wfn.org | Grants will bolster Methodist Church in Cuba

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

April 27, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York      {257}

NOTE:  This is a sidebar to UMNS #256.

STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) - A total of $941,450 in grants to bolster the
Methodist Church in Cuba has been approved by United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries directors.

More than half of that money, $510,000, will be used in the next two
years for repair and maintenance of current church buildings and the
construction of two new churches.

Because of a scarcity of building materials and the requirement that
such materials be purchased with hard currency (such as U.S. dollars),
the Methodist Church in Cuba has been unable to make repairs on most of
its 108 church buildings since 1959. New churches also are needed to
serve a growing membership.

The board funds will be supplemented with local supplies and volunteers
from the Cuban church. Volunteers-in-Mission work teams will assist with
the project.

The board also made grants of $121,250 to enable additional Methodist
students to receive training at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in
Mantanzas; $181,200 to build housing and develop programs for the
elderly; $72,000 to provide small subsidies in hard currency for Cuban
pastors over a three-year period; and $57,000 to begin a program of
mission partnership and exchange among Cuban Methodists and Methodists
in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States. 

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/