Two Episcopal churches offer one half million dollar matching gift for Haiti:
Two Episcopal churches announce half-million dollar matching gift for Haiti rebuilding
Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Trinity Wall Street in New York have announced a $500,000 joint matching gift to the Episcopal Church’s Rebuild Our Church in Haiti appeal.
The grant, meant as a challenge to other congregations involved in the campaign to fund reconstruction of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was announced Feb. 25 during a meeting of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, according to a press release. Fifty-four of the church’s 110 dioceses have already committed to participating.
Both parishes said in the release that their commitment to rebuilding Holy Trinity Cathedral came in addition to ongoing work with other projects in Haiti, as well as individual parishioners’ contributions to relief work. With their combined gifts to fund Holy Trinity, the two churches are doing more than a $1 million worth of relief and rebuilding work in Haiti, the release said.
“As a community, we remember those whose loss is immeasurable and whose lives have been disrupted beyond imagining,” said the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Trinity rector, adding that the parish’s commitment to Haiti is ongoing and long-term.
Speaking at Christ Church, the Very Rev. Stephen Carlsen told Episcopal Diocese of Haiti Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin that the cathedral “wanted to make a gift that would have a significant impact on the Diocese of Haiti but that would also energize and inspire others to take part in rebuilding the church there. This is a gift intended to rebuild and to unite.”