Other Details about Congressional Briefing by Cuban Religious Leaders

As noted in the prior post, on February 27th six Cuban Protestant Christian leaders briefed the U.S. Congress on the status of Cuban religious freedom.

Additional details about that briefing have been provided by one of these six leaders, Rev. Joel Ortega Dopico, who is a Presbyterian minister and President of the Cuban Council of Churches.

In an article co-authored by Rev. John L. McCullough, who is a United Methodist minister in the U.S. and the President and CEO of Church World Service, they reported in the briefing “there is a thriving, growing faith community in Cuba.” In fact, there is “a wide range of churches active in the country, and religious membership and participation has been growing for twenty years. The Cuban Council of Churches has 54 member organizations. Church World Service and many of its 37 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member communities work closely with churches in Cuba and with the ecumenical Cuban Council of Churches.”

These churches, their Council and their international religious colleagues work together in “providing humanitarian aid in times of disasters and . . . accompanying and supporting the Cuban churches as they have gained more space to minister and offer social services over the past twenty years.”

They also noted that “[r]eal change is going on in Cuba today, including within the Cuban economy, that will reduce the size of the state workforce and expand private enterprise and cooperatives. Efforts are being made to preserve the gains in health care and education that Cubans are proud of. Change presents both challenges and opportunities for the Cuban people and the churches, but together we [in the Cuban churches] are committed to helping this process advance.”

“As church leaders and citizens of our respective countries, we have learned to work well together, and we have learned from each other in the process. We urge our governments to do the same.”