Title: Cuban church vitality not really new, North American observers say
Date: January 30, 1998
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.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."
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