by Craig Henry and DH Clark
On Sunday, June 29, in worship we celebrated the 31st anniversary of our beautiful partnership with our sisters and brothers at Iglesia Bautista Enmanuel in Ciego de Avila, Cuba. It was in June of 1994 that four of us from Northminster traveled to Cuba in search of a church with which to partner. Our effort was part of the larger effort encouraged by the Alliance of Baptists with which we are affiliated. When we arrived in Ciego de Avila, about a six-hour drive east of Havana, we met some of the founding members of Enmanuel, and we “fell in love.” The rest is a remarkable history of worship, sharing, prayer and material support, laughing, singing, hugging, and eating, and, yes, crying and grieving. Over these 31 years more than 30 of us from Northminster have visited our partner church on our mostly yearly visits, some of us multiple times. Several from Enmanuel have also been able to travel to the United States to visit with us at Northminster. It has truly been a wonderful partnership.
As we are all aware, the current economic situation in Cuba is quite dire. There are many reasons for this including our country’s 60+ year embargo that has failed to achieve regime change and only serves to cause hardship on ordinary Cuban folk such as our family there. Food, medicine and fuel are in short supply. Electricity is available for only a few hours each day. Inflation is significantly eating into the meager incomes of most of the people. Because so many have lost hope, in the last couple of years tens of thousands, mostly young people, have sought to emigrate to the United States. Obviously, this is having a significantly negative effect upon Cuban society.
Our friend, Stan Dotson from North Carolina, has been teaching at the Ecumenical Seminary in Matanzas, Cuba, for the past few years. For some time, he has been organizing a weekly devotional time via WhatsApp where Cubans and North Americans can share prayers and thoughts. Each week Stan sends an email announcing the evening’s agenda, and he always shares thoughts about life in Cuba. Here is an excerpt from last week’s email which speaks to some Cubans who have not lost hope.
“Today I finished up a week at the seminary, offering a course on Spiritual Formation for the hospital chaplaincy program. It is an amazing cohort of 16 people, almost all laypeople, ranging in age from 25 to 65, from across the island and from several denominations. It was delightful to hear their stories and witness their formation as chaplains. One of the more inspiring things to witness is their fierce commitment to stay in Cuba and serve the vulnerable here, in spite of a constant and growing clamor from friends and family abroad for them to jump ship and escape the suffering. To a person, they had stories of this kind of pressure they receive and their determination to stay the course, to embody as much as anything I’ve ever seen the biblical concept of steadfast love.
This week, one of the young members of Ebenezer church and a leader in the MLK Center, Yuliet, wrote a moving reflection on this very theme, explaining to her friends on social media why she is committed to staying. Here’s an excerpt from her statement that reads like a manifesto.
I’m not leaving, because my roots don’t have a passport. Because the memory of my ancestors, their quiet strength, their daily resilience, is part of what sustains me. They live within me like a compass that always points to hope.
I believe that utopias are not a naive luxury, but an urgent necessity. That happiness can also be a form of activism. That there is hope in connection, in community, in the small gesture that never gives up. I see myself as part of that history, of that impulse.
I’m not leaving, because my life is anchored in a revolutionary spirituality: in a radical faith in the dignity of the human being, in the mystique of those who believe that the best in us can still blossom.
I stay because I am a patriot. Because I wish to be a founder of life in the homeland for the everyday, with the tenderness of one who believes and does not renounce. I stay because my non-heteronormative gender identity is also part of this soil, and from it I live, fight, and love with pride.
I stay because, as Silvio sings, “I die as I lived.” With my heart set on this land. With the conviction that staying is another act of love.
If ever someone needs to leave, it won’t be me. It won’t be those who believe in the beauty, virtue, dignity, and emancipation of this land.
We, those who dream and act, stay. Because Cuba is not abandoned: it is transformed in its radicality.
Note: I’m not disparaging or judging the decision or obligation of many dear people I know to leave. I’m speaking about my personal decision so far.”
Sunday’s worship was focused on singing the hymns so loved by the Cubans just as they love their homeland and heritage. Despite the diaspora created by the current situation and its devastating effects on family life, music and fellowship still enliven the spirits of Cubans at home and abroad. Let us celebrate this amazing partnership.
La paz de Diós,
D. H. and Craig
Craig Henry and DH Clark (left) are founding members of Alliance partner congregation, Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana. They have been steadfast supporters of the Alliance for many decades and are instrumental to the continued success of the Alliance’s partnership with The Fraternity of Baptist Churches of Cuba (FIBAC).
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