wfn.org | Methodists in Cuba

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (238
notes).

Note 234 by SUSAN PEEK on July 23, 1997 at 11:27 Eastern (4710 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                           422(10-21-71B){234}
         New York (212) 870-3803                     July 22, 1997

Ties between Methodists
in U.S., Cuba continue to grow

               by United Methodist News Service

     Although relations between the U.S. and Cuban governments
have worsened in recent years, the ties between Methodists in the
two nations have grown stronger.
     The most recent example occurred in June, when
representatives of the United Methodist Florida Annual (regional)
Conference traveled to Havana to sign a document of cooperation
with the Methodist Church in Cuba. An English language-version had
been approved and signed May 29 during the annual conference
meeting in Lakeland, Fla.
     The Rev. Larry Rankin, the Florida conference's mission
ministry staff person, preached during the June 21 service in
Havana, as at least 600 people crowded into the Vedado Methodist
Church. As in Lakeland, Florida Bishop Cornelius Henderson and
Rinaldo Hernandez Torres, representing Cuban Bishop Gustavo Cruz,
signed the document. "It was very celebrative, (with) a lot of
cheering," he said.
     For the Cubans, Rankin believes, the covenant is "an
affirmation of their ministry as a church in Cuba during these
times" and the recognition, by a sister church, of their hard work
and sacrifice.
     The immediate effect of the covenant will be the
establishment of district-to-district relationships, with 
Cuban representatives visiting Florida in November and Florida
United Methodists meeting with district leaders in Cuba early next
year.
     "As churches get to know each other, then we'll see a natural
tendency of partnership on a local church basis," Rankin said.
     A group of United Methodist bishops also is scheduled to
visit with Cuban church leaders in early February. The trip is
being organized by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
in New York and Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.
     Historically, the Florida and Cuban churches have had ties
for 114 years. After the Jan. 1, 1959 revolution in Cuba, tensions
grew between the churches and Fidel Castro's new government. The
U.S. government broke relations with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961.
     In the late 1980s and early 1990s, restrictions on church
activities in Cuba began to ease. In 1991 -- for the first time in
30 years -- the U.S. church and Cuban church exchanged
missionaries.
     Phil Wingeier-Rayo, sent to Cuba that September by the Board
of Global Ministries for a three-month visit, later became a full-
time missionary there. In June, after five years, he returned to
the United States to work on a doctorate in Wesley Studies at
Garrett Evangelical Seminary, Evanston, Ill.
     During his tenure, he said, many United Methodist conferences
in the United States realized "there is a church in Cuba that is
alive, that has survived." Volunteer-in-Mission teams from various
parts of the country now regularly visit Cuba to help repair
church buildings and property and meet with fellow Methodists.
     Still, it wasn't so long ago that an announcement that a
Cuban bishop would be speaking in Florida "would cause anonymous
bomb threats," according to Rankin.
     He credited Bishop H. Hasbrouck Hughes, Jr., now retired,
with defusing tensions about establishing a relationship with the
Cuban church.
     In October, 1995, Hughes called a meeting of Hispanic clergy
and laypersons in Miami -- many of them Cuban-Americans -- and
invited them to question the two co-presidents of the Methodist
Church in Cuba. Participants realized the pair were not
collaborators with the Cuban government but respected leaders who
knew "their loyalty was to the church and to the people," Rankin
explained.
     The Cuban church has had steady growth during this decade.
The number of Methodist pastors has increased from about 90 to
160, according to Wingeier-Rayo. The establishment of "house
churches" -- worshippers who meet in homes rather than an official
sanctuary -- also has flourished, although he said the Cuban
government has been cracking down on house churches which are
unregistered.
     Membership in the Methodist Church in Cuba currently is
estimated at 10,000, with another 30,000 participants in ministry
and activities. Cruz, the bishop, recently has been undergoing
rehabilitation for a stroke at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The
Rev. Ricardo Pereira, elected vice chairperson of the church
cabinet in June, is in charge during the bishop's absence.
# # #

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