wfn.org | NCC Cuba Trip, Executive Board, Videos

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org

NCC5/21/98          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

****************************************************
NCC NEWS BRIEFS:
  NCC General Secretary, Colleagues to Visit Cuban 
Churches, President Castro
  "Africa Panel" Among Highlights of NCC Executive 
Board's Meeting May 18-19
  Friendship Press Video "No Place to Call Home" 
Wins WorldFest's Gold Award
  "Mission of Mercy: Holy Week in Baghdad" Video 
Available
****************************************************

NCC HEAD, COLLEAGUES TOVISIT CUBAN CHURCHES, CASTRO

NEW YORK, May 21 ---- The Rev. Dr. Joan B. 
Campbell, General Secretary of the National Council 
of Churches, and five colleagues from the NCC and 
its member communions will leave May 30 for a "long 
weekend" in Cuba.  

Before returning to the United States on June 
2, they will deliver badly needed medical equipment 
to the Emergency Polyclinic in Old Havana, meet with 
the Cuban Council of Churches and member 
denominations, worship in local churches - and have 
a dialogue with Cuba's President, Fidel Castro.

"We plan to talk with him about the situation 
of the churches there, the issue of human rights, 
the embargo, and the role that institutions like the 
National Council of Churches can play in improving 
the possibility of a dialogue between our two 
countries," Dr. Campbell said.

Another important dialogue will be with the 
Studies Center of the Cuban Council of Churches, 
which is analyzing the role of the churches in the 
process of social change in Cuba.  "We agreed to 
create a similar committee here in the United States 
to analyze the role of the U.S. churches vis-a-vis 
Cuba," said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, NCC/Church World 
Service and Witness Director for Latin America and 
the Caribbean, who will accompany Dr. Campbell.  

"And we will discuss the Studies Center's 
proposal of a dialogue among the churches in Cuba, 
Puerto Rico and the United States in relation to the 
centennial of the Spanish-American War, which 
prompted U.S. invasions of Cuba and Puerto Rico."

Mr. Bolioli said the group hopes its visit can 
help strengthen the role of Cuban Council of 
Churches and its member denominations in Cuban 
society, and in the eyes of the U.S. government "at 
a moment when the U.S. government is raising some 
questions about their role."  

The visiting group - several of whom 
participated in an NCC pastoral delegation to Cuba 
last December - also is eager to observe the impact 
of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba early this 
year.  

Participants in the December visit learned that 
87 percent of the population of Cuba is religious.  
300,000 Protestants and 280,000 Roman Catholics 
attend worship every Sunday, according to the Cuban 
Council of Churches.  There are 635 Roman Catholic 
congregations, and 1,600 Protestant ones.  The 1,100 
Protestant pastors all are Cubans, except for three.  
Of the 240 Roman Catholic priests, 120 were born 
outside of Cuba.

The "May/June group" expects to meet an air 
shipment of 3,000 pounds of medical equipment 
(valued at $33,801 wholesale) donated to Church 
World Service by a Rotary District #5240 in Southern 
California, working with Rotary International and in 
collaboration with Direct Relief International, 
Santa Barbara, Calif.  CWS and the United Methodist 
Committee on Relief (UMCOR) are paying for shipping 
- by truck to Miami, and then by air to Cuba via 
Mexico since direct aid flights between the U.S. and 
Cuba, approved by the U.S. State Department in 
March, have not yet resumed.

The medical supplies and equipment, including 
laboratory and diagnostic equipment, are the first 
step toward refurbishing all the equipment at the 
polyclinic.  A later shipment will include gloves, 
syringes and other disposables donated by the Ohio 
Medical Center.

"The Cuban Council of Churches requested this 
equipment during our December visit," Mr. Bolioli 
said.  "In addition to our ongoing contributions of 
medicine and food, we now also are targeting 
specific clinics and hospitals to make a 
difference."

Over the past six years, the NCC - through its 
Church World Service ministry - has sent 42 
shipments of food, medicines, medical equipment, 
school supplies and other goods to Cuba totaling 
nearly 300 tons with a market value of more than $10 
million.  CWS assistance is targeted to the most 
vulnerable members of Cuban society - women, 
children and the elderly.

The NCC has called repeatedly for the 
normalization of relations between the U.S. and 
Cuba, including a lifting of the U.S. embargo 
against Cuba.

Besides Dr. Campbell and Mr. Bolioli, the group 
will include the Rev. Dr. Albert Pennybacker, NCC 
Director for Public Policy; Bishop McKinley Young, 
Ecumenical Officer for the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church; the Rev. Dr. Thom White Wolf 
Fassett, General Secretary, United Methodist Church 
Board of Church and Society; and the Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.).

*  *  *

"AFRICA PANEL" AMONG NCC EXECUTIVE BOARD HIGHLIGHTS

NEW YORK, May 19 ---- "Would you please tell me 
what is the capital of Africa?"  A U.S. 
Congressperson posed that question just last year to 
C. Payne Lukas, President of Africare, unwittingly 
illustrating the urgent need to "educate American's 
about Africa," a continent three times the size of 
the United States with 54 countries and a plethora 
of social and political systems.

Thankfully, understanding of Africa is growing, 
Mr. Lukas and four other panelists, including Joan 
Campbell and Carol Capps (, Director, Church World 
Service/Lutheran World Relief Office on Development 
Policy), commented during the NCC Executive Board's 
May 18-19 meeting in New York.  

They credited President Clinton's Africa trip; 
the recent "African Renaissance" conference in 
Washington, D.C.; the National Summit on Africa 
process, which Mr. Lukas co-chairs, and the Africa 
Growth and Opportunity Act currently before the U.S. 
Senate.  (In a resolution, the NCC Executive Board 
commended the initiative and proposed several 
improvements in the Act.)

"The best organized constituency for Africa in 
the United States right now is the church," Mr. 
Lukas commented.  "Church involvement in development 
in Africa needs to be stepped up.  There's greater 
interest now and that needs to be exploited."

During its meeting, the Board also:

  addressed a message of concern to the Communion of 
Churches of Indonesia, including condolences to 
the families of those killed in the rioting of 
these past few days.  "(T)here can be no 
meaningful economic recovery in Indonesia without 
political reform," the Board said, expressing its 
solidarity with all who advocate non-violent 
democratic reform.
  elected David M. Weaver to the position of 
Director, NCC/CWSW Middle East Office.  David 
joined the office in 1985, serving as Program 
Assistant and then Program Specialist.  He was 
named Acting Director in 1994.
  dealt with a plethora of mid-year financial 
matters, and asked implementation of 
recommendations on financial transformation 
prepared for the General Secretary by the Pappas 
Consulting Group.  A public Executive Summary will 
be prepared.
  heard from two South Carolina teens whose churches 
had been burned.  Said Carthel Davis of Jerusalem 
Branch Baptist Church, "God can take a bad thing 
and turn it to a good thing."  He told of his 
initial shock when he saw white volunteers coming 
to his highly segregated community.  "They had 
their hammers and we had our hammers, and together 
we built a new church - and a new community," he 
said.

*  *  *  *

FRIENDSHIP PRESS VIDEO WINS WORLDFEST'S GOLD AWARD

NEW YORK, May 21 ---- The Annual WorldFest 
International Film Festival - "North America's only 
truly Independent Film Festival" - has honored the 
Friendship Press video No Place to Call Home with 
its Gold Award.  This puts the video at the top in 
its category, Religious Programming for TV and 
Video.

No Place to Call Home was produced for 
Friendship Press by the United Church of Canada's 
Berkeley Studio.  It explores the reasons more than 
50 million people have been forced to leave their 
homes and livelihoods, tells stories of the 
tremendous courage of the world's uprooted, and 
bears witness to models of compassionate sharing.  

Rod Booth, active in the NCC Communication 
Commission, is the video's Executive Producer.  The 
31st Annual WorldFest International Film Festival was 
held April 17-26 in the host cities of Houston and 
Charleston.  WorldFest shows only new, 
undistributed, independent films - no major studio 
or major distributor films are screened.

*  *  *  *

"MISSION OF MERCY: HOLY WEEK IN BAGHDAD" VIDEO 
AVAILABLE

NEW YORK, May 21 ---- Mission of Mercy: Holy 
Week in Baghdad is a powerful 9-1/2  minute video 
documenting the suffering of children in Iraq under 
United Nations-imposed sanctions.  

Filmed during a visit of a Church World Service 
delegation to Iraq last month, the video climaxes 
with the dramatic resuscitation of a child-with 
medicines that had just been delivered by the 
delegation.  Mission of Mercy interprets the scope 
of the human tragedy in Iraq in personal terms and 
invites the compassionate response of all American 
Christians.  Available for free rental from Church 
World Service. Call: 219-264-3102.

-end-
 -0-