Praying for the people of Haiti after the huge earthquake

From the Episcopal Cafe:

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been struck with a devastating earthquake this evening. According to initial reports, the 7+ magnitude quake and aftershocks have toppled buildings including hospitals and hotels through out the country's capital region.

The Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is, numerically speaking, the largest of the dioceses of the Episcopal Church.

We're monitoring developments overnight on the Cafe´. A number of Episcopal dioceses have ongoing partnership relationships with the Diocese of Haiti and are starting to post reports about what they're hearing from their friends.

You can follow CNN's Twitter page on the Haiti quake here. Most communications to Haiti have been cut off but text messages are still getting out for the time being.

The Rev. Lauren Stanley, an appointed missionary to Haiti who is home in Virginia tonight writes to us at the Cafe:

Also, please to know that we have three missionaries there right now. The Rev. Canon Oge Beauvoir is the Dean of the Theological Seminary; Ms. Mallory Holding and Mr. Jude Harmon are both Young Adult Service Corps missionaries. All three live in downtown Port au Prince, quite close to the Presidential Palace, which we understand is damaged if not destroyed.

There are reports of terrible devastation. But cell phones are out at the moment, and we don't know about the Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Jean Zache Duracin, or any of our people. The quake was apparently centered quite close to where I live in Petion Ville.

The two YASC volunteers have blogs here and here - though neither of them has been updated with news of the earthquake.

According to Stanley:

Oge is canonically resident in Long Island. Mallory is from the Diocese of Chicago.

Jude is from the Diocese of Massachusetts. Mallory's mom is the new canon to the ordinary in San Diego.

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