Winnie Romeril in Haiti

The image of a picture I did not take stays with me. It’s of a sign embedded in my mind since childhood. I’ve caught sight of it all over the world, and it always makes me smile. That red, white and blue shield with the familiar words, The Episcopal Church Welcomes You. I saw a fragment of it on a shattered wall in Leogane, Haiti. Most of the sign was gone, but it was still recognizable to me. I smiled out of habit; I could have cried.

[Download, from the April issue of Diocesan Life, Haiti for the Long Haul by Winnie Romeril, daughter of Bob and Canon Gwendolyn-Jane Romeril of Bethlehem, who claims "two weeks in Puerto Rico" with a Diocese of Behlehem youth group some years ago, "changed my life."]

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Grace Honesdale concert raises $1100+ for Haiti

[From Father Ed Erb, rector, Grace Honesdale]

You cannot imagine if you were not there, the phenomenal concert enjoyed at Grace Church this evening. I wish I could say the $1,100+  raised was the best part of the evening. All to aid Episcopal Relief and Development for their work in Haiti.

Our guess is that about 75 people from all over NEPA and NY State gathered to hear some of the most amazing music.
 
Our own Janet Burgan (folk guitarist, song-writer and singer) and Steve Faubel (classical pianist and soft-rock singer) will forgive me I know, but to these ears the most moving offering of the evening was a dream vision of the travesty of the earthquake.  The keyboard playing and singing of Kazzrie Jaxen entered us into a journey from early Tuesday calm, through the shocks, the subsiding, the after-shocks and the unsettling calm following the devastation of the earthquake.
 
I have been at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York as the organist Dorothy Papadakos improvising from the depths of the organ to the full swell of the State Trumpet in the balcony, the sound of the earth filling that huge cathedral.  We experienced that tonight with the Steinway piano and Kazzrie's playing - the sound of the earth filling Grace Church.  What an experience, you cannot imagine!
 
And now, the joy of sending well over $1,000. to give some relief to our sisters and brothers in Haiti.  It was suggested over and over again that we do something like this once a year, every 3 months, once a month - for some special need.  Here is another ministry of Grace Church.  And all we had to do was open the doors and turn on the lights!  Praise God!

Daughter of Bethlehem couple interviewed in Haiti on MSNBC

On Friday afternoon (Jan. 22), Dylan Ratigan interviewed Winnie Romeril on MSNBC. (Video segment provided by Winnie's husband, David Schenck. You may have to copy and paste http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34983801#34982071 into your browser to view the segment.) Winnie joined the rescue teams in Haiti last Saturday as a field press officer for the American Red Cross and is expected to be there for two or three weeks. She is the daughter of Robert and The Rev. Canon Gwendolyn-Jane Romeril of Bethlehem, and was featured also on Monday on Larry King Live.

Winnie was once a leader in the youth group of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem and an active participant in the Puerto Rico/Bethlehem Summer Exchange in 1984.

Find some background here and here.

Recital for Haiti in Wilkes-Barre

Canon Mark Laubach, Organist and Choirmaster of St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, will present a recital on January 31 at  3:00 p.m. on the four-manual, 80+ rank Berghaus pipe organ to raise money for Episcopal Relief and Development to provide assistance for victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. If you cannot attend the recital, your prayers and contributions to any worthy charity in support of the suffering people of Haiti will be appreciated. Contributions may be sent to St. Stephen's (checks payable to St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, with "Haiti Earthquake Relief" in the memo section) or made directly to ER-D at their website, http://www.er-d.org/. ER-D is one of the highest rated charities in the USA, with very low overhead expenses. All contributions made to St. Stephen's or to ER-D are tax deductible. [Thanks to Debra Kellerman of St. Stephen's for sending this information.]