*** 13-Oct-99 ***

Karen's Comment

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World Council of Churches, With Christ -and Castro
 
  By Dalia Acosta
 
  HAVANA, Oct 13 (IPS) - The secretary-general of the World Council
  of Churches (WCC), Konrad Raiser, gave a boost to religious
  activity in Cuba this week, and reiterated his opposition to the
  nearly 40-year-old U.S. economic blockade against this Caribbean
  island nation.
 
  On the first scale of a journey that will take him on to Haiti,
  Costa Rica and Honduras, Raiser underscored the position the WCC
  has held since 1968. ''You have suffered, and continue to suffer,
  the disastrous effects of the embargo,'' he told Cubans.
 
  According to the religious leader, his visit is one of
  solidarity with the churches and people of Cuba, who find
  themselves in a ''critical'' economic situation as a result of
  what he described as the increasingly stiff embargo imposed by the
  United States.
 
  Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday evening in the Mella
  Theatre in downtown Havana to listen to Raiser, who also
  represents the German Evangelical Church.
 
  ''What unites us is stronger than what separates us,'' said
  Raiser, who reached Cuba Saturday to preach in several
  Presbyterian and Methodist churches and meet with church leaders
  and the representatives of ecumenical movements.
 
  Raiser leaves Cuba for Haiti Thursday. He will travel on to
  Costa Rica next Monday, and conclude his tour on Oct 25 after a
  five-day stay in Honduras.
 
  Upon his arrival to Havana, Raiser was welcomed by Caridad
  Diego, the head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central
  Committee of the governing Communist Party, which is in charge of
  the state's relations with churches.
 
  In a message that coincided with several of the positions
  assumed by Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to Cuba in
  January 1998, the secretary-general of the WCC called for
  ''reconciliation and union'' among Cubans.
 
  We have paved the way for reconciliation, he said during a
  religious service held in the First Reformed Presbyterian Church,
  the oldest protestant church in Havana.
 
  Raiser also underlined the aid Cuba has extended in solidarity
  to several African, Caribbean and Central American nations -
  especially Honduras - providing health care to the needy.
 
  The WCC was created in Amsterdam in 1948, and is comprised of
  337 churches from more than 100 countries. Two Cuban churches, the
  Reformed Presbyterian and Methodist, figure among its members, as
  does the Council of Cuban Churches.
 
  All WCC secretary-generals have visited Cuba. One of the
  objectives of Raiser's visit is to gain a first-hand understanding
  of the position occupied by churches in Cuban society.
 
  Last month, the U.S. State Department listed Cuba among the
  countries where freedom of worship is restricted, even though it
  acknowledged that the freedom to worship was a right enshrined in
  the Cuban constitution.
 
  ''We cannot forget that in the 1960s, when Cuba's churches felt
  isolated, it was the WCC which made cooperation possible,'' said
  Cuban Reverend H‚ctor M‚ndez, a member of the Central Committee of
  the WCC.
 
  Reverend Pablo Od‚n Marichal, president of the Council of Cuban
  Churches, said he hoped the visit would contribute to an
  understanding ''of the reality of Cuba as a socialist country very
  different from the former [socialist] countries of eastern
  Europe.''
 
  Relations between Cuba's protestant churches and the government
  warmed up considerably in 1990, in the wake of a meeting between
  President Fidel Castro and a group of church-leaders.
 
  Experts in religious issues cite that meeting as a watershed in
  the process of growth of protestant churches in Cuba in the 1990s.
 
  On that occasion, Castro tended bridges to Cuba's protestant
  churches, and went so far as to admit the existence of political
  and social practices that discriminated against those who
  professed a religion.
 
  ''Jesus Christ by all and for all'' was the slogan that drew
  thousands of Cubans to the Plaza de la Revoluci˘n Jos‚ Martˇ in
  downtown Havana on Jun 20, during a nationwide celebration
  organised by 49 protestant churches.
 
  The unprecedented day of activities included religious services
  in a majority of Cuba's provinces, as well as three religious
  services broadcast nationwide by state television.
 
  Leaders of the churches organising the day of activities met
  with Castro, who attended the closing ceremony of the celebration
  in the Cuban capital. (END/IPS/tra-so/da/mj/sw/99)
 
 
  Origin: Montevideo/RELIGION-CUBA/
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         [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)