Philip A. Wingeier-Rayo: Puerto Rico and Cuba: Diverging Religious and Cultural Histories

A Cuba

Cuba y Puerto Rico son
de un pájaro las dos alas,
reciben flores o balas
sobre el mismo corazón

Cuba and Puerto Rico are
As two wings of the same bird,
They receive flowers and bullets
Into the same heart ...

Excerpt of a poem entitled “A Cuba” by Puerto Rican journalist and poet Lola Rodriguez de Tío

Recently, I had the opportunity to travel to Puerto Rico to visit historical Protestant churches. After serving as a missionary in Cuba in the 1990s, I was struck by both the uncanny similarities and stark differences between the two Caribbean islands. Obviously, the inhabitants of both islands speak Spanish, have similar food and music that are a mix of Spanish and African influences, and both cultures have a joyous warm enthusiastic Latin flair. 

Both islands were inhabited by the Taino tribe, a subgroup of the Arawak people of South America, before being colonized by Spain for nearly 400 years. Africans were brought as slaves to work on Spanish haciendas, or plantations, that produced sugar, rum, and tobacco that were exported back to Europe. 

The Roman Catholic Church was dominant on both islands until Protestant missionaries arrived following the Spanish-American War of 1898. Protestantism spread on both islands and built churches, schools, and hospitals that shared an expression of American Christianity. Both islands have vestiges of the Spanish American War with U.S. military bases: Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba and Buchanan in Puerto Rico.

Cuba fought for its independence from Spain with several insurrections and slave rebellions during the nineteenth century, beginning with the “Ten Year War” from 1868-1878. The final push was led by José Martí, known as “The Apostle,” who founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892 to fight for independence. 

During their independence war, the U.S. feared regional instability and dispatched the USS Maine. It mysteriously exploded while anchored in the Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, killing 267 sailors aboard and giving the U.S. a motive to intervene. The U.S. troops, known as the “Rough-riders” and led by Teddy Roosevelt, came to the aid of the Cuban insurgents and sieged a Spanish fort in Santiago on July 1, 1898 – known as the Battle of San Juan Hill. On July 25^th of the same year, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico. The last Spanish troops retreated on October 18^th. 

Collectively known in U.S. history books as “the Spanish-American War,” the conflict ended with Spain relinquishing the rights to Cuba, and ceding the islands of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico to the U.S. in exchange for $20,000.

The U.S. President during the Spanish-American was William McKinley, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). At first, he didn’t know what to do with these new territories. McKinley shared his plans for the Philippines with the General Missionary Committee of the MEC:

“When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them…and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way—I don’t know how it was, but it came (1) That we could not give them back to Spain—that would be cowardly and dishonorable; (2) that we could not turn them over to France and Germany—our commercial rivals in the Orient—that would be bad business and discreditable; (3) that we could not leave them to themselves—they were unfit for self-government—and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s was; and (4) that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.”[1]

A similar logic was applied to Cuba and Puerto Rico.

In coordination with President McKinley and the American military presence, Protestant mission boards signed comity agreements to coordinate their outreach in these new U.S. colonial possessions. Missionaries from the Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Disciples of Christ, among other denominations, such as the Lutherans, established churches, schools, and hospitals on the islands. The United Brethren Church of Christ articulated the task in Puerto Rico:

“To inaugurate a work that assures the Americanization of the island, similar to the work of welcoming individuals into the joys and privileges of being a Christian disciple… we should inaugurate schools that will reach hundreds of children who can be formed through these institutions in the responsibilities of being an American citizen.”[2]

Methodist missionary Sterling Augustus Neblett arrived in Cuba in 1902 and compared the U.S. military occupation of Cuba to Protestant missions: “The entrance of God’s messengers, who were few in number and who came to bring peace and safety to the Cuban people, was militant but not military.”[3] He also referred to the expansion of Methodism following the Spanish-American war as “occupation.”[4]

The mission work in Cuba was well organized and resourced. By the end of the first decade of Methodist missions, there were 33 preachers, 15 of them Cuban, serving in 32 churches with a total membership of 3,000 people.[5] The mission work in Puerto Rico enjoyed similar success.

In the early 20^th century, the history, culture, and religious contexts of both islands were amazingly similar. However, fast forward 100 years to the 21^st century, and the realities of both islands are night and day. Today, the religious and political contexts are very different. Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, tend to be politically progressive and vote Democrat, while Cubans, despite the Socialist government, tend to be more conservative—especially those who immigrated to the U.S. They tend to vote more Republican. Puerto Ricans tend to be more open-minded on social issues such as LGBTQ inclusion, while Cubans are more conservative. Ironically, Cubans tend to be pro-American, while Puerto Ricans are suspicious of the United States’ colonial past.

Even though both islands have very similar political and religious histories--both being colonized by the Spanish and the United States, the Puerto Ricans and Cubans today live in completely different social, political and religious realities. One would never guess that the islands are only 750 miles apart. Much of these differences stem from the islands’ different histories since the Spanish-American War.

Cuba was granted its independence through the Platt Amendment, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1903, which included the right for the U.S. to interfere in Cuban affairs. Today, Cuba is an independent nation, but it has been ruled by the Communist Party for the last 65 years following the 1959 Socialist Revolution led by Fidel Castro. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, is still a U.S. territory.

An example of the fate of two mission initiatives describes the differences between the two trajectories. MEC Bishop Warren Candler traveled to Cuba in 1898 to plan mission efforts. The following year, a Methodist school was established in Havana, which would eventually expand to a university known as Candler College. Similarly, Presbyterian missionaries John and Eunice Harris sailed to Puerto Rico in 1906 and established a polytechnical school. That school expanded to become InterAmerican University, which today has eight extension sites, in addition to the main campus in San German, and a total enrollment of 5,000 students. By contrast, Candler College was intervened by the Cuban government and is used as a public school today.

Religiously and culturally, both islands were heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, and many people remain nominally Catholic today. There is also an underlying influence of African religions, such as Spiritism and Santería. This has been attacked by Catholics and Protestants alike as being demonic, but it has experienced a surge in recent years. 

The Protestant churches are strong in both islands, but there are stark differences. The churches in Puerto Rico do a lot of social outreach to the marginalized, while the Cuban churches tend to focus more on evangelization. This is due, in part, to the government restrictions on social services. The Cuban Socialist Revolution, allied to Soviet Russian, implemented an atheist constitution, which repressed religion in Cuba and created a decline in religious affiliation from the 1960s through the 1980s. Religious schools and hospitals were nationalized and are run by the state. 

In 1991, Cuba amended its constitution from an official atheist state to a secular state, and restrictions against church participation were eased. After the fall of the Soviet bloc, a religious revival began in Cuba, and a generation of young people, curious and spiritually hungry, converted to Christianity.

Recent comments about Puerto Rico in the news are a reminder that Americans in general and United Methodists in particular have a responsibility to understand the role of the U.S. and U.S. denominations such as Methodism in shaping the histories of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other lands.

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[1] This quote specifically referred to Philippines, but could be applied to Cuba and Puerto Rica, as well. General James Rusling, “Interview with President William McKinley,” The Christian Advocate 22 January 1903, 17. Reprinted in Charles Sumner Olcott, The Life of William McKinley, Volume 2 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1916), 109-111.

[2] Samuel Cruz, Masked Africanisms: Puerto Rican Pentecostalism (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 2005), 23

[3] Sterling Augustus Neblett, Methodism’s First Fifty Years in Cuba, Wilmore, KY: Asbury Press, 1976, 6.

[4] Sterling Augustus Neblett, Methodism’s First Fifty Years in Cuba, 6.

[5] La Disciplina de la Iglesia Metodista en Cuba, Havana, Cuba, v.

Phil Wingeier-Rayo: A reflection on the Methodist Church in Cuba on the occasion of its 50th anniversary

This is the second of a four-part blog by Rev. Dr. Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Associate Professor of Evangelism, Mission, and Methodist Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, that will discuss the work of the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the formation of The United Methodist Church.

Arguably no mission church faced a more difficult path to autonomy than the Methodist Church in Cuba. Before 1960 a group of Cuban leaders had conversations with the Methodist Mission Board about autonomy, but the response that came back from New York was that the Cuban church was not ready. At the time of the revolution in 1959 there were 54 U.S. missionaries, 108 churches, and 51 Cuban pastors with 9,209 members of the Methodist Church.[1]

However, Fidel Castro and his group of rebels claimed power on the island on January 1, 1959, when dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country and change happened quickly. Many Cubans were excited about the revolutionary goals of land reform, education, and health care for all. Most Christians were sympathetic with these egalitarian goals and nationalistic sentiments, as were the majority of the population. The problems with church-state relations began when Castro declared the Revolution to be socialist on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961. The United States had broken off diplomatic ties with the island three months earlier and imposed an economic embargo.

There was a growing spirit of nationalism in Cuba and anti-American sentiments. Cuban Methodists were being stigmatized for being pro-U.S. and the presence of American missionaries contributed to this sentiment. In 1961 the Board of Missions recalled all the missionaries back to the U.S. for their safety and for the well-being of the work in Cuba. Indeed the revolutionary Cuban government took over the 22 Methodist schools and universities, six clinics and campground. Many people thought the church buildings would be next.

Some missionaries invited their favorite Cuban pastors and helped them escape to the United States. Later in the 1960s the Cuban government organized a Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Produccion (UMAP) where several counterrevolutionaries, gays and religious, including some Methodist pastors and lay leaders, were lumped together as “anti-socials” and placed in forced work camps to be “re-oriented.” Eventually all but eight of the Cuban pastors would flee the country and only three of them were ordained elders.[2] How was the church to survive with only eight pastors for over 100 churches? Certainly Cuba’s path to autonomy was challenging but it is also a tribute to the power of the Holy Spirit that is an example for all of Methodism.

The Process toward Autonomy
Methodism in Cuba had historically been a missionary conference under the episcopal area of Florida. In 1923 the Cuban Annual Conference was formed with the bishop of Florida as the presiding bishop. Before 1960 Cubans considered autonomy but were told that the church wasn’t ready. Finally under strained U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations the bishop from Florida was unable to travel to Cuba in December 1963 to conduct annual conference, and the Cuban superintendent Rev. Angel Fuster, did all the appointments.

As a result, the Cuban leaders wrote a letter to the 1964 General Conference requesting autonomy. General Conference responded by asking them to submit drafts for consideration of their own Book of Discipline and Articles of Faith to the COSMOS commission. These were received and reviewed by COSMOS during the quadrennium and the recommendation went forward to the 1968 General Conference that the Methodist Church in Cuba become an affiliated autonomous church.

In the interim, the Cuban church was facing more adversity. Lacking trained pastors and confronting the growing anti-religious sentiment, the Methodist Church faced an extremely challenging period in the early 1960s. Not only was the church weakened through emigration, in addition many lay people left the church for greater opportunity or out of loyalty to the revolution.[3] The membership dropped to 5,000 in the mid-1960s.[4] The membership continued to drop to the low-point of 1,800 in 1973.[5]

Nevertheless, there was a faithful remnant. The District Superintendent of Cuba’s Oriente region, Rev. Armando Rodriguez, had trained a group of young men and women to be lay missioners. As the churches were being left without pastors, he asked this group to replace those pastors who had left. Lacking theological education and experience, these young lay people heroically served those churches, often living on the premises, thus protecting church property from vandalism and confiscation.[6]

Not only had the U.S. missionaries been recalled, leaving a leadership vacuum, but the Cuban church was also facing a financial crisis. They had been receiving nearly 70 percent of their financial resources from the United States, and had also lost the income generated from Methodist schools after their nationalization by the Revolution. In July 1963, Rev. Angel Fuster, president of the Cuban Annual Conference, received the news from the head of the Latin America desk of the Methodist Mission Board, Dr. Eugene Stockwell, that financial support could no longer be disbursed due to the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

In response the Cuban cabinet proposed three options: 1) lay off half the pastors (those who enjoyed less seniority), 2) ask the revolutionary government for compensation for the nationalized properties, or 3) request the local churches to send apportionments to the national church. The Cuban leadership valiantly chose the third option and sent pledge cards requesting all the members to tithe their support. They received 3,000 financial commitments within two months the national church was solvent.[7] The early enthusiasm and nationalistic spirit also influenced the church leaders’ desire to be independent.[8] Financial self-sufficiency prepared the groundwork for autonomy.

In late 1966 Superintendent Rev. Angel Fuster traveled to a World Methodist meeting in Ireland and stopped in Miami on his way home to visit two daughters. On January 5, 1967 he died in Miami from injuries sustained in an automobile accent. The following year, February 1-4, 1968, the Cuban church held its founding annual conference and honored Rev. Fuster as the first Cuban bishop elected posthumously. Then they elected Rev. Armando Rodriguez the first active bishop of the Cuban Annual Conference, but the Cuban government did not grant a visa to an outside bishop to consecrate him. Finally, a week later, Bishop Alejandro Ruiz was allowed to come from Mexico and consecrated Rev. Armando Rodriguez. All this was subject to the pending approval of the General Conference in April later that year.

In spite of losing most of its clergy to emigration, the financial crisis, decline in membership and tense church-state relations in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the Methodist Church in Cuba has not only survived, but has actually has thrived. Today the Methodist Church in Cuba retains its affiliated autonomous relationship to the UMC and has approximately 43,000 members, which is more than four times its 1959 membership and has 400 churches with 1,000 other mission sites.[9]

One of the concerns discussed about affiliated autonomous churches is that they would become so nationalistic that they would not want to relate back to the U.S. However, Cuban Methodism continues to have many partnerships with monthly Volunteer in Mission teams, and prayer partnerships with the Florida Annual Conference and many sister churches.

On Saturday, February 10th at 7:00pm there will be a celebration held at the Iglesia North Hialeah, 5559 Palm Avenue in Miami in honor of 50 years of Cuba Methodist autonomy.

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[1] Clyde W. Taylor, Protestant Missions in Latin America: A Statistical Survey , Washington: Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, 1961, p.110.

[2] Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Cuban Methodism: The Untold Story of Survival and Revival, Atlanta, GA: Dolphins & Orchids, 2006, 67.

[3] Shawn Malone, “Conflict, Coexistence, and Cooperation: Church-State Relations in Cuba,” The Cuba Project, Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University, August 1996, 2.

[4] Clyde W. Taylor, Protestant Missions in Latin America: A Statistical Survey , Washington: Evangelical Foreign Missions Association, 1961, 110.

[5] According to church statistician Generoso Pérez. Email with Rev. Rinaldo Hernandez, February 1, 2018.

[6] Telephone conversation with Bishop Armando Rodriguez, Sr., February 1, 2018.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Linda Bloom, “Cuban Methodists Are Packing the Pews,” UMNS, January 31, 2017.

Phil Wingeier-Rayo: The work of the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS)

This is the first of a four-part blog by Rev. Dr. Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Associate Professor of Evangelism, Mission, and Methodist Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, that will discuss the work of the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the formation of The United Methodist Church.

1968 was a momentous year of change in recent history. The time of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S., Black Power, and growing nationalistic independence and self-determination movements around the world. The Vietnam war was well underway with greater U.S. involvement. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated in April and June, respectively, and the Soviet Union repressed a group of protesters in Czechoslovakia, which became known as the Prague Spring. It was also an important year of the space race with implications for the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. In Mexico a protest rally was met by the army killing 300-400 students on October 2nd, just 10 days before the world descended on Mexico for the 1968 Olympics. The Latin American Council of Roman Catholic Bishops met in Medellin, Colombia to interpret the changes of the Second Vatican Council to their context making a “preferential option for the poor.”

A lesser known, but nonetheless significant event in Methodist circles was the decision of Cuban Methodists to become autonomous from Methodists in the U.S. The first Cuban bishop, Rev. Armando Rodriguez, was consecrated 50 years ago on February 11, 1968.

This coming Saturday, February 10th at 7:00pm there will be a celebration held at the Iglesia North Hialeah, 5559 Palm Ave. in Miami in recognition of 50 years of Cuba Methodist autonomy.

An Early Vision of Autonomy for Mission Churches
Early missionaries and mission executives envisioned all international mission churches would become autonomous. Pioneer Methodist missionary to India, Bishop James Thoburn, wrote in 1893:

“We may accept it as certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that in every nation under the sun our Christian converts will want to assume the management of their own affairs as soon as they are permitted to do so…Accepting, then, a fact so obvious as this, it requires the highest wisdom on the part of all missionary managers to co-operate with the natural tendency of events on the mission field, and to develop our indigenous government of every Christian church as rapidly as possible.[1]

While Bishop Thoburn (1836-1922) was writing about Asia, his findings and beliefs were relevant for mission everywhere.

Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas
At the same time as the world was changing in the 1960s, the Methodist Church in America was also going through some internal changes. The denomination was having conversations internally to integrate the all-African American Central Jurisdiction and externally to merge with the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church. In addition to these eventualities, the 1964 General Conference commissioned the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS) to “study the structure and supervision of the Methodist Church in its work outside the United States…and prepare recommendations as it considers necessary for presentation to the General Conference of 1968.”[2]

The COSMOS commission met in November of 1965 to plan for a major consultation in the fall of 1966. This larger gathering brought together 250 people including all the members of COSMOS, all American and overseas bishops, General Conference delegates from the U.S., the General Board of Missions, the Judicial Council, theological professors and representatives from the EUB Church, the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches, among others.

The five-day gathering heard and discussed four main options: 1. Keep the present basic Methodist Structure, 2. Encourage Methodist units outside the U.S. to become autonomous churches, 3. Create a truly international Methodist Church that would have several Regional Conferences (the U.S. being one of several) and one General Conference with balanced representation between the U.S. and Central Conferences abroad, and finally 4. Organize a world fellowship of autonomous Methodist Churches. This gathering did not have the authority to choose one of these options—only to make a recommendation to the 1968 General Conference.

One of the problems facing the Methodist Church was the structure of the world church that covered 46 countries and very different contexts. In Cuba and elsewhere, opponents of Christianity attacked local Methodism as being an appendix of the United States. In a report prepared for the 1966 COSMOS conference, Lonnie Turnipseed wrote “…it is easy to see how persons opposed to the Christian faith can use them to brand the church as a foreign rather than an indigenous church.”[3] This concern was certainly a reality in Cuba among many people fighting for self-determination and the end of foreign interference.

COSMOS also recommended to 1968 General Conference the autonomy for the Methodist churches in Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Chile, Panama, Peru, Malaya, Sarawak, and Uruguay, in addition to the prior recommendation for Cuba. These were the first since the churches in Mexico and Brazil had become autonomous in 1930.

Besides these churches, the recommendations from the 1964-1968 COSMOS commission have largely not been pursued by General Conference. Methodism overseas was overshadowed by the efforts to incorporate the all-African American Central Jurisdiction and unite with the Evangelical United Brethren into the United Methodist Church. Nevertheless, the recent crisis on the United Methodist stance toward human sexuality and the deliberations of the Way Forward Commission have highlighted the ongoing importance of the worldwide structure and the influence of context on church effectiveness.

In the second part of this blog, I will examine how this process toward autonomy played out in Cuba. In the third and fourth parts to this blog, I will examine in greater detail the four suggestions for the international structure of the United Methodist Church and explore what happened in other regions of Africa, Asia and Latin America with implications for the current dilemma that the UMC is facing about organizational structure.

** This article was corrected from an earlier version that listed secular events as happening in 1968 that actually occurred in 1967 or 1969.

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[1] Daniel Johnson Fleming, Devolution in Mission Administration: As Exemplified by the Legislative History of Five American Missionary Societies in India, New York: Fleming Revell Co., 1916, 72.

[2] The Journal of the 1968 General Conference, Nashville: TN, The United Methodist Publishing House, Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas, Report no.1.

[3] Lawrence Turnipseed, “New Structures for Methodism Overseas,” paper prepared for the COSMOS conference, February 10, 1966.

Recommended readings on Methodism in Cuba

United Methodist News Service has recently posted a series of well-done articles about Methodism in Cuba. The Methodist in Cuba is historically related to, but autonomous from, The United Methodist Church. The articles give a sense of the opportunities and challenges faced by this growing branch of the world Methodist movement. The eight total articles provide a depth of information about Methodism outside the US not often available to those without first-hand experience.

Series Home Page

Cuban Methodists are Packing the Pews on the history and growth of Methodism in Cuba

Providing a Home for the Elderly on a church-run home for retired pastors and spouses

Going Digital at Havana Seminary on technology use at the Methodist seminary

Cuban Worship: Music, Prayer and Passion on worship styles in the Methodist Church in Cuba

"Lord, I'm Here", a biographical piece on a Cuban missionary

Building a Church Growth Strategy in Cuba on cell group evangelism

Solidarity and Service in Cuba on social services provided by the Methodist Church in Cuba

For Methodists in Cuba, "These Are the Good Times", profiling a young clergy couple and detailing the increase in US-Methodist ties

Slideshow: Singing the Spirit in Cuba including pictures from the series set to Cuban music

Flikr stream of pictures from the Methodist Church in Cuba

Philip Wingeier-Rayo: Other Models of Global Church

Today's piece is written by Dr. Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Associate Professor of Evangelism, Mission, and Methodist Studies at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. It is the second of a three-part series on General Conference and the global structure of the UMC.

As I mentioned in the first two parts of this blog series, the United Methodist Church can no longer ignore the growing non-US sector of the UMC, but there is an increasing cost associated with bringing together delegates from around the world for an often ineffective meeting at General Conference. While I enjoy being part of a global church, I have come to the realization that it is not the most cost-effective way to organize an international body.

One proposal to address this problem is for a Global Book of Discipline that will move all the binding polity for the global church into one section that can be addressed at GC. This is important because the UMC functions in a variety of languages, cultures and under several governments with different laws that affect how the church must relate to the state. The remaining sections of the Book of Discipline will allow for changes by the Central Conferences for the church to function within the local context. The Global Book of Discipline will be available for review and discussion at the 2016 GC, but will not be eligible for adoption until 2020.

While these are positive incremental changes, I feel that they do not go far enough. Before joining the UMC, the EUB Church facilitated the independence of its former mission churches around the world. The PC(USA) and the Episcopal Churches have done the same; the latter maintains a connection to those churches through the worldwide body of the Anglican Communion.

The current configuration of the global United Methodist Church is still a holdover from the traditional mission model with the U.S. at the center, and former mission churches at the periphery. As I mentioned in my first blog, some of those Methodist Churches in Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Latin America and the Caribbean became autonomous, while those in Africa, Europe and the Philippines did not. This would be tantamount to some of the 13 American colonies choosing independence and some remaining part of England.

I would like to propose picking up the work of the COSMOS commission in the 1960s to have conversations with the Central Conference churches, while also retaining a commitment to connectionalism. This would be a model more in line with other Protestant churches as well as the Wesley spirit of equality and appreciation of diversity.

Here are two real examples of how this might look. The first is the Sol Africa project. Recently I had the privilege of attending the 10-year anniversary of the Sol Africa project that brings together the Portuguese-speaking Methodist Churches in Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, and Portugal to share resources. This project joins both autonomous and United Methodist churches, as well as human and monetary resources to carry out the mission of the church.

These churches share publications, as well as human and material resources, to train future leaders, produce Sunday School materials and rebuild Methodist training institutions that were damaged during civil strife in Mozambique and Angola under the guidance of the General Board of Higher Education & Ministry and Discipleship Ministries. Part of this project is distributing E-readers uploaded with Bible commentaries and theology books, many published by Methodist authors, to pastors and seminary students.

The Cuba-Florida Covenant is another example of a ministry that goes beyond the United Methodist Church, yet honors past relationships. Historically the Methodist Church in Florida has played an intricate role in the growth of Cuban Methodism. Many mission churches in Cuba were started and built by Florida churches in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. After the Cuban revolution in 1959 and the beginning of the embargo in 1961, the two countries (and churches) went their own way. The Methodist Church in Cuba gained its autonomy in 1968 and went through three very difficult decades of tense church-state relations under a Socialist government.

Beginning in the 1990s the church underwent a charismatic revival, which transformed its theology and practice according to its ministry context. Gone were the formalities of bulletins, hymnals, and organ music, and in were extemporaneous prayers, praise music, guitars and maracas. I lived through six years of this charismatic renewal as a missionary in Cuba (1991-97) and observed many positive attributes, such as adapting to current realities and contexts, that we can all learn from our Cuban brothers and sisters.[1]

The Cuba-Florida covenant was signed in 1997 by the Florida Annual Conference and the autonomous affiliated Methodist Church in Cuba, and since then has facilitated 198 partnerships between local churches and districts.These are two ecclesial bodies that could not be more different culturally, liturgically and theologically. I cannot imagine these two churches having to function under the umbrella of one General Conference or one Book of Discipline--which is fine. Neither should the Cubans impose their beliefs and practices on the American church, nor should the Americans impose their beliefs and practices on the Cuban church. Both are in ministry in their distinctive contexts and cultures. The Cuba-Florida Covenant operates despite the obvious differences, respecting each others’ autonomy, yet allowing districts and churches to covenant to pray, visit and even support one another in more concrete ways.

If the Wesleyan connection between Cuba and Florida is still strong after 55-years with no diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba, then certainly the connection between Methodist churches around the world can retain their historical relationships while we move away from a neocolonial mission model to one that is more adaptable to local contexts and cultures. The current model is a leftover configuration without a sound biblical or theological justification. It is frozen in time when the work of the COSMOS commission was interrupted by the unification talks between the former Methodist and EUB churches.

Rather than having an unequal and arbitrary division with some former mission churches being autonomous affiliated and others as United Methodist, I call on the church to consider a more equal model that encourages all churches to create culturally appropriate ecclesial structures, while remaining connectional, for the greater mission to “make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

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[1] Philip Wingeier-Rayo, Cuba Methodism: The Untold Story of Survival and Revival, 2^nd edition, Atlanta, GA: Dolphins and Orchids, 2006.