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A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
1:00 P.M. EST January 24, 2011
President Barack Obama meets with the National Council of Churches in
the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Nov. 1, 2010. To his left is
United Methodist Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader. A web-only photo
courtesy of The White House, Pete Souza.
When a group of religious leaders met with President Barack Obama
last November, they shared their frustrations over government-imposed
travel restrictions that hindered their support of partner churches in
Cuba.
Regulations imposed in 2005 have severely limited interaction
between U.S. national religious organizations and their Cuban
counterparts, members of the joint National Council of Churches-Church
World Service delegation — which included United Methodist Bishop
Sharon Zimmerman Rader – told the president.
So ecumenical leaders were pleased when the Obama administration
announced Jan. 14 that the president was directing the secretaries of
State, Treasury and Homeland Security to ease certain restrictions
relating to Cuba “to continue efforts to reach out to the Cuban people
in support of their desire to freely determine their country’s future.”
The modified regulations will “allow religious organizations to
sponsor religious travel to Cuba under a general license,” according to
the White House. A general license also would allow funding directed at
religious institutions in Cuba “in support of religious activities.”
Other changes in the Cuba restrictions focus on academic study and
educational exchanges, remittances to non-family members to support
private economic activity and licensed charter flights to Cuba from U.S.
international airports. The decades-old economic embargo of Cuba –
long opposed by United Methodists and other denominations – remains
intact.
Need for religious travel
If the delegation contributed to the revised regulations, said the
Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the NCC’s top executive, it was by “lifting up
the importance of religious travel.”
Ecumenical leaders were pleased when the Obama administration announced
the President was easing certain restrictions relating to Cuba. A UMNS
file photo by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
“There is a vibrant religious community in Cuba, and we’ve been
deprived of easy access to their gifts and vice versa, because of the
restrictions,” he added.
For The United Methodist Church, more flexible regulations could
provide a new opportunity “to be responsive to particular needs” of the
rapidly growing Methodist Church of Cuba, said Rader, the ecumenical
officer for the denomination’s Council of Bishops.
The Rev. Stephen J. Sidorak Jr., top executive of the United
Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns,
commended the Obama administration for its action. “I think it’s an
exciting development, ecumenically speaking – a real positive sign that
relationships between the churches in Cuba and the U.S. can be more
conveniently conducted,” he added.
The modified regulations will take effect sometime this month after
being printed in the Federal Register, the White House said.
Thomas Kemper, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, said he welcomed the expected changes.
“Global Ministries and other religious organizations held general
travel and general fund transfer licenses prior to a tightening of the
embargo during the recent Bush administration,” he wrote in a Jan. 20
statement. “Our prayer is that the new regulations, when published,
will restore opportunities to obtain such licenses.”
The loss of these licenses has disrupted interactions with Cuban
Methodists, affecting the work of the mission agency and some of the
denomination’s annual (regional) conferences, he explained, although
some projects were able to continue and “spiritual unity” was
maintained.
“Global Ministries has worked in recent years with a coalition of
denominations and ecumenical partners and organizations seeking
relaxation of the religious restrictions,” Kemper said.
“We are grateful to these collaborators in the cause of justice and fair practice.”
‘New era’ of relations
One of the coalition’s leaders was Church World Service, whose
executive director, the Rev. John McCullough, characterized the White
House announcement as “the beginning of a new era of relations between
the United States and Cuba.”
In a Jan. 18 letter to President Obama, he expressed appreciation
for the administration’s actions during what he called a “critical
time” for people-to-people engagements between the United States and
Cuba.
“At this time of rapid growth among Cuban churches, your prescient
and important action will finally allow U.S. churches and ecumenical
institutions to accompany, support and mutually benefit from
unrestricted fellowship with our Cuban church partners,” said
McCullough, a United Methodist pastor. “It will enable relations that
are more than just historic, but which are vital also to the well-being
of our churches and the ministries we serve.”
The efforts of U.S. religious leaders to convince the Obama
Administration to loosen the restrictions were reinforced when a
delegation from the Cuban Council of Churches – including the Rev.
Humberto Fuentes, a Methodist pastor and the council’s vice president –
visited Washington Nov. 15-16. The delegation also urged government
officials to end the embargo against Cuba, allowing for a full
engagement between people of the two nations.
That remains a goal of U.S. churches as well, and Kinnamon already
is planning to take a delegation to Cuba next November to give a higher
profile to church relations and build on initiatives with the Cuban
churches.
“From our perspective, this is a good start,” Kinnamon said. “May
the day come quickly when the whole embargo is lifted.”
*Bloom is a UMNS reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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