The Liberian Observer is reporting on the details of the Presiding Bishop’s upcoming trip to the country and Episcopal Diocese of Liberia and its bishop Jonathan Hart.
An elaborate program has been planned for her visit. On Sunday, January 3, at 10 a.m., she will participate in a solemn high mass at Trinity Cathedral. The following day she will be the guest of honor at a Special Convocation at Cuttington University, which will begin at noon. There, the presiding bishop will most likely receive an honorary degree.
On Tuesday, January 5, prayer time with Episcopalians at St. Andrew Chapel, Trinity Cathedral, will take place, beginning at 10 a.m. Later in the afternoon, she will visit Bromley Mission in Clay Ashland, the Liberian Diocese’s oldest institution for girls.
On the Day of Epiphany, January 6 (celebrated as the day the Baby Jesus was taken to the temple to be dedicated), Bishop Schori, accompanied by Bishop Hart, will attend holy mass at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Camp Johnson road. Later that morning, she will meet with Bishop Hart and his clergy in St. Andrews Chapel, Trinity Cathedral. In the afternoon, she will visit the Rafiki Children’s Village in Schiefflin, and at six o’clock p.m. will attend Choral Evening Prayer at St. Stephen Episcopal Church at 10th Street, Sinkor.
From here.
And that’s just three days of the six day trip.
The Diocese of Liberia separated from the Episcopal Church in 1979 and became self governing.
An editorial in the Liberian Observer points out that the decision was not without cost:
One of the saddest consequences of the Liberian Episcopal Diocese’s decision to break away from the American Diocese and join the West African Diocese was the cessation of support from the West to the educational institutions run by the Episcopal Church in Liberia.
Except for Cuttington University College in Suacoco, Bong County, most of the Episcopal institutions of learning in Liberia have closed down because the American Diocese withdrew its support.
And so the editorial says in part:
We boldly bring to our readers’ attention the fruits of the Episcopal Church’s role in the educational work in Liberia in order to remind the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States that the work done many years ago was not done in vain, and that we are still in need of their patronage.
Hat tip to Jim Simons.