The Cuba Partnership Resource Manual

An Introduction to the Cuba Partnership

Last Updated (Monday, 21 February 2011 17:17) Written by John Walter Monday, 21 February 2011 15:47

John Walter  (revised 2011)
   

The partnership that we now know as the Cuba Partnership between Baltimore
and El Centro Presbyteries was begun in 1998 by Rev. William S. Johnston (Bill),
of Ashland Presbyterian Church in Cockeysville, and Rev. Mairolet Vega Comas,
then pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, IPRC, in Cabaiguán, Cuba. 


An exchange of letters was soon followed by the first exploratory visit during the
final days of the Clinton Administration in November, 1999.  Reciprocal interest
was felt, and while no agreement was made then, both churches agreed to meet
again the following year to continue discussing the formation of a formal
partnership.  A second visit was made in November, 2000, as the presidential
election debacle in Florida was being debated, resulting in eight years of intractable
positions by both countries.


The following year Rev. Johnston resigned his call at Ashland and moved to
Nicaragua where his wife had accepted the post of Director of Peace Corps for
Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  As one might suspect, this left the nascent project in a
state of limbo. Elder John Walter and Sandra Auld elected to maintain
communications with the Cuban church, and after renewing the Department of
Treasury, OFAC License, made a third visit just before Christmas, 2002.

Also, Rev. Mairolet Vega Comas visited Ashland accompanied by two elders
from her church in both 2003,  2005, and 2009. In 2004, Rev. Ken Kovacs of
Catonsville Presbyterian Church, then chair of Baltimore Presbytery’s Global Mission
Committee, and Elder John Walter present a motion at the June 2004 presbytery
meeting to begin a formal presbytery to presbytery partnership with El Centro.
After discussion the idea was ratified.


Cuba. Present were: Rev. Brett Morgan (Ashland) and Elder John Walter (Ashland)
for Baltimore Presbytery; and Rev. Pedro Jimenez, then Executive Presbyter of El Centro
and Mairolet Vega Comas, then Moderator. The term of the partnership was set to be
renewed in five years (2009).


In 2006 Rev. Roger Powers of Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore made his
first trip to Cuba, along with elders from both Ashland and Light Street. Light Street and
the Paraiso Obrero chapel mutually declared a partnership in 2006. (See that document
in the appendix. )  Funds from The Cuba Partnership Grant are taken to refurbish the Paraiso
Obrero (worker’s paradise) chapel. The construction takes two years. Elder John Walter is
invited to attend the re-consecration of the chapel in November 2008.


In 2007 a delegation from Ashland, Light Street, Dickey Memorial, and Baltimore Presbytery’s
Associate or Mission and Justice, Deb Milcarek go to Cabaiguan to participate in the centennial
of the church’s founding in 1907. 


Talks began shortly thereafter to hold an Inter-Presbytery Conference in Santa Clara, Cuba. 


In 2009, six Baltimore Presbytery pastors, Exec. Presbyter, Peter Nord, Associate Deb Milcarek,
and other elders attended the conference that took place from February 9 to 16, 2009. Joining
them was Rev. Tricia Lloyd Sidle, World Mission Co-Worker for Cuba.


During the Santa Clara Conference a second five year agreement was signed which extends
our partnership until 2013. Exec. Presbyters Peter Nord and Omar Maren signed the new agreement. 

In 2011, eighteen Baltimore Presbytery participants participated in the Second Inter-Presbytery
Conference held in Cardenas, Cuba. As a result of the conference two new Baltimore Presbytery
churches have taken steps to formally join the partnership, Those are: Faith Presbyterian and
First Presbyterian of Howard County.