Episcopalian sisters with New Hartford connection safe in Haiti

By STAFF REPORT
GateHouse News Service
Jan 13, 2010

NEW HARTFORD — A team of Episcopalian sisters stationed in Haiti and affiliated with Utica's Grace Episcopal Church are safe but their church and convent have been destroyed, according to an e-mailed Facebook message posted by the Rev. Lauren Stanley, an Episcopal Missioner to Haiti.

A New Hartford order of the Society of St. Margaret sisters lived in a convent on Jordan Road since 1937. The sisters moved from their New Hartford home in August to a Boston convent. Some of the sisters’ peers were stationed in Haiti.

Barb Grove, a stewart at the former convent that now acts as a retreat center, was thrilled to hear the sisters were safe, and was equally optimistic that the Haitian people would come together during this time.

Grove worked as a nurse for two years in a Haitian hospital in Des Chappeles.

“I know they’re pitching in to help each other,” she said. “This is the spirit of the Haitian people. It will be difficult, but I know they’ll survive.” Story