Resources for Congregations - Haiti Earthquake

If your congregation plans to address the humanitarian crisis in Haiti after the devastating earthquake, please feel free to download, print, and use these materials.

Suggested Materials for the Story for All Ages

• Eight Days: A Story of Haiti, by Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Alix Delinois
• "For a Haitian Child, with Butterflies,"by Michael R. Burch (scroll halfway down page)
  Excerpt: "Where does the butterfly go / when lightning rails and thunder howls / and hailstones scream and winter scowls / and storms compound the frost with snow? / Where does the butterfly go?"

Suggested Hymns

• "When Our Heart Is in a Holy Place," words and music: Joyce Paley, in Singing the Journey: A Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition, Unitarian Universalist Association, Boston, 2005, 1008.
• "Our World Is One World," words and music: Cecily Taylor, in Singing the Living Tradition, The Unitarian Universalist Association, Beacon Press, Boston, 1993, 134.
• "If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking," words by Emily Dickinson, music by Leo Smit, in Singing the Living Tradition, The Unitarian Universalist Association, Beacon Press, Boston, 1993, 292.
• "Just as Long as I Have Breath," words by Alicia Carpenter, music by Johann Ebeling, in Singing the Living Tradition, The Unitarian Universalist Association, Beacon Press, Boston, 1993, 6.
• "We'll Build a Land," words by Barbara Zanotti, music by Carolyn McDade, in Singing the Living Tradition, The Unitarian Universalist Association, Beacon Press, Boston, 1993, 121.

Suggested Readings

• "Blessed," by P. Jacob, taken from Compartir, found in Bread for Tomorrow: Prayers for the Church Year, Janet Morley, ed., (Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY) 1992, 19. Also can be found online.
  Excerpt: "Blessed are the poor... / not the penniless / but those whose heart is free."
• Selection from "The Port-au-Prince I Knew," by Tontongi, passage that begins "I would welcome our neighbor's grace / in bringing water and firefighter / to extinguish the fire in our house," through to the end of the poem.

Suggested Prayers

• "They Are With Us Still," by Rev. Kathleen McTigue, Reading #721 
• "O Spirit of Life and Renewal," by Jane Rzepka, Reading #510
• "Hold on to what is Good," by Nancy Wood, Reading #688
• "For all this is our lives," by Erik Walker Wikstrom
• "Holy and Creative Light," by Charles W. Grady
• "Prayer in Response to 2010 Earthquake in Haiti," by Rev. John Millspaugh

Suggested Benediction

• "And now, may we have faith in life to do wise planting that the generations to come may reap even more abundantly than we. May we be bold in bringing to fruition the golden dreams of human kinship and justice. This we ask that the fields of promise become fields of reality." —V. Emil Gudmundson

Sermons

• The Haiti Earthquake by Martha Thompson, UUSC Program Manager for Rights in Humanitarian Crises
• Bending the Arc: Helping Haitians Raise Their Voices by Gay Ann Gustafson, National Cochair, UUSC National Volunteer Network
• O the Places We'll Go by Dennis Reynolds, Consulting Minister, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Klamath Falls, Ore.
• Meeting Haiti Eye to Eye by Norm Horofker, Ministerial Intern, UU Congregation of Atlanta, Ga.