United Methodists celebrate growth of Haitian church from Miami to California By Steven Skelley

United Methodists celebrate growth of Haitian church from Miami to California

By Steven Skelley

Published by UM News Service at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/1717

The Rev. Luc Dessieux and Jocelyne Jean-Baptiste help others remember the birth of  Haitian United Methodist churches in Florida and the United States. Dessieux helped launch Grace Haitian United Methodist Church, the first Haitian congregation; Jean-Baptiste was one of its first worshippers. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-441. Web photo only.

In 1979 a man named Luc Dessieux fled his Haitian homeland in fear for his family’s lives. An illegal immigrant, he was imprisoned in the United States for three weeks.


Just two years later, God led Dessieux to launch the first Haitian United Methodist Church in his new homeland.

From this one small beginning in Little Haiti, Miami, 18 Haitian United Methodist congregations in Florida and across New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia and California were born.

That first Haitian congregation was Grace Haitian United Methodist Church. It’s motto today is “Grace Haitian United Methodist: Where Everybody Is Somebody,” and that attitude was evident there Sept. 10 during the 25th anniversary celebration of the church and Haitian ministry in the United States.

Twenty-five years ago Bishop James Lloyd Knox was superintendent of what was then called the Miami District. He recalled how he came to know Dessieux. “Luc had washed ashore on Palm Beach,” Knox said. “Immigration had taken him to its facility in Immokalee. They held him there for three weeks. Luc’s brother, Pierre, lived in Miami and had somehow gotten Luc released.”

Dessieux, now an ordained elder in the Florida Conference, had been a school teacher in Haiti. He was also the assistant pastor of a nine-congregation Methodist circuit in the Cap Haitien area. A terrorist group called the Ton Ton Macoute threatened to kill his family unless he left Haiti. He fled in 1979 and did not see his family for six years.

In the fall of 1980, Dessieux contacted Knox about creating a Creole-language congregation. The Rev. Michael Loomis and the congregation of Grace United Methodist Church agreed to provide that opportunity. On Sept. 11, 1981, the first Haitian United Methodist congregation in the United States was formally recognized. Dessieux, now a local pastor, became the minister of that church.

“It was possible to get funding from the district, the Florida Conference and the then National Division of the Board of Global Ministries for pastoral support,” Knox said. “The Haitian congregation flourished.”
 

A banner hung at Grace Haitian United Methodist Church announces the 25th anniversary of the church. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-442. Web photo only.

By 1991 the church had more than 350 members. “Grace Haitian United Methodist Church is considered the mother-church, at least by the Haitians in Florida,” Knox said.

The Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries and the United Methodist
Committee on Relief gave the district funds for a number of Haitian ministries, including a ministry with Haitian and Hispanic women and children and a refugee resettlement program for Haitians, according to Knox.


The Rev. Deborah A. McLeod, superintendent of the South East District, which includes the Miami area, said the six Haitian congregations in the district are among the district’s strongest churches “in terms of average attendance, spiritual maturity and their evangelistic and mission efforts. There are many professions of faith each year in all these congregations.”

She added: “The Haitian-American United Methodist pastors are among the hardest-working pastors. They are often the only paid employee of the church, serving as spiritual leader, counselor, social worker, translator, friend in legal proceedings, immigration advisor, organizer of youth activities and driver of the church van. We have the finest men and women serving as pastors of our Haitian congregations.”

The Rev. Preval Floreal, the current pastor of Grace Haitian church, stood during the celebration and asked the congregation, “Has God been good to you?” They immediately stood and shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” punctuating each “yes” with raised hands.

Grace Haitian United Methodist Church was filled to overflowing during the celebration of its 25th anniversary and the Haitian ministry it helped launch in the United States. Photo by Steven Skelley, Photo #06-443. Web photo only.

“We have gathered here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Haitian ministry here in the United States of America,” Floreal said. “We thank God for all of you who have gathered together to praise and lift up the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”


Jocelyne Jean-Baptiste was one of the church’s first worshipers. “We feel God here,” she said. “He has done so much. We see people who have worshiped here for many, many years, and we see young people coming in. We see God doing something here.” She said the church’s revival meetings sometimes last until midnight.

Wilfred Toussaint attended the celebration with his wife, Julie. He said he feels the church is very important to the community. “We have a very helpful pastor, and the church is reaching out to the community. We formed PATC: People Acting Together for this Community. We meet to discuss the needs of the community, like transportation, education, immigration and people in need of housing.”

Floreal shared the stories of people who had come to know Christ through the church, including one woman who attributed the healing of a hemorrhage to giving “her heart to the Lord.”
“And there is another lady,” Floreal said. “God sent her to the church. I went to her house and began to witness to her. … One day after that, she came to the church and now she is coming here. The Lord is working.”

Others agree. “God has been working in our lives here for years,” the Rev. Fabolon Pradel said. “We try to touch lives in many ways because people have different needs.”

The Rev. Mike Oliver, superintendent of the Atlantic Central District, added: “I drove down to support the Haitian church in their celebration. I think God is using them in this community to do many good things.”

The celebration included a variety of special speakers, choirs, dancers and communion. The sanctuary was filled to capacity, and as many as 25 people stood in the narthex watching through the glass windows.

The praise team opened the celebration by leading the congregation in singing “How Great Thou Art,” while a clergy processional including Florida Conference Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker, Knox, Dessieux, Floreal and other conference pastors entered the sanctuary. The welcome was given in both English and Creole.


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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.

Task team calls for greater support for African-American churches By Steven Skelley

Task team calls for greater support for African-American churches

By Steven Skelley

Published by UM News Service at http://floridaconferenceconnection.info/newsarchives/detail/2961

The Rev. Dr. Geraldine McClellan believes African-American churches have been neglected, and she is calling for change at the upcoming 2008 Florida Annual Conference Event.

The Rev. Dr. Geraldine McClellan attending the “Thunder in the Desert: Symposium for Partnerships in African-American Churches,” sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship in January in Nashville, Tenn. A UMNS photo by Linda Green. File photo #08-0744. Originally accompanied e-Review Florida UMNS #0795/Feb. 7, 2008.

“Forty years have passed and the annual conference has not fully recognized the blessings and contributions of the African-American church,” said McClellan, superintendent of the Florida Conference’s North Central District and liaison to the conference's African-American Task Team. 

“The strengthening of the African-American church is a vital part of making our church one. It is important to have a director of African-American Congregational Development and line item funding.”

The Rev. Walter Monroe, chairperson of the task team, agrees. He will be presenting recommendations from the team, based on its review of the African-American Comprehensive Plan, May 30 during the conference session, which runs May 29-31.

“We’re proposing that we need to fund a position called the director of African-American Congregational Development,” he said. “We’re asking the conference to hear our report, decide the responsibilities of this office and then include line item funding in the budget. We see this as a move in the right direction.”

At last year’s conference session, members approved the African-American Comprehensive Plan. It called for making churches in urban areas more relevant, externally focused and a higher priority of the conference; making worship in African-American churches more relevant through technological advances and training; and the consideration of an African-American Church Redevelopment office.

Of the 722 Florida Conference churches, approximately 75 are African-American, representing about 9.6 percent of the conference’s churches. The majority of them are located in the North East, West and Central districts.

Rev. Walter Monroe

Monroe says the task team held listening sessions in the Jacksonville and Gainesville areas and received some very positive feedback.

“Rev. Geraldine McClellan met with African-American leaders and asked how God is leading the African-American constituency in the Methodist Church,” he said. “I am very encouraged about the conversations we’ve had. They’ve been honest and engaging.”

“The director (of African-American Congregational Development), working in consultation with the director of Congregational Transformation, will provide promising approaches and tools for addressing disparities, as well as identifying appropriate points for change,” McClellan said.

In January, McClellan led a delegation representing 11 Florida Conference congregations to the “Thunder in the Desert: Symposium for Partnerships in African-American Churches” in Nashville, Tenn.

The event was designed to provide church leaders with resources to strengthen and energize African-American churches and was sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship.

Numerous African-American leaders at the event shared the concern that black churches have lost their identity and culture in worship and become so “Caucasian-ized” that they have forgotten God’s work and miracles in their lives.

“We have our own culture, and God has given us a style of worship that is unique, and we don't have to be ashamed of that,” McClellan said in a United Methodist News Service interview during the symposium. “We have become so ashamed of what God has done for us, and because of that our churches are dying."

Monroe wants the new director position to “become a reality and take effect in January 2009.”

Conference from the comfort of home

The “Living the United Methodist Way” 2008 Florida Annual Conference Event will be webcast live, beginning with opening worship May 29 at 2 p.m. Individuals would like to view the events via the webcast may go to http://www.flumc2.org/page.asp?PKValue=1339 on the Florida Conference Web site and click on the webcast link.

The entire conference session will be webcast, enabling those not able to attend the annual gathering at the Lakeland Center to see the activities and hear the important news taking place.

More information about the conference session, including a schedule of activities and reports being presented, is also available on the Web site.

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Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.