Presiding Bishop to visit Liberia
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.
At our most recent convention the Diocese of Southern Ohio voted to explore forming a companion diocese relationship with Liberia. The vote was unanimous. Bishop and Mrs. Hart were present for the convention.
Posted by R. William Carroll![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
December 14, 2009 11:35 PM
This Liberian Observer's unfamiliarity with Anglicanspeak makes its account of the status of the Diocese of Liberia quite confusing. The Diocese of Liberia left the Episcopal Church to become part of the Anglican Province of West Africa, a quite proper decolonializing move in which it became part of a self-governing local church. (Americans tend to forget just how much the Republic of Liberia was a U.S. dependency, right down to using the U.S. dollar as its unit of currency through most of the 20th century (and perhaps up to now, I'm not sure). If U.S. financial support diminished thereafter, it was the result of diminished interest or shifting priorities in the U.S. church that had little to do with the Liberian church's independence or lack of it.
Posted by William R MacKaye![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
|
December 16, 2009 12:35 AM