(Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba)

Since 1991 the Alliance of Baptists has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba. Our respective journeys have been remarkably similar.

Like the Alliance, the Fraternidad was born in the throes of denominational conflict. Formally constituted in September 1989, only two-and-a-half years after the formation of the Alliance, the Fraternidad resulted directly from the expulsion of three churches from the convention to which they had belonged. The charges against them included their ecumenical involvements, the ordination of women, the practice of open communion and a commitment to the social gospel.

Both bodies began with an intensive study of the Bible, Baptist history and the socio-theological context of their respective situations. And both came to the conclusion that the context demanded restatements of basic Baptist values and  new expressions of those principles. Soon enough representatives of the Alliance and the Fraternidad began to find each other.

The first such contact came in the summer of 1988 with the encounter of Alliance members Mary Ruth and Roger Crook of Raleigh, NC, and a pair of Cuban pastors attending the International Baptist Peace Conference in Sjoviks, Sweden. During that historic event, convened by the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, a friendship began between the Crooks and Francisco (Paco) Rods of Matanzas, Cuba, and Noel Fernndez of Ciego de Avila, which the following summer led to a six-week visit to Raleigh by the two Cuban Baptist leaders for intensive studies in English.

During that visit Rods was invited to preach at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh and in turn asked Pullen to consider a congregational partnership with First Baptist Church of Matanzas, where he was pastor. Within a short time, Pullen had processed the request and entered into the partnership, the first of some two dozen such agreements between Fraternidad and Alliance churches. These congregational partnerships are the centerpiece of our relationship.

At the institutional level, the partnership between the Fraternidad and the Alliance began to take shape in 1990 when Rods invited Alliance Acting Executive Director Alan Neely to organize a visit to Cuba by a group of Alliance pastors. Three other congregational partnerships were forged as a direct result of that visit. The following year, the Alliance welcomed the talented musical ensemble Kairos to our annual convocation in Richmond, VA, during a U.S. tour of the Matanzas-based group. Their presence at the convocation and in Alliance churches helped solidify the fledgling relationship.

Given the startling similarities in our origins and historical-theological perspectives, it is little wonder that the Fraternidad and the Alliance came to see themselves as spiritual twins or that this kinship would result in a joint project of fostering sister-church relationships. Indeed the tie between these two bodies of Baptists has become a model of what productive 21st century mission partnerships will be like.

Congregations in Partnership

(Fraternidad de Iglesias Bautistas de Cuba
Iglesias Hermanadas)

July 13, 2006

The 2nd report of the administration's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba was released July 10. Read the report here (on the website of the Latin America Working Group).

Download the Alliance's Cuba Partnership Manual that outlines how churches can establish partnerships in Cuba and get the required travel licenses.

We want to do a better job communicating what our churches are doing in Cuba. We are especially interested in the dates you plan to travel to Cuba. Please email information about your church partnership or Cuba involvement. Photographs can also be used.

The Alliance's connection to the Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba is one of the longest, and strongest, partnerships of the Alliance. Many of our churches have partnerships with churches in Cuba, or have other connections with Baptists there. Download this list.

Click on the arrow to read about each church.

Oakhurst Baptist Church, Decatur, GA

Crozet Baptist Church in Crozet, VA.

The Alliance's license under which many of our churches have traveled to Cuba was suspended at the end of November 2005. Individual churches must now apply for their own licenses. Some have already done so and been approved.

Link to the archives of the Latin America Working Group to read more about Cuba-related issues.

Click here to say no to restrictions on humanitarian aid through Church World Service website. Click here to sign a petition to President Bush and Secretary of State Rice on humanitarian aid. Click here to read the response of the Emergency Network of Cuban-American Scholars and Artists for Change in U.S.-Cuba Policy. Read the response of the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel.

From Associated Baptist Press: The Bush administration recommendation that the United States further limit humanitarian and religious aid to Cuba "flies in the face of religious freedom," say many U.S. Christian groups, including the Alliance of Baptists. Read.