Remembering Haiti
On the Day of Commemoration of The Right Reverend James Theodore Holly
James Theodore Holly, was the first African-American Bishop in the Protestant Episcopal Church. Born in 1829 in Washington, D.C., the son of two freed slaves, Holly moved to Brooklyn, New York with his family at 14. Holly met Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists as a young man. After marrying his wife, Charlotte, in 1852, he joined the Episcopal Church primarily because it ordained African-Americans to the priesthood. After a short time living in Canada, he returned to the United States to become the principal of a Buffalo, New York public school. Holly studied theology and was ordained a Deacon in June 1855 and later a Priest in January 1856.
He became a co-founder of the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church Among Colored People, which advocated against slavery at General Convention. Holly was Rector at St Luke’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut until 1861. He traveled to Haiti and began to advocate for the emigration of free African-Americans to that country where former slaves had led a successful revolt against French colonial rule. Haiti became the first republic led by African-Americans in the Western hemisphere. Holly believed that bringing Anglicanism to Haiti would help to stabilize and develop the country more expeditiously.
Combatting disease and a lack of resources, Holly established Holy Trinity Church and School by 1863. The school focused on pastoral education and rural medicine. Finally, in 1865, at the conclusion of the Civil War, the Church Board of Missions began supporting Holly’s work financially which enabled programs to expand.
Rev. Holly earned a Doctorate in Divinity from Howard University and was consecrated as Missionary Bishop of Haiti, becoming the first African-American Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Holly left Haiti briefly in 1878 to attend the Lambeth Conference but spent the remainder of his life in his adopted country serving the needs of the Church and the people of Haiti. Bishop Holly died in 1911 and was buried on the grounds of St. Vincent’s School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince.
It has been said that the three pillars of practicing a Holy Lent are prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, traditionally known as almsgiving. These three practices are, of course, inextricably entwined. One practice done with devotion and singleness of heart can lead seamlessly into another. For example, praying for some person or situation can lead us to a greater understanding of a great need, which then motivates us to deny ourselves and give that need priority, which in turn can motivate us to give more selflessly to others.
This week, I ask you to remember the people of Haiti in your prayers. At the end of last month there was a new surge of gang violence in Port Au Prince and the area surrounding the Haitian capital. An Associated Press video showed frantic people fleeing for their lives with what few possessions they could gather. One man interviewed was leaving the city pushing a wheelbarrow containing the blanket-covered body of a relative who had been killed by gang members earlier that day. “We don’t know where to go,” he said. “We go to the left and to the right, but the gangs still chase us.” Ongoing violence in Haiti has displaced a tenth of the population, over one million people according to recent United Nations report. Murder is rampant as is rape. Children are the targets of violence and impressment into gangs to learn to kill alongside hardened criminals.
The termination of US AID assistance means that basic health care programs, nutrition counseling centers, and food assistance programs will lose necessary financial support. An already horrendous situation will soon become even more deplorable.
The current state of the nation of Haiti would surely have grieved Bishop Holly’s heart. It grieves God’s heart. On this day when we remember a great man of God who worked so hard for the Church and the people of the country he loved so much, let us honor his memory by giving our prayerful attention to relieving the suffering of the Haitian people.
-The Rev. Vern Cahoon
The Collect for the Ministry of Bishop Holly.
Most gracious God, whose servant James Theodore Holly labored to build a church in which all might be free: Grant that we might overcome our prejudice, and honor those whom you call from every family, language, people, and nation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Financial support for the needs of the Haitian people can be given through Episcopal Relief and Development. Please click here to donate.