wfn.org | CWS, U.S. Church Leaders Urge Obama: Drop Cuba Travel

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.org>]

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CWS, U.S. Church Leaders Urge Obama: Drop Cuba Travel Restrictions
Coalition presses for start of new policy era

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Thurs Dec 18, 2008- Global humanitarian agency Church
World Service and a group of leading U.S. Christian organizations and
denominations are joining the mounting chorus of voices calling on
President-elect Obama to change this country's longstanding, restrictive
policy toward Cuba. The group is pressing most immediately to end
longstanding U.S. restrictions on the ability of all Americans to travel
to Cuba. Ending the restrictions on religious travel is especially
important to national and regional church institutions.

In a letter sent today to Obama, Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive
Director and CEO of Church World Service along with leaders of 15 other
Christian denominations, their agencies, and ecumenical organizations
applauded Obama's early statements indicating his willingness to review
and revise the limiting U.S. Cuba policies. The letter urged the
incoming administration to put the issue on the front burner.

"We urgently request you to change the Cuba policy of the United States
in ways that will assist the churches in their work and benefit all
Americans," said the letter's signers.

Citing severe U.S. restrictions on religious travel to Cuba, in place
since 2005, the religious leaders emphasized that its long history of
effective humanitarian and missionary activity in Cuba, "transcends
political ideologies."

In requesting that the travel restrictions be lifted, the group pointed
out that church institutions currently are eligible only for very
limited licenses for travel to Cuba and that some of those institutions
have been unable to secure even limited licenses.

CWS Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough says, "U.S. travel
restrictions have significantly reduced our ability to send religious
delegations to Cuba. They've limited our opportunities to accompany and
support our Cuban church partners.

"Such repressive regulations have also limited many individual U.S.
churches and their congregants from participating in Cuba mission
visits, which is a traditional means for American Christians to share
their faith and compassion with fellow Christians in other countries."

The ecumenical communiqué to Obama also expressed concern that many
Christian pastors and leaders in Cuba are unable to get visas for travel
to the United States for church meetings and theological conferences.
The letter cites as a reason for some of these visa restrictions "the
unduly negative view of the U.S. State Department toward leaders of the
Cuban Council of Churches." The CCC is the recognized ecumenical body of
the traditional Cuban Protestant denominations."

Calling continuance of the U.S. Cuba policy "ineffective and
counter-productive," the religious leaders said, "We are convinced that
it is time" for change, and called on the incoming administration to:

Freely allow religious travel to Cuba.

Liberally grant visas for U.S. travel to Cuban pastors and other
religious leaders, and no longer bar officials of the Cuban Council of
Churches.
Lift the travel ban for all Americans.

Beyond these immediate steps, the religious leaders urged an end to the
embargo on Cuba. "The time has arrived to restore normal diplomatic
relations with Cuba and to allow full engagement between the people of
the United States and the people of Cuba," the group told Obama.

The group said that the decades-long U.S. policy has failed in its
objective to precipitate change in the Cuban government, with resulting
hostilities between the two countries serving "only to limit the close
historical bonds" between churches in
both countries.

Other signers of the letter are Reverend Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General
Secretary, National Council of Churches; Reverend Dr. Stan Hastey,
Minister for Mission and Ecumenism, Alliance of Baptists; Reverend Dr.
Jose Norat-Rodriguez, Area Director for Iberoamerica and the Caribbean,
American Baptist Churches of the USA, Stanley Noffsiner, General
Secretary, Church of the Brethren; The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts
Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church; Rolando
Santiago, Executive Director, Mennonite Central Committee U.S.; The
Reverend Dr. Tyrone S. Pitts, General Secretary, Progressive National
Baptist Convention; Reverend Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General
Secretary, Reformed Church in America; Reverend Edward W. Paup, General
Secretary, General Board of Global Ministries,  United Methodist Church;
The Reverend Dr. A. Roy Medley, General Secretary, American Baptist
Churches of the USA; The Reverend Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, General
Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the
United States and Canada; The Reverend Phil Jones, Director, Brethren
Witness, Washington Office, Church of the Brethren; Reverend Mark S.
Hanson, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;
Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly,
Presbyterian Church, (USA); Reverend Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Ecumenical
Officer. Progressive National Baptist Convention; Reverend Dr. John H.
Thomas, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ; and
James E. Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church and
Society, United, Methodist Church.

Relief, development and refugee assistance agency Church World Service
maintains ecumenical relationships with church bodies in Cuba, but
currently has a very limited travel license under the U.S. Treasury
Department. As a humanitarian agency, CWS also provides emergency relief
to Cuba following major disasters, under separate licensing by the
Department of Commerce.

Full text of the letter to President-elect Obama is available at:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/DocServer/Cubaletter2008.pdf?docID= 901

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