians - the victims and poor ones - they see that and they wonder, "Why?" The others have been conveniently divided into two categories: the political refugees and the economic refugees. Such Boat People never needed to prove that they were poor; all obviously were in economic plight. But those who have claimed to be political refugees have seldom been given a fair chance to prove that in Haiti they had reason to fear for their safety. As Boat People kept coming to these shores, the U.S. authorities felt they had to prevent them from reaching American territorial waters. Under pressure, the then Haitian government of Jean-Claude Duvalier signed what Haitians consider as an infamous agreement, authorizing U.S. Coast Guard boats to seize any Haitian boat on the high seas and bring their passengers back to Haiti. Such "interdiction" action, costing every year tens of millions of dollars to the American administration, has not really solved the problem, although it has prevented thousands of people from entering this country. But they keep on trying all the same and all the time just because they feel that anything is better than existing in a police state where life has become unbearable. The reaction from the churches has been much slower and yet the refugees in their plight have been the perfect image reproduced thousands of times in present-day reality of the wounded man on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho described by our Lord. Several reasons have been advanced to explain this oversight or apparent indifference: 1) This Haitian presence has been gradual and not very vocal, until recently. Haitians did not force their way into American churches, so they were not noticed. Or, at a distance, they could easily be mistaken for American Blacks. 2) When their presence did become noticeable, the American Church really did not know how to meet the challenge that was so new. The culture was not familiar to them and the depth of suffering which most people had endured could hardly be plumbed by a people who had enjoyed freedom and didn't know what it was like to live in a police state. And they were living also in relative wealth compared to those poor refugees. 3) It is true also that - it's true for the whole world - mission abroad, although more expensive, has always been easier than mission at home, in all times and in all places. 4) For this missionary challenge at home - being a completely new fact - the Church had not created in advance, of course, the adequate structure to take care of the problem. It was not easy for her to see the situation as an opportunity. So, let no one be in haste to blame the Church for having been slow in noticing that situation. Other people in other lands would have reacted, I am sure, in the same way. But, if such explanations are accepted as adequate, it becomes then rather difficult to understand how two among the historic churches, particularly in Florida, have been able to develop a very important missionary work among Haitians. I think we Methodists, when we are coming together to talk about our own Haitian Mission within the United Methodist Church, we must pay homage to those two churches which have done a magnificent job. I name the Roman Catholic and the Southern Baptist churches. The first has been championing the Haitian cause in a most vigorous manner, investing in it major resources in finance and in manpower (both Haitian and American), church buildings, educational facilities, and so on and so forth. As for the Southern Baptist Church, it is reported that they now have over 80 congregations in Florida alone, with the declared intention of increasing this figure to 2,000 in the whole country by the year 2,000. A big vision and a great plan. Compared to such important work, important numerically at least, what the other historic churches - including our own - have to show seems minimal. In the whole country, we United Methodists have nine Haitian congregations: one in New York (the minister is here with us today), which shows real vigor now; one in Boston, struggling along; seven in Florida, some weak, some making real progress, with two more coming to life soon. One can wonder then whether it is BECAUSE the mainline Protestant denominations have been slow to meet the religious needs of these Haitian refugees that independent Haitian churches of Baptist and Pentacostal tradition mainly have mushroomed in many places. Dozens or hundreds of them in Florida, New York, and Boston alone. As far as the United Methodist Church is concerned perhaps this situation of underdevelopment is largely due to the fact that seminary-trained Haitian Methodist ministers, French and Créole speaking, have not been available, whereas hundreds of Haitian pastors from other Protestant denominations have migrated with the others from Haiti and are serving these independent churches. And, by the way, this reflects a particular situation that has existed in Haiti itself. Our church there has often - the Chairman of the Haiti Circuit is here with us, Rev. Fède Jean-Pierre, and can affirm what I am saying - our church there has often been accused of making it difficult for people to offer themselves as candidates to the ministry, as she insisted on seeing in the person the many gifts and graces which in her concept of the work are necessary for serving as a minister. Some would have liked her to lower the academic standards required, which she has always refused to do. Consequently, although she is the oldest Protestant denomination in Haiti, she has fewer ordained ministers than most other denominations there. If she had been officially requested to lend one or two of her ministers, she might have found it difficult to do so. To my knowledge, she has never been asked. Not even in my case because I was already in this country as a refugee when I was approached by the UMC to serve as Coordinator of the Mission in Florida. And yet, even with such a small number of ordained ministers, eleven this year if I am right, but sometimes with as few as seven, and one deaconness, she has served over a hundred churches in the country, in six different geographic areas, organized and managed over 80 educational institutions, established two important development projects, run a network of medical clinics, has given leadership in relief operations, has carried out throughout the nation under very difficult conditions a program of training in Christian citizenship to prepare the nation for a democratic way of life. Apart from the material help, for which we are extremely grateful, received from outside, and particulary from the General Board of Global Ministries, I think two factors have played a major role in such a development, and I mention this because I think it can be helpful to us. First of all, the country is divided up into circuits, an old British way of dividing up the areas, and one minister has had to supervise over a dozen churches scattered in different areas, and difficult ones too to reach. But above all, her strength has resided in the body of voluntary lay preachers or lay pastors, without whose cooperation and help she would have been totally unable to do her job in so many different spheres of action. This perhaps has an important lesson for us here in Haitian Mission and perhaps in the whole Church. I know of course that the conditions in America are different from those that exist in Haiti. But, let us remind ourselves that the Methodist Church of Haiti has not invented the role of the laity. Methodism has had it from birth! She has only put on it the emphasis it deserves and tried to develop its ministry in such ways as could bring the good news of Christ to areas of life which could not have been reached as well by the ordained minister. We in Haiti have known that again and again. Perhaps we may want to explore such possibilities here in order to extend work among Haitians. We shall come back to this tomorrow when we talk about Leadership Training in the Haitian Context. Let us talk now about another area where we find difficult problems as well as opportunities. The area of places where we could gather to worship. The shortage of trained Haitian ministers is not the only obstacle to the development of the Mission. The lack of buildings where the people could meet for their religious activities is another major obstacle. Unlike some other ethnic groups, the Haitians have not got the economic possibilities that would enable them to buy their own buildings or build them up. Therefore, when a group of them would desperately like to have a place for worship, they have to use what they can find. Either some old building for a rent they can afford or whatever another church can lend them - an unused hall or basement. Those, I think, are stopgap solutions, not permanent ones. Such buildings will never become their own - not because they don't like them; they are most grateful to have them - but they don't feel that those buildings are their own. When some alterations are felt to be necessary to make them look like a church, the people are reminded that no major changes would be accepted. They realize clearly that this is not the real place which they could consider as their own church. Such situations create a feeling of being only tolerated, to speak very frankly. Shared facilities, as we call the method of using one building for various congregations, is not an adequate solution either. It can only be a part of a transitional process. With the best will in the world to make it work, it is bound to create some embarrassments or uneasy feelings. With a mutual spirit of cooperation, minor conflicts that erupt from time to time concerning the use of the facilities can be resolved, more or less easily. But, what cannot be created is the feeling among the newcomers that "this is their permanent church building", to which they can become emotionally attached, as church members usually do. After all, a church building is an expression of a religious tradition. It becomes almost part of one's Christianity. It carries elements of the people's culture. It is a projection of ourselves. It would then be completely unreasonable to ask a congregation to make dramatic alterations just in order to accommodate people of a different culture. Let me give a simple example and I hope my great friend Frank Smith won't smile too much at that. In the UMC, you put candles on the altar. The lighting of them is part of the worship. I am sure this has a beautiful symbolism for all devout American Methodists, and I don't think I am betraying the Haitian people if I say that I have come to appreciate it very much myself. American Methodists would miss it very much if it were taken away, and they would want legitimately to hold onto it because it helps them to (to use the words of the Psalm) "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness". But, I am equally sure that the ordinary Protestant from Haiti, who comes to a United Methodist worship service for the first time, having such a lighted candle as part of the worship is an abomination! Just because he or she is immediately - and this is not unimportant - is immediately reminded of Roman Catholic paraphernalia, which he or she had to reject (for good reasons, believe me) when they came to know Christ. It reminds them of the persecution, of the alliance with voodoo, an old superstition that went along with this paraphernalia. So, they look at the candles from a completely different point of view. At Grace United Methodist Church, where the American congregation has kindly allowed a Haitian congregation to use all the facilities, we have come to a compromise: the candles are not lighted for the Haitian services, and we Haitian pastors feel that it would be complete arrogance on our part to ask for their removal. But, I am convinced (without them telling us that) that the Haitians who come regularly to Grace, although they have by now been seeing those candles for some years, must still think, "What are those blessed things still doing there?!?" I am glad to say that there are very positive signals coming from various Districts, indicating that the Church is finding more than one solution to this thorny problem of buildings, as well as other problems. In West Palm Beach District, for example, one church building that is not needed any more is being entrusted finally to a Haitian Methodist congregation which had been tossed about between different locations. Here in Miami, the District and the Conference have made a bold and tremendous and imaginative move to help the Haitian congregation of Maranatha to acquire a property, which they are transforming into a place of worship. This is forward looking. At a programmatic and administrative level, some important steps forward are being taken by the Florida Conference, one of them being the integration of the budget of the Haitian Mission Coordinator into the overall program of the Conference. There is no doubt that such positive and forward looking measures will give a new impetus to the Mission. All that I have said so far is about some purely religious aspects of the life of Haitians in this country. Obviously, for us Methodists, those should not be the limits of our vision. Traditionally, Methodism has had a wholistic approach to life. And I believe this is the reason mainly why many people from other denominations keep on coming to us, indicating that they would like to join the Methodist Church because they feel they like the way we look at life. We are not simply preparing people to die well; we are concerned that they should be able to enjoy right here the full dignity of children of God. When the Haitian Boat People landed on the shores of Florida, ragged and loaded with paralyzing fears, perhaps they were no people, but your ambition and our ambition in the United Methodist Church is that they should become the People of God. In practical terms, that means interalia having a job in order not to succomb to the temptations offered by those who make easy money from drug dealing. It means also not to have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to unscrupulous landlords for some small room which they can call home. For the young kids going to school, it means the liberty of being yourself and encouraged to contribute something to the local culture from the wealth of your own, and not being forced to hide it. So, the Haitian Mission and the United Methodist Church cannot rest satisfied until they can branch out into so-called social aspects of the people, but which are an integral part of their situation. We won't do it because the Roman Catholics do it, but simply because it is part of our mandate and the way we have always done mission. I am sure that before long the United Methodist Church should be proud of the life and witness of the Haitian congregations present and future functioning within her structures. Thanks to the bold steps she shall have taken under the guidance of the Spirit of God. Thank you for your attention. [Applause] |
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Recorded and transcribed by Marilyn Mason, November 1990. |
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