LAKELAND — As Methodism makes deeper inroads into the nation of Cuba,
Florida Conference churches are being urged to keep pace and continue
linking spiritual and physical arms with their Cuban brothers and
sisters.
During the 2003 Cuba Methodist Annual Conference 196 churches were
represented, with each church sporting between six to 10 house-church
missions that hope to eventually become individual charges. Florida
Conference churches have covenant sister relationships with two-thirds
of these congregations.
“Florida district coordinators are laboring in the love of Christ to
get 100 percent coverage of sister churches,” said Renee Kincaid,
secretary of the conference’s Cuba/Florida Covenant Task Force. “They
visit pastors in their districts and encourage them to participate in
the covenant.
“The Cuba/Florida Covenant is more than a third-world country
mission. It is a love commitment with sisters and brothers in Cuba who,
until 1968, shared the same annual conference.”
The ministry of the covenant began when it was signed at the 1997
Florida Annual Conference Event by Florida Conference Bishop Cornelius
L. Henderson and the Rev. Rinaldo Hernandez Torres, representing Cuban
Bishop Gustavo Cruz, who was recovering from a stroke. The Rev. Ricardo
Pereira was elected bishop of the Methodist Church of Cuba at its 1999
Annual General Conference.
The covenant cemented a relationship begun nearly 114 years before.
Prior to Cuban President Fidel Castro’s takeover relationships between
Methodists in Florida and Cuba were strong. Between 1902 and 1968 both
were under the same bishop.
The covenant was established to help strengthen the ministries of
both conferences, and through it teams of clergy and laity have been
exchanged between the two. They’ve been working under the structure of
district and church partnerships with specific districts in Florida
forming partnerships with specific Cuban districts. Within those
pairings Florida churches have established one-to-one relationships with
specific Cuban churches.
Approximately 160 Florida churches have sister relationships with
Cuba Methodist churches, according to Kincaid.
Florida work teams, or caravans, have gone to Cuba to rebuild
churches and parsonages, deliver medical supplies and help build Canaan
Camp Assembly, a retreat area for Cuban Methodists. Teams have also gone
to learn from the Cuban Methodists’ growth, faith and spirituality.
Last year 22 caravans of about four to six people traveled to the
island, and in 2003 that number rose to 29, according to Kincaid.
Kincaid said the intent of this relationship is to develop two-way
communication between the churches in order to grow closer in the love
of Christ. She said that involves praying for one another, engaging in
interchanges, building relationships for mutual support and
encouragement, contributing to the equipping of Cuban disciples, and
mutually sharing the history, culture, current church events and
spirituality of both churches.
“Bishop Ricardo Pereira’s main vision for the Methodist Church in
Cuba is church/mission planting,” Kincaid said. “His challenge to all
the pastors on the island is evangelism—to send their laity with
missionary hearts into their nearby fields, find a home that has a
Christian testimony and have them travel there weekly to have worship
services in these house-churches.”
A total of 21 new churches were appointed between the 2002 and 2003
Cuba Methodist Annual Conferences.
This explosive growth demonstrates the importance of Florida churches
building relationships with Cuban churches, Kincaid says, adding, “The
need is great, thanks be to God!”
The Florida Conference’s efforts have been carried out through church
laity via letters, cards, photos, prayer requests and personal
testimonies exchanged by adults, youth and children.
“Pastors and laity [from Cuba] come to their Florida sister churches
to share their Christian experience and how the Holy Spirit is fanning
the flame of revival in their country,” Kincaid said. “Covenant caravans
from each district [Florida] go to Cuba, usually twice a year, and take
the love and prayers of their sister church, encouraging them with their
person-to-person testimonies and messages…”
Kincaid said Florida churches engaged in the covenant “seek to
receive the contagious faith and enthusiasm that has grown in the Cuba
churches in the face of trials and tribulations…[Florida churches] have
become aware that they are the receivers, not the givers, as the Lord
blesses their commitment to follow His commandments.”
