wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Presbyteries still planning trips to Cuba

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Note #8912 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05495
Sept. 20, 2005

Presbyteries still planning trips to Cuba

Leaders intend to appeal U.S. government's denials of travel licenses

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - At least three presbyteries plan to apply for single-trip
licenses to travel to Cuba while deciding how to appeal a U.S. Treasury
Department decision not to renew the blanket licenses of middle governing
bodies, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and several other denominations.

	The PC(USA) and other denominations were denied license renewals in
July. Now presbyteries from Long Island to Twin Cities Area to South
Louisiana are being denied travel privileges, including some presbyteries
with ties of more than 20 years to churches in Cuba.

	The overriding question is how to appeal - by just reapplying for a
license and rebutting the Treasury Department's arguments? Or by more
aggressively challenging the government ruling that presbyteries and
denominations are not religious organizations? Or through a public-relations
campaign challenging the government's definition of a religious organization?

	While U.S. partners of Cuban churches are riled up, they don't want
to overplay their hands because they fear losing all ability to travel to
Cuba or bring Cuban Christians to the United States - or conferences, youth
events and other such religious gatherings.

	The Treasury Department enforces a 44-year-old trade embargo of Cuba.
The embargo was loosened somewhat during the Clinton administration, but
President George W. Bush tightened the sanctions again about six months
before the 2004 election, to reduce the flow of money and visitors to Cuba.

	The letters informing denominations and middle governing bodies that
their licenses weren't being renewed seemed to encourage congregations to
apply for blanket licenses.

	No congregations in Long Island Presbytery or South Louisiana
Presbytery have applied for licenses, but some intend to do so. Government
regulations don't make it clear whether congregations are eligible for
blanket licenses - standing licenses for pre-approved lists of travelers.

	"We just see this as a dangerous precedent," says Martha Porter,
chair of Long Island Presbytery's Cuba Work Group, which is waiting to see
how the denomination's appeal goes.

	That appeal argues that the PC(USA) fits the Treasury Department's
criteria for religious organizations: It is tax-exempt, holds regular worship
services, offers religious education, has formal religious doctrines, and is
composed of established congregations.

	The denomination has not yet heard from the government. The appeal
was filed last month.

	"This isn't just a church thing," says Porter. "I see it as a frontal
assault on religious freedom."

	In the past, the Treasury Department has issued blanket licenses to
denominations and presbyteries, as well as some churches. Such licenses
guarantee travel and forestall delays and denials. Congregations within the
boundaries of a presbytery often traveled on the presbytery's license and
determined the fitness of individuals on each trip.

	A trip license is a one-time travel permit.

	Longtime Cuba partners say that the process of obtaining a trip
license is cumbersome, and that such licenses often appear at the last
minute, which is stressful and makes planning difficult.

	Molly Millerwise, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department's Public
Affairs Office, says the government is cracking down on religious
organizations that have abused their licenses by allowing individuals
unaffiliated with congregations to travel to Cuba.

	She said the government does not have a "preference" for licensing
local congregations rather than governing bodies or denominations. She said
it runs background checks on individuals named in congregational applications
to see if they've violated the U.S. sanctions.

	A trip license is good for up to 25 travelers.

	Millerwise declined to answer when she was asked whether Treasury is
suggesting that all the denominations that have been denied license renewals
have abused their licenses.

	The Rev. John Stewart of St. John the Baptist Presbyterian Church in
LaPlace, LA, is certain that no one in South Louisiana Presbytery ever abused
its travel license - but he doesn't want to jeopardize the presbytery's
18-year-ties to Matanzas Presbytery in central Cuba, the site of an
ecumenical institution, the Evangelical Theological Seminary.

	The presbytery has cancelled a trip planned for October, but Stewart
says she will appeal the decision and get churches to begin applying for trip
licenses.

	"We can still go," he says, "but planning now will be nine to 12
months out, instead of six to eight. It will have a chilling effect, but it
is workable ... so we will work within the system. The government isn't
saying we can't go, but it is putting obstacles in our way - as is the Cuban
government."

	Twin Cities Area Presbytery says it recently received a trip license
and plans to send 10 people in November.

	One congregation in the presbytery already has a blanket travel
license.

	"This has really disrupted our program," says Porter, adding that the
U.S. government is refusing or delaying travel licenses to Cubans who want to
come to the United States for church programs. A Cuban woman invited to the
Presbyterian Women's Gathering in July 2003 didn't get her license in time
for the event.

	Porter says a six-parish group intends to apply for a license, but
isn't sure whether it will qualify because the travelers are not from a
single congregation. "This group has gone to Cuba for years and years every
February," she says. "They're determined not to let this ruin their part of
the partnership."

	Presbyterians traveling to Cuba often describe their focus as
partnership, not mission. They say they get as much as they give.

	Porter says Setauket Presbyterian Church, her congregation, has a
partnership with San Antonio de los Banos, a Cuban church on Havana's west
side that once has only two members show up for worship but now fills its
pews. "It's an inspiring story," she says.

	Stewart says Cubans have much to teach North Americans about the
vitality of tiny churches in a culture that is hostile to faith - a reality
for U.S. Christians. "Can you be a church and be small? Yes. That's what they
can teach us," he says.

	For the Rev. Tom Castlen, the executive of Long Island Presbytery,
restricting access to the Cuban church is both a political and pastoral
matter. Elders, pastors and lay people have strong personal ties. "There are
pastors with which I correspond on a regular basis who know more what's going
on on Long Island than some of my colleagues, and vice versa," he says.
"These are very close personal ties, and that makes it tough for us. For 18
years we've been exchanging delegations ... for clearly religious and
humanitarian reasons. Now, all of a sudden we're told that we're not
legitimate as a religious organization. ... I don't think the Treasury
Department is competent to determine what a religious organization is."

	Castlen insists that Long Island Presbytery has not abused its
license. 

	Five other presbyteries still have unexpired blanket licenses for
travel to Cuba: Cascades, Chicago, Monmouth, Santa Fe and West Jersey.

	Baltimore Presbytery sought a license for the first time this year.
It was denied.

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