wfn.org | Faith and Life commentary: Thanksgiving in Cuba

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Dec. 1, 1998  Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615) 742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn. 10-21-31-71BP{703)

NOTE:   A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Phil Wogaman is
available.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Phil Wogaman*

Thirty eight years ago, my wife and I were all set to go to Cuba.  I was
to be a professor at the seminary in Matanzas.  She was to engage in
other forms of missionary service.  We were both duly commissioned and
sent off to Spanish language school in Costa Rica.  But that was 1960.
Halfway through our language study we were told we could not go.  

Through the years we have continued to follow events in Cuba with great
interest, particularly in respect to the church.  Finally, during the
last week in November, we set foot on Cuban soil for the first time.
The Methodist Church of Cuba had invited former missionaries back for a
celebration of the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first
Methodist missionaries in that country.  They were kind enough to
include us  "almost" missionaries.  And what a week that proved to be.

Church delegates were present from all parts of the island.  From them
we learned of the great struggles the church had been through,
particularly during the 1960s and 70s.  The Methodist Church almost died
then, its membership reduced from 10,000 to around 2,000.  Many of the
pastors had fled the country or were arrested.  Bishop Armando Rodriguez
almost single-handedly kept things intact.  To fill the vacancies left
by departed pastors, he recruited laypersons, including young people,
gave them a brief training time, and set them loose.  They had more
enthusiasm than education, but in time the loss of members was reversed.
More important, despair was replaced by hope and then by extraordinary
vitality.  By 1983 membership had regrouped at 3,000.  In the fifteen
years since then, the church has trebled back to the 1960 level of
10,000--and with weekly attendance estimated at 20,000.  Thousands are
enrolled in the year-long membership classes now required for full
church membership.

We saw the effects of that first hand.  The celebration conference
presented a nice blending of enthusiastic young people with seasoned
elders.  Worship life led by the young has become quite charismatic in
many of the churches.  We had to become accustomed to high decibel music
in the three Havana churches where we worshiped in the evenings.
(Loudspeakers, drums, and synthesizers are not unknown in contemporary
Cuba!) We were told, plausibly, that really loud music was one way of
attracting the curiosity and then the involvement by young people
outside the church.  But the music also expressed the joy of people who
had found something to live for.

We were not there long enough to reach settled conclusions about
present-day Cuba.  But we did form some impressions.  One is that Cuban
society has reached an important spiritual cross-roads.  The
semi-Marxist cultural agenda has largely failed, and it has left a
vacuum.  Perhaps the spiritual vitality of the churches will fill the
void in the years to come.  Another thought is that the Cuban religious
experience will have important things to say to the churches of the
United States about what is really important.  Yet another thought is
that it is time to end the trade embargo and regularize the
relationships between these two countries.  The effect of that could be
to hasten the internal changes in Cuba while ameliorating the poverty of
that country.

Economically, Cuba is a depressed country.  And yet the Cubans put on an
unforgettable Thanksgiving Day festivity for us on November 26.  For all
of us it was a time of thanksgiving for the renewal of the church and
the promise of a very different future.  

#  #  #

*Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist church in Washington and a
seminary professor of Christian ethics, is the author of 13 books.  He
is a clergy member of the Baltimore-Washington United Methodist
(regional) Conference.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not
necessarily represent the opinions of policies of UMNS or the United
Methodist Church.

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