wfn.org | DNS - Cuban church vitality not really new, North American observers

[DISCNEWS.parti@ecunet.org (DISCNEWS)]

     Title: Cuban church vitality not really new, North American observers say
     Date: January 30, 1998
     Disciples News Service
     Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
     Contact: Clifford L. Willis
     Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
     on the web: http//www.disciples.org
     
     98b-4
              
          INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- Despite media reports to the contrary, church vitality
     in Cuba was on the upswing long before Pope John Paul II's recent visit. That's the
     sentiment of two knowledgeable persons within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
     and the United Church of Christ.
     
          "The press is giving the impression that only now is the church becoming
     resurrected in Cuba.  This is not true," says the Rev. David A. Vargas of Indianapolis. He
     is secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean with the Common Board of Global
     Ministries for the Disciples and the UCC.  
     
          "Churches in Cuba have been holding religious services over all these years. But
     they have not been holding open rallies in public squares. And they have not been doing
     social-service work because that has been the government's role.
     
          "Our two denominations have been very, very firm against the U.S. embargo. We
     have been requesting for many, many years that diplomatic relations be reestablished
     between the two countries," Vargas said. 
          
          Since the 1970s, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of
     Christ) and the General Synod of the United Church of Christ have each called repeatedly
     for normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations and an end to any trade embargo or blockade. 
     
          The Rev. Ted Braun of Pleasant Hill, Tenn., says: "It's the Protestant church that
     has had real impact in Cuba up to this point in relating to the government." Braun, a
     retired United Church of Christ minister, in February will make his 19th annual visit to
     Cuba with a UCC delegation.
     
          "The real revival of people coming back to church started with Protestants," Braun
     said. "It started in small churches in rural areas, not in city cathedrals. And it started
     among blue-collar workers, not with the upper class, who traditionally have been Catholic.
     These Protestant churches have been full of worshipers in my last three or four visits, long
     before the Catholic churches began to be full."   
     
                           - end -

DISCNEWS - inbox for Disciples News Service, Office of Communication, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), PO Box 1986 Indianapolis, IN 46206, tele. (317) 635-3100, (DISCNEWS@ecunet.org) Wilma Shuffitt, News and Information Assistant; (CWILLIS@oc.disciples.org) Cliff Willis, Director of News and Information; (CMILLER@oc.disciples.org) Executive Director