In a move justified as matching personnel to the current stage of recovery, “the Rev. Lauren Stanley, the Episcopal Church-appointed missionary who has been Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin’s liaison in the United States, is no longer to be involved in those efforts.”
ENS has the full story. Some excerpts:
Stanley, a priest in the Diocese of Virginia, told ENS via e-mail June 22, that she has “been informed that, because of the changing circumstances in Haiti, a request has been made for a different skill set in the position that I held. I am deeply saddened by this, but as I have said from the moment I arrived in Haiti, long before the earthquake, Bishop Duracin is in charge, and I truly believe that we need to let the Haitians be in charge of their own future.”
Chief Operating Officer Linda Watt briefed Executive Council this past week on developments in the Diocese of Haiti.
Watt said that Duracin had recently given church center staff an assessment of damage to diocesan facilities in and around the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Watt said the assessment, which is the first part of the diocese’s master plan for rebuilding, is “partial, it’s incomplete, it’s rough” and it carries a $60 million price tag. The cost of rebuilding Holy Trinity Cathedral is estimated at $10 million.
She said that conversations with Duracin have led to the conclusion that the diocese needs a reconstruction coordinator to help finish and then implement the master plan. An Episcopal Church missionary will be hired for that job, Watt said, as will a second missionary to continue the work of coordinating the diocese’s many partnerships in the church, which “was so ably done by Lauren Stanley” in the months after the quake.