A letter from Tricia Lloyd-Sidle in the Caribbean
April 13, 2009
Dear Friends
I begin with warm greetings in Christ’s name and a reminder that you are on my mailing list to receive these occasional letters. They are updates about the mission work I facilitate on behalf of the PC(USA) and our partners in Cuba, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic, as well as the Caribbean and North American Council for Mission. The letters are also available online at the Mission Connections Web site, where you will also find dozens of new letters posted each month from various parts of the world and links to more information.
Spotlight on Cuba
In February, I accompanied a 13-member delegation sponsored by the Association of Retired Presbyterian Ministers, Spouses and Survivors (ARMSS) on a ten-day encounter with the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba. This group of energetic and thoughtful folks, like so many “retired” Presbyterians, remain actively committed to mission. ARMSS has an ongoing commitment to support the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba. After visiting the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, the delegation is working on a project to upgrade the seminary’s digital library with new computers and Spanish theological resources in digital format.
The retired pastors were repeatedly asked to share their thoughts about President Obama and his Cuba policy. Indeed, 2009 may very well be a historic year in terms of U.S. policy vis-à-vis Cuba. Recently, five-year old restrictions on Cuban-American travel to visit family in Cuba were loosened. Once again, Cuban-Americans are permitted to travel annually to visit both immediate and extended family members on the island. The president is expected to remove all restrictions on Cuban-American travel soon and perhaps also relax complex regulations that govern non-tourist travel, such as the trips taken by many Presbyterian groups each year. There is also strong bi-partisan support to lift all travel restrictions. If you are interested in the ins-and-outs of legislative and executive action to change Cuba policy, I suggest the Latin America Working Group — (202) 546-7010.
Travel restrictions are only one part of the embargo that the United States imposed on Cuba almost 50 years ago. Since 1969, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has repeatedly called for easing various aspects of the embargo. “One tragic feature of the embargo,” the 2003 General Assembly, “has been the blocking of pension payments to retired Cuban pastors and teachers who were members of U.S. Protestant denominations before those churches became autonomous bodies m the 1960s.” While the Board of Pensions has been able to make partial payments to some pensioners in some circumstances, repeated efforts to gain the authority to honor the contractual obligations to our pensioners in full have been denied.”
The Rev. Carlos Piedra has been an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba for 48 years. Photo by David P. Young.
The Rev. Carlos Piedra is one of six would-be pensioners who are unable to receive any pension payments. Their pensions are totally frozen because they do not have relatives living in the United States, the only channel the Board of Pensions is currently authorized to use for getting money to persons living in Cuba. “We are very concerned about the six who are not receiving any pension payments!” church leaders stated in February when asked what issues they would like me to share with churches in the United States.
Well past retirement age, Rev. Piedra continues his ministry as pastor of the Versalles Presbyterian Church in Matanzas because he cannot afford to retire. The big picture of scarcity and suffering caused by the 48-year-old embargo is overwhelming and complex. (See “The Impact of the U.S. Embargo on Health and Nutrition in Cuba.”) I understand it best when I listen to the hopes and dreams of persons like Carlos Piedra and his wife, Mercedes Herrera, or receive a request for a colostomy bag from a man whose post-surgery solution consists of plastic shopping bags.
What then?
Presbyterians in the United States and Cuba have long been praying for normalization of relations between our two countries. Yet there will be new challenges to face as travel and trade increase. Cubans are ambivalent about the changes and economic pressures that will accompany a large influx of U.S. tourists and business interests. They see the huge rich/poor gap and the environmental destruction in other Caribbean islands. Economic development is needed, but at what cost?
Cuban Christians have another concern: U.S. mission teams that arrive without knowledge of local churches. I regularly encounter persons and churches in the United States who are amazed to hear that there is a vibrant Christian community in Cuba. “How can there be churches in a communist nation?” they ask. Others believe that any churches in Cuba must necessarily be “collaborators” with the government or they wouldn’t be allowed to exist.
As U.S. Presbyterians, we have a relationship with Cuban Presbyterians that stretches back to 1890. We have had the privilege of accompanying the independent Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba since it was formed in 1967. The relationship between church and state in Cuba is a complex one and is has been far from static over the past 50 years. We know that the Cuban churches not only have survived, but thrived. The 30 (or more) PC(USA) groups that visit the Presbyterian-Reformed churches in Cuba can testify to their strength and integrity. Our voices will be important as travel restrictions are lifted and the numbers of mission groups traveling to Cuba multiply.
As I write, I am preparing to travel to Jamaica so I will close with a Jamaican blessing:
May God’s presence be so evident in your life that you have little room to do ought but marvel at God’s love for you!
Tricia Lloyd-Sidle
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 272, 274
