Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - May/84

Contributor - Peter M. DeJong

Title - A Meeting Held in Cuba

Topic - Church In The World

As an RCA delegate I had the opportunity of attending the Caribbean and North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches whose meeting was held in the Republic of Cuba on January 27 until February 3, 1984. The purpose of this meeting in Cuba was mainly to affirm our solidarity with the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba and to support them in a spiritual way, for indeed they are our brothers and sisters in Christ The editorial staff of pioneer has asked me to share a few of my impressions and experiences of my trip to Cuba with our readers and which we are glad to do. I would like to say however that an eight-day journey into a foreign country does not make one an expert on the affairs of such a country. Our experiences were thus mainly with the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba who served as our hosts for seven days.

Free to serve

During our stay in Cuba we were privileged to attend two worship services in local churches and one in a seminary chapel with students and professors. It certainly was a great experience to worship together with our Cuban brothers and sisters; one could truly feel the tie which binds us together in our Lord Jesus Christ as we sang the great hymns of the church and listened to the reading and preaching of God's Word (in spite of the fact that the services were held in the Spanish language and listening to the voice of an interpreter is not always the greatest). Church attendance was rather small due to the fact that many church members and pastors have left the country following the years of the Revolution. Many have chosen for the more preferred American way of life, with the result that the work of the church has to be carried on by those who decided to remain living in Cuba. Pastors who remained with their flocks are now serving several parishes, while also at the same time teaching in the seminary, since some of the professors have also left the country to find more lucrative fields elsewhere in the world.

From the conversations we had with church leaders and members of the congregations we learned that there is a complete freedom of worship in Cuba and that there is no interference by the government in any of its programs. Pastors are free to teach and preach and do their normal pastoral work. Only at the beginning of the Revolution in 1959 when a freedom movement under the leadership of Fidel Castro came to power was there some form of discrimination against the church. Perhaps this was because the Church at that time was accused of supporting the contra-revolutionary powers of the large rich landowners and the American opponents of Fidel Castro. Today religion in Cuba can be practiced without limitation as we were told. The Alliance of Reformed Churches formulated a statement while being in Cuba which expresses very well of what we have seen and heard during our brief period spend in Cuba. The statement says: "We have seen and heard - a joyful people, passionately involved in the creative reconstruction of a society, motivated by their own traditions, a rightful pride in their culture and . . a popular socialist vision of the just society,

- a lively Church, yeast in the social leaf, committed to the task of helping to build and shape the new Cuban society and active in the world mission of the Church catholic;

- a contextual style of theological reflection, rooted in an effort in their own time and place to be faithful to the Reformed tradition;

- a worship life enriched by Cuban vitality, art, culture, hymnology and work;

- an approach to Christian nurture that grows out of the Church's reflection on it interaction with its society;

- a struggling Church, moving towards equality of women and men, laity and clergy, working and sacrificing for a meaningful role in Cuban society."

Matanza Seminary

For five days we have been the guests of the Presbyterian-Reformed Seminary in the city of Matanza (a city about 100 km east of Havana). This city also has a strong historical accent for the Dutch, for it was in the year 1628 that the famous Dutch Admiral Piet Hein conquered the Spanish silver fleet (de zilvervloot van Spanje) in the Bay of Matanza. For three years the Dutch had been planning for this event and finally they conquered the gold which the Spanish brought from South America to Matanza to be shipped from there to Spain. History tells us that the catch was so great that it took the crew ten days to unload its cargo. While we were at Matanza we sang the Dutch folk song; "Piet Hein, Piet Hein, zij naam is klein, zijn daden waren groot, hij heeft gewonnen de zilvervloot'. We sang it under the leadership of Dr. Eugene Oosterhaven, professor of Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, who was also delegated to the meeting in Cuba. While we were in the seminary we were impressed by the caliber of students and professors and the amiable spirit among them. The seminary has about fifteen students at the moment who prepare themselves for the ministry in Christ's church in Cuba. Students as well as professors are preaching regularly in the local churches (this also due to many vacant pulpits of ministers who have left the country - about 70% of ministers and % of priests). Professors in seminaries are not paid by the state or the institution itself and so their only income is from preaching in the local churches. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches presented the Matanza seminary with a number of badly needed theological books, for which the staff and students of the seminary were very grateful. The World Council of Churches also gives a yearly grant to this seminary to sustain the upkeep of the seminary itself. We were happy to hear this since so often we hear only negative reports about the World Council of Churches!

Very Well Informed

We also had an opportunity to look around and meet some people outside of the Church. On the whole we found people very friendly, helpful and very well informed about what takes place in their countries. Every neighbourhood has "a meeting place" where local and foreign news and interests is being discussed Speeches held by Castro and Ronald Reagan and problems in Angola, etc., are being discussed among the common people by way of radio, T.V., newspapers, as well as in their neighbourhood meetings.

Liberation and Problems

Women in Cuba are having equal chances as their male partners. Many women are having leading positions in large concerns in the world of business. One dark thing however blackens this liberation of women: the divorce rate is also high in Cuba as it is elsewhere in the world. Could this be perhaps because of the changing pattern with man no longer the only breadwinner in the family and the opposite sex meeting each other more regularly and revealing the daily problems and struggles of the family together? The Revolution through its employment has brought dignity to men. Marxists are saying, "Work is a blessing and the person who doesn't work shall not eat either," and which is also a Biblical proposition. Castro's government seemed to have raised the quality of life, especially that of the lower income group of people, many of whom before the Revolution were either wandering through the city streets or paid very little in wages, e. g. many prostitutes in Havana before the Revolution. Today everybody is working in Cuba for a decent wage, but in spite of all of this as Christians we ask- is this enough? Is this all man needs to strive for in life? The Bible tells us the words of Jesus as He says: "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." The Church in Cuba wants to identify itself with her people but at the same time it also wants to pass on the Gospel of the crucified and risen Lord who says: seek ye first the Kingdom of God for then the other things will also follow. If man lives out of the righteousness of Christ he also wants to live righteously with his fellow men, and this is not only what Cuba needs, but what we all need to hear and put into practice in our daily living in the world in which God has placed us. Let us in the meantime remember the Christians in Cuba as they struggle to discover where God is at work in their society and with our brothers and sisters in Cuba we sing;

The hand of God is in our world Working with grace and with power. The Church must see the great deeds Of the powerful hand of God.

The above is a Cuban version of the hymn of the Caribbean Conference of Churches, adopted by Lois Kroehler (professor of Mantanza Theological Seminary).

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