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PRESBYTERIAN
The Presbyterian Church in Canada • presbyterian.ca ISSUE 30, SUMMER 2024
Moderator’s International Visit to Cuba
By the Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon, Principal Emerita at Knox College in Toronto, Ont.
I was honoured to be invited to join the team and give leadership through the moderator’s inter- national visit, a visit designed to renew and deepen partnerships in various parts of the world. The moderator’s visit was initially planned for Israel/Palestine, its departure scheduled for October 11—a visit that unfortunately had to be postponed.
Instead, on Feb. 22, 2024, six of us boarded flights to Cuba. Landing in Veradero we were warmly greeted by our interpreter, Yosmel, and driver, Andreas, who promptly chauffeured us to Ha- vana, where we were housed in a historic pilgrims’ centre in the Old City run by the Sisters of St. Brigid of Sweden.
Our first engagement was to meet over dinner with the leader- ship of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba (PRCC). During the sharing of food, we learned much about the challenges of reli- gious and societal life in Cuba and the determination of the church to meet those challenges despite what seemed to us to be over- whelming odds.
Later in the visit, we partici- pated in a denominational stra- tegic planning session, where concerns focused on women— especially elderly women—chil- dren, youth and the church’s re- sponsibility to civil society.
For four days, we visited church groups and individu- als in and around Havana. We met with Pastor Joel Dopico, the President of the Cuban Council of Churches, who arranged for us to meet with the head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in the Cuban government and with an expert on Indigenous life in Cuba. These meetings were extremely informative in that the head of the government ministry surprised us with the degree of knowledge and
positive attention and consulta- tion the government paid to the diversity of religious life in Cuba. The Indigenous researcher, En- rique Gómez Cabrera, identified the ongoing search to discover what was thought to be lost, pointing out the growing scientific evidence that representatives of the Indigenous people of Cuba re- mained, even today, long after the Spanish invasion and its policy of ethnic cleansing, as well as the devastating effects of western diseases.
We spent time at the Martin Luther King Center, where we learned of the transformed minis- try of a traditional Baptist church into a variety of ministries that focus on societal renewal and educational programs throughout the island. This is but one exam- ple of our increasing admiration for the number of church projects
dedicated to providing education, food and friendship for all in the community, particularly for the elderly whose families had immi- grated to the United States. One inspiring visit with the ministerial team of the Presbyterian Church of Guanabacoa introduced us to a church that continues to reno- vate its building to make room for an inexpensive daycare, accred- ited by the Cuban department of education, that teaches Bible stories and citizenship lessons to children starting at age three until they go to school. It was a humbling experience to see the commitment of those who volun- teered or were paid a small sum to administer, teach and provide medical care for the children.
Smiling, the team shared with us a particular incident related to the accrediting process. One requirement was to have appro-
Rector Carlos Ham and PCC delegates.
priately sized bathroom fixtures for the children—equipment that seemed unavailable in Cuba until they discovered it discounted at a store where it had remained un- sold for an extended period. They
described this as a miracle.
On Sunday, we worshipped in the Presbyterian Church of Los Palos, a rural area where the mod- erator of the PRCC, the Rev. Izett
Continued on page 2
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