[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs — Press Release] The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church is meeting in retreat at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, NC (Diocese of Western North Carolina) from March 8 to March 12.  The following is an account of the activities for Sunday, March 10.

The theme for the spring retreat meeting of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops is Godly Leadership in the Midst of Loss. The schedule calls for prayer-filled sessions, and bishops participate in daily Bible study, reflection and worship.

Eucharist was celebrated by Bishop Robert R. Gepert, Diocese of Western Michigan.  Preacher was Bishop Oge Beauvoir, Diocese of Haiti, who continued the retreat meditations with Godly Leadership in the Midst of Chronic Loss.

Bishop Beauvoir identified the most pressing need for Haiti today as Godly Leadership, leadership that brings the people of Haiti into unity and solidarity. He reviewed the history of Haiti from the moment of liberation in 1804, when it was the unity of the people gained the freedom of the country from Napoleon’s army, to 1806 when the first president of freed Haiti was killed.

Since that time in 1806, Bishop Beauvoir said, there has been chronic loss in Haiti, flowing from the loss of a kind of leadership he calls “Godly.” Patterned on the Gospel lesson for this Sunday, Bishop Beauvoir said that Godly Leadership is that which both recognizes one’s own and one’s communities’ failings, or unworthiness, but also recognizes the quality of the loving father in one’s self and one’s community, welcoming, forgiving, encouraging.

Haiti today is losing its young families and young adults, and its working force – they are leaving Haiti for Canada and the United States. Young people in Haiti are being lost to addiction and violence because they feel they have lost their  futures.

The Episcopal Church in Haiti has been playing a role of Godly Leadership already by being a generous church, a bridge-building church. Bishop Beauvoir believes that the Church in Haiti is providing Godly Leadership, and is united, its bishops, clergy and people being in unity and solidarity. From this source reconciliation and healing will continue to grow, Bishop Beauvoir concluded.

The afternoon will be Sabbath time.  The bishops will gather for discussion after dinner, followed by Compline.

Media Briefers for Sunday, March 10
Bishop Marc Andrus, Diocese of California
Bishop Paul Lambert, Diocese of Dallas

HOB on Twitter: #HOB2013

Kanuga Conference Center
Diocese of Western North Carolina