3 Florida United Methodist Review Online

Cuba finally gets Spanish-language hymnals

By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — It took nearly four years of effort and involved people from three nations, but as of Nov. 4 nearly 9,000 Spanish-language hymnals were on their way to Methodists in Cuba.

In conjunction with the renewed relationship between the Cuba and Florida Conferences, leaders of the two met in 1994 to discuss ways they could minister to each other.

“They [the Cubans] told us that among their top three priorities was the need for hymnals that reflected the spirit of worship of the people and the liturgy of the United Methodist Church,” said Larry Rankin, director of the Florida Conference’s Council on Ministries’ Missions ministry office.

According to Rankin, the United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH) had just begun publishing a hymnal called “Mil Voces Para Celebrar,” “A Thousand Voices for Celebrating,” that includes traditional Spanish hymns, English hymns translated into Spanish and liturgy resources in Spanish. UMPH also began publishing “Cantos del Pueblo,” “Songs of the People,” a text version of the hymnal. Copies of both books were given to Cuban church leaders and approved by their music and liturgy committee. The Cubans asked the Florida Conference to raise money to send as many hymnals as possible.

Florida United Methodist churches gave $42,000 at the 1996 Annual Conference Event for the hymnals. The North Georgia Conference and the Cleveland District of the East Ohio Conference later added $7,000 of their own. Neil Alexander, president and publisher of UMPH, authorized a price reduction “to help get more hymnals there,” said Velma Bunch, administrative assistant to the president of UMPH.

“We had the money and most of the hymnals needed to be printed,” Rankin said. “But before we had to incur costs for storage, we wanted to have the shipping and licensing in place.”

Bunch said the problems began when they began researching the cost to get the hymnals to Cuba.

Despite the United States’ embargo against Cuba, Bunch said the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control told her it was legal to ship books to Cuba, especially since they were being donated and not sold. However, many domestic shipping companies refused to give shipping quotes. Others refused to ship a load that was less than a full shipping container, or 46,000 pounds.

Groups like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the World Council of Churches were also unable to help since their government licensing allowed them to ship only humanitarian aid to the island.

There was a breakthrough last July, however. The Canadian firm Melfi Marine Corp. agreed to help. Working through the company’s broker, Bunch made arrangements to ship 8,430 copies of “Cantos del Pueblo” and 520 copies of “Mil Voces” to Cuba. The Cuban Methodist church will distribute the hymnals to 120 churches and 200 missions, which serve approximately 50,000 Cuban Methodists.

The hymnals left Canada Nov. 4 and arrived in Cuba Nov. 14. As of Dec. 1, the hymnals were still on the dock and the Cuban church was waiting for the paperwork needed to claim the shipment.

“I will celebrate once I know that [Cuban] Bishop Cruz has a hymnal in his hands and can sing from it,” Bunch said.

The nearly two years she has spent on this project have been a ministry for her. Bunch said: “You get a feel for what people go through trying to worship God. The people there [Cuba] don’t have the resources, and our people here want to give that to them.”