JERUSALEM - The Assumptionist Community of St. Peter in Gallicantu welcomed some 70 visitors for the annual celebration of First Vespers on the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, on Saturday evening, June 28, 2014, at 6:00pm. Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Nuncio and Apostolic Delegate, presided.

The Assumptionists inaugurated this event several years ago. Visitors are invited to begin the celebration on the stone stairway that dates to Maccabean times and on which Jesus certainly would have walked since it was one of the main thoroughfares between the Pool of Siloam and the Upper City. It was along this stairway that tradition locates the denial and repentance of Peter.

It is with great pleasure that the Assumptionists welcome Nicholas Collura to be the Vocation Coordinator for the U.S. Territory. Most directly, he will be working with the Vocation Director, Bro. Ronald Sibugan, A.A. and the Vocation Committee which also includes: Fr. Joseph Zhang, A.A., Bro. Blair Nuyda, A.A., Tomasz Jaster and Sr. Clare Bertero, O.S.F. The office for this newly created position will be located in Worcester.

Named for Rutland Resident Britney Gengel, Who Lost Her Life in 2010 Earthquake in Haiti.

Leonard "Len" and Cherylann Gengel of Rutland, Mass., lost their daughter Britney four years ago in a massive earthquake that hit Haiti. Vowing that her death would not be in vain, the couple—along with sons Bernie and Richie—have kept alive Britney’s dream to help the poor island nation’s children.

Britney was a 19-year-old sophomore at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., who had traveled to Haiti to do mission work with the organization Food for the Poor. She died when the hotel where she was staying collapsed during the 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which killed over 300,000 people and displaced a million others. Wanting to establish a memorial to their daughter’s legacy, the Gengels started the Be Like Brit Foundation, wrote a book about their daughter, and raised money to build the $2 million, earthquake-proof Be Like Brit Orphanage in Grand Coave, Haiti. The 19,000-square-foot facility, which opened in January 2013 and is shaped in the letter “B,” houses 45 children. It’s expected that up to 66 children will live there by the end of 2014.

Will Help Nonprofit Organizations in South Africa, Ecuador, England, Across the U.S.

Seven Assumption College graduates are participating in a post-graduate “Year of Service” program, helping nonprofit organizations in Ecuador, England and across the United States. The new alumni, who graduated from the College on May 17, 2014, have gone directly from the classroom to assisting in bettering the lives of others.