The Haitian congregation at Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden, marked its fifth-year anniversary with a special service and celebration attended by more than 200 people on Sunday, April 21. The day’s designation as Good Shepherd Sunday seems especially fitting as both the church and the Diocese of Central Florida recognize God’s work in the past and anticipate the future of ministry to those with a Haitian heritage.
‘An Amazing Celebration’
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Justin S. Holcomb preached and celebrated the Eucharist for the service, thanking the church leadership and others before beginning his sermon. The Rev. Tom Rutherford, rector, Church of the Messiah; the Rev. Soner Alexandre, associate priest, Church of the Messiah, and leader of the church’s Haitian congregation; the Rev. Andrew Lazo, apprentice rector, Church of the Messiah; the Rev. Sonley Joseph, priest, St. Andrew’s, Lake Worth Beach; the Rev. Jeanty Laine, priest-in-charge, Haitian American congregation, Blessed James T. Holly Mission, Delray Beach; and the Ven. Julie Altenbach, diocesan archdeacon, joined the congregation for the service along with the bishop and lay leaders. These included the bishop’s chaplain, Mr. Wesny Dubic, chair of the diocese’s Honduras Commission, who helped Alexandre begin the Haitian congregation and is now a Nashotah House seminarian in the diocesan discernment process.
Mr. Osney Alexandre served as Bishop Holcomb’s translator. | Photo Credit: Yolwenn Alexandre
Hymns were sung in French, and Mr. Osney Alexandre, the Rev. Alexandre’s son, translated the bishop’s opening remarks as well as the sermon from English into Haitian Creole. Afterward, the congregation hosted a party in the parish hall that included delicious Haitian food and appetizers. The female youth from the congregation also performed a dance to praise music.
“Everyone was so happy to see Bishop Holcomb,” Rev. Alexandre said later. “It was an amazing celebration with delicious Haitian food, which the bishop enjoyed!”
“The shepherd provides rest, healing and comfort for the sheep,” Holcomb told those at the service, assuring them that “Jesus as our good shepherd is a picture of the love that God has for us. He loves you more than he loves his own life.” During the service, the bishop also confirmed, received and reaffirmed two youth and 12 adults.
Building on Holcomb’s use of Psalm 23, Alexandre said, “Psalm 23 ends like this: ‘I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’ The password for this sacred dwelling is thanksgiving and praise. There are thousands of reasons to say, ‘Thank you, God,’ especially for this church family, Messiah.
“Today is our fifth anniversary of the Haitian congregation,” he added. “I don’t remember when I was 5, but I imagine I could not wait to be an adult. We are a young congregation, but we dream of becoming an adult one day.” He took time to thank, among others, Holcomb and Altenbach, longtime deacon at Church of the Messiah, who made the arrangements for the day’s celebration.
(L-R) Father Tom Rutherford, Father Soner Alexandre and Bishop Justin Holcomb | Photo Credit: The Ven. Julie Altenbach
Rutherford later expressed his excitement and gratitude about this milestone achievement for the Haitian congregation and for Alexandre. “The Haitian congregation is a vital part of the Messiah family, reaches out to an often-invisible portion of our Central Florida population and, as it offers the only area Episcopal worship in French and Creole, draws folks from a 40-mile radius,” he said.
“Because we have five worship services every Sunday, we have a supper every Sunday evening and several larger social events every year to help our varied congregations enjoy one another – always scheduling those events immediately following the Haitian liturgy to make it easiest on them to attend,” he added. “And though there are sometimes language barriers, the Messiah family joyfully mixes and mingles across those lines.
“Father Soner Alexandre is the lead pastor for the Haitian congregation, and, through him, the Messiah has built a thriving, energetic body of believers who worship enthusiastically, look after each other lovingly, prepare and serve the Sunday supper once a month deliciously, and supply our vestry with two of its 12 members,” Rutherford said.
‘I Needed to Do Something’
Alexandre, who is Haitian by birth, was ordained as a deacon in 2001 and as a priest in 2002; he speaks Haitian Creole, French, Spanish and English. He ministered in Cuba prior to his ordination and, after obtaining his master’s degree in theology there, served three different churches in Haiti, one for 10 years, prior to moving with his family to Central Florida in 2018.
Once in the U.S., he began serving Episcopal churches almost right away, helping his friend the Rev. Canon Luis De la Cruz with the Spanish service at St. John’s, Kissimmee. Before long, De la Cruz introduced him to Rutherford, who soon invited Alexandre to serve alongside him at Church of the Messiah.
Bishop Justin Holcomb and Mr. Wesny Dubic at the fifth-year anniversary celebration of the Haitian congregation at Church of the Messiah, Winter Garden | Photo Credit: Bishop Justin Holcomb
“The Haitian service was at my initiative,” Alexandre said. “Church of the Messiah has four services in English, and I needed to do something, so I asked Father Tom to let me begin a Haitian congregation.” Rutherford agreed to the idea while recognizing the special challenges of such an undertaking in a city where there is no Haitian population.
“I had to reach out, talk to people,” Alexandre said. “Wesny [Dubic] and I went together to talk to people. We held our first service in April 2019, and a few months later, COVID hit. It was a very challenging time.”
But that “challenging time” also yielded gospel fruit for the fledgling congregation. Messiah streamed the services of the Haitian congregation along with the English services, and “many people watched them from everywhere,” Alexandre said. “It was incredible. We had very few people in person, but online, we had people from Canada, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Brazil – there were people watching from everywhere.”
This prompted the church to develop a Zoom Bible study for this international congregation that continues today. Despite the restrictions of the pandemic, the church had its first confirmation class in 2020, with 14 young people confirmed, and has continued to grow from there. To this day, Alexandre said, many of the congregants drive 30-45 minutes to reach the church.
And challenges remain. Despite strong lay support, first from Dubic and now from others, and occasional support from the Rev. Adeline Smith, a deacon who serves at another church, “The biggest challenge is that I need a deacon to help me,” Alexandre said.
‘Pray for Us to Make a Difference’
“It will take time to consider and make decisions about ministry to Haitians. We can do better; we want to do better,” said Alexandre, speaking not just of the Haitian ministry at Church of the Messiah but throughout the diocese. “We need to know where we are and where we’re going.”
The meeting of the Association of Episcopal Haitian Clergy Living Abroad with Bishop Holcomb and Canon Dan Smith at the diocesan office as they discussed the future of ministry to the Haitian community in Central Florida | Photo Credit: Erik Guzman
In this, he stands in agreement with Holcomb, who spoke to the Association of Episcopal Haitian Clergy Living Abroad, whose annual meeting was hosted at Church of the Messiah on May 1 and included a lunch meeting at the diocesan office.
“In our association now, we are trying to support one another,” said the Rev. Panel Marc Guerrier, AEHCLA president. Thanking Holcomb for allowing the group to meet in the Diocese of Central Florida, he said, “It is important to tell you that, as a diocese, we need you. … many Haitians live in Orlando. They need a place to worship in their own language. It wouldn’t be good for them to go somewhere else [where there is] a language barrier; we need something valuable here.”
“It’s obvious that our diocese needs to serve Haitians in our communities, and I’m grateful for Father Soner taking the lead on that,” Holcomb told the guests from the AEHCLA. He said a recent meeting of the diocese’s Hispanic Ministry Commission affirmed this in part by recognizing the need to address its scope and vision to more properly reflect the variety of ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups it serves. He reported that the commission has also studied the demographics of the Haitian, Brazilian and Hispanic populations in Florida.
Alexandre emphasized prayer as a key point in the future growth of both the expanding diocesan ministry to Haitians and his own congregation. “Pray for us to make a difference, to help the diocese grow in terms of number and diversity,” he said. “Pray for us to spread the gospel. We need prayer to be an effective congregation; we don’t want to be here just to be here; we want to be here to make a difference.”