wfn.org | U.S. NCC President to Visit Cuba

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
NCC Contacts:
In New York: Carol Fouke, 212-870-2252
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org <mailto:news@ncccusa.org>
In Havana: the Rev. Oscar Bolioli c/o Hotel Comodoro

NCC1/17/02

U.S. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES PRESIDENT TO VISIT CUBA
Will Attend Groundbreaking for New Orthodox Church, Meet Ecumenical Leaders

Elenie Huszagh, of Nehalem, Oregon, U.S.A., an attorney and Greek Orthodox
Church lay leader, and the U.S. National Council of Churches' president in
2002-2003, will arrive in Havana Saturday evening, January 19, and leave
Tuesday morning, January 22.  Hosted by the Greek Orthodox Church and Greek
Embassy in Cuba, on Sunday, January 20 she will be among special guests at
the groundbreaking for a new Orthodox church in Old Havana.

The U.S. National Council of Churches is taking advantage of Mrs. Huszagh's
visit to Cuba to introduce her to Cuban church life and the ecumenical
movement, specifically the Cuban Council of Churches.  The Rev. Oscar
Bolioli, the NCC's Associate General Secretary for International Affairs,
will accompany her to Sunday evening worship at a Havana church (if her
Sunday schedule allows).  On Monday, January 21, they will visit a school
for people with Down's Syndrome, meet with Cuba's minister of religious
affairs and, in the evening, meet with a cross-section of church leaders and
staff of the Cuban Council of Churches.

Mrs. Huszagh is the NCC's second Orthodox president, but the first Orthodox
lay person, and the first Orthodox woman, so to serve.  She took office on
January 1, 2002.  The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in
America served as NCC president in 1990-1991.

While it is a part-time, non-salaried position, the NCC president plays an
important role in leading and representing the Council - whose 36
Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member denominations count a total of 50
million adherents.  (In the NCC, the full-time, salaried staff head is the
general secretary - since January 2000, the Rev. Bob Edgar.)

-end-