wfn.org | Cuban Methodist Church surges ahead in growth

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 16, 2000	News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615) 742-5473*Nashville,
Tenn. 10-32-71B{236}

By Kathy Gilbert*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- The unexpected is happening in Cuba.
	
The Methodist Church in Cuba has 10,000 members, but 40,000 people show up
each week for worship services.
	
The Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas is at capacity with 60
students, 30 of whom are Methodist. The ecumenical school has a waiting list
of 75 Methodist pastors in need of training.

An example of a local pastor in Cuba is a mother of two children with a
church supporting 15 home missions. She holds services several times a week,
usually in homes and villages, and she is waiting to get into seminary.
	
All local pastors report weekly on what they have been doing to expand the
Methodist Church into areas where there are no churches.
	
"After decades of limitations, today the church in Cuba is booming, and
there is an urgent need for pastoral training," said the Rev. John Harnish,
an executive for the section of elders and local pastors at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
	
Harnish was part of a board-sponsored team that visited the Methodist Church
in Cuba recently. Others in the group were the Rev. Joaquin Garcia of the
section of deacons and diaconal ministries; the Rev. Robert Kohler, of the
section of elders and local pastors; and the Rev. Cristian de la Rosa,
director of continuing education and the course of study school at
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The church in Cuba is autonomous but works with United Methodist agencies
and schools in various ways.

"Church services during the week are completely full and very spirited,"
Garcia said. "Worship services on Sunday in some churches are structured and
more traditionally Methodist."
	
Harnish recounted his experience at the church where Methodist Bishop
Ricardo Pereira serves as pastor.
	
"It was a two-and-a-half hour service that included three musical groups,
drama and dancing in the aisles. People in the pews had tambourines. The
church was packed," he said. A visit to a Thursday evening worship service
in the Methodist Church in Cardanes was full of the same enthusiasm and
energy, Harnish added.
	
Young people and children are a large part of the churches, and most of the
pastors are young, Harnish said.
	
The board is working to help provide more pastoral training by assisting
with a Course of Study in Cuba that will train an additional 40 pastors a
year. It also has been providing for the training of Cuban students for the
past eight years by sending five students a year to the Course of Study at
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and two students to the Perkins
School of Theology. Plans are under way for faculty exchanges between the
United States and Cuba.
	
"Training pastors in Cuba and Mexico not only helps those countries but also
helps the U.S. because about 30 percent of the Hispanic pastors in the U.S.
are from those countries," Garcia said.
	
"This is another example of how the Course of Study and the ministry of the
local pastor can be used as a tool for mission and evangelism in the world,"
Kohler said. Similar programs have been started in Bulgaria and Cambodia.
	
Harnish pointed out that United Methodist churches in the United States are
sending two work teams a month to Cuba to help restore buildings and
strengthen the church. The Florida Annual (regional) Conference is active in
mission trips to Cuba, he said.

"There is a spiritual revival going on in Cuba that is exciting and
energized. There is a strong community of faith in our sister church in
Cuba, which is connected to the United Methodist Church through the global
Methodist connection," Harnish said.
	
"We need to open our minds to Cuba and not just be concerned with political
issues," Garcia said. "We have a lot to learn from them that would be a
blessing to the church."
* * *
*Gilbert is a staff member in the Office of Interpretation at the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn.

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United Methodist News Service
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