wfn.org | Protestants Hold Mass Rally to Mark Growing Role in Cuba

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

12-July-1999 
99233 
 
    Protestants Hold Mass Rally to Mark Growing Role in Cuba 
 
    Castro Attends Havana Gathering of More than 100,000 
 
    by Chris Herlinger 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW YORK--The biggest ever public gathering of Protestants in Cuba's 
history, drawing tens of thousands of worshipers, is being hailed by church 
leaders as a sign that Protestant churches are becoming a more potent force 
in this communist country. 
 
    On June 20 about 100,000 people attended the gathering, a rally at 
Havana's Revolution Square, perhaps best known for its huge portrait of 
revolutionary soldier Che Guevara.  An even bigger crowd gathered here last 
year to greet Pope John Paul II, an event that signaled a new willingness 
by Cuba to open up to the world at large and to churches in particular. 
 
    Most significant on June 20 was the presence of  President Fidel Castro 
and other government leaders.  The rally, organized by the Cuban Council of 
Churches had a distinctly evangelical flavor, complete with choir, 
orchestra, hymns, personal  testimonies and Scripture readings. 
 
    Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the U.S. National Council of 
Churches (NCC), the largest U.S. ecumenical organization, was a key 
speaker.  Campbell, who recently gained international acclaim for 
travelling to Belgrade with Jesse Jackson and an interfaith team to win the 
release of three U.S. soldiers, asked Cubans to forgive the United States 
for its economic embargo against Cuba.  The controversy has been going on 
for almost 40 years. 
 
    "We ask you to forgive the suffering that has come to you by the 
actions of the United States," Campbell said.  "For people of faith there 
are no embargoes, there are no barriers.  Jesus tells us to love our 
neighbours ... It is on behalf of Jesus the liberator that we work against 
this embargo." 
 
    In Havana, Campbell led a delegation of more than a dozen U.S. church 
leaders, representing denominations which, like the NCC, have called for an 
end to the embargo. 
 
    The Cuban Council of Churches (CCC), an ecumenical agency with 25 
Protestant denominations, had long wanted to celebrate what a CCC statement 
described as "a great  Evangelical event in which all Evangelical churches 
could come together ...  Never before had the conditions and the 
possibilities [existed] to make this dream become true." 
 
    While the council - which includes traditional churches such as the 
Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians - organized the event, another 
24 denominations and independent churches which are not  members of the 
council also participated. 
 
    Oscar Bolioli, director of the NCC's Latin America office, said that 
after Pope John Paul's visit, the Protestant community had felt the need to 
celebrate and affirm its own life in Cuba.  Now, with the Cuban government 
showing greater tolerance towards religious practice - two Protestant 
ministers currently serve in Cuba's National Assembly - Protestants were 
assuming a greater role in public life. 
 
    One estimate, by the Cuban Council of Churches Studies Center, shows 
that worshiping Protestants  (totaling 300,000) now outnumber worshiping 
Catholics (280,000).  The Methodist Church in Cuba has reportedly tripled 
its membership  in the past five years, while the Presbyterian Church in 
Cuba is reported to be among the fastest-growing Presbyterian churches in 
the world. 
 
    Observers pointed out that the June 20 celebration and three weeks of 
festivities that preceded it showed the growing strength of Cuba's 
evangelical and Pentecostal communities and the ways that mainline 
Protestant churches were being influenced by evangelicals and Pentecostals. 
 
    Randy Naylor, NCC associate  general secretary, told ENI that the rally 
"was very evangelical in style and contained a lot of testimonies and a lot 
of prayers.  It was very Cuban, and was a clear expression of the Cuban 
Protestant faith." 
 
    Bolioli, who did not attend the rally and worship, told ENI he believed 
the Cuban Council of Churches could become more evangelical in style 
because of the growing strength of the non-traditional churches, which he 
attributed in part to the churches' working-class roots. 
 
    "These churches are closer to the people in many ways and people have 
responded and are very comfortable attending them," he said, adding that 
these churches had been more aggressive in proselytising than their 
mainline Protestant counterparts. 
 
    Reports by the Associated Press news agency quoted two unnamed people 
who said that they had felt pressured to attend the rally, though the AP 
report said most of those at the rally attended out of religious 
conviction.  Bolioli said it was possible some may have felt pressured to 
attend, but that there was little way to prove that.  Naylor said the 
enthusiasm he witnessed at the rally struck him as genuine. "I was struck 
by the openness and sheer exuberance of it," he told ENI. 

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