The Cuba Partnership Resource Manual
Historical Highlights of Cuban Presbyterianism
Last Updated (Tuesday, 22 February 2011 19:26) Written by John Walter Tuesday, 22 February 2011 19:19
1890 - A Cuban layman, Evaristo Collazo, asks the PCUS Board of Foreign Missions
for counsel and oversight for the school and worship services he and his wife Magdalena
are holding in their home in Havana.
The PCUS Board sends the Rev. Anthony Graybill from Mexico who holds services,
baptizes 40 adults, organizes a congregation, ordains two Elders for the Session,
and then ordains Collazo to the ministry and installs him as pastor! Graybill and Collazo
also travel to Santa Clara and begin work there.
1890-94 - Graybill and the Rev. Juan G. Hall make several visits and with Collazo
organize a church and school in Santa Clara and begin work in Remedios, Caibarien
and Camajuani.
1895 – Presbyterian work suspended as Collazo joins Jose Marti in the War for
Cuban Independence, the only clergyman to serve in that struggle. The Spanish
Government suppresses freedom of assembly and chaotic conditions prevail in Cuba.
1898 - The US enters the war against Spain in its closing days and dominates it to
such an extent that no Cuban is permitted to participate in the conference concluding
the peace treaty. US Marines occupy Cuba.
1899-1900 - Missionaries from both PCUS and PCUSA, along with those of other
US denominations enter Cuba. Both Presbyterian groups soon organize congregations,
the PCUS in Cardenas and the PCUSA in Havana building on the remnants of Collazo's
work. Collazo joins the PCUSA work in Havana under the Board of National Missions.
1900 - The Rev. Robert L. Wharton joins Juan G. Hall in the PCUS work in Cardenas
and soon organizes the school that grows into Colegio La Progresiva. A system of schools
and clinics grows up under the guidance of the Presbyterian missionaries, many
of them women.
1904 - The Presbytery of Havana is organized by PCUSA with five pastors and seven
congregations. PCUSA General Assembly Minutes note: "For the present, the presbytery
is placed under the jurisdiction of the Synod of New Jersey." The Rev. Evaristo Collazo
was elected Moderator in 1906, the first Cuban to serve in such a leadership capacity.
1909 - The US Congregational Church closes their work in Cuba, transferring five
congregations and five ministers to the Presbytery of Havana.
1914 - Central Presbytery organized by the PCUS with seven pastors and seven organized
churches. Robert L. Wharton was elected the first Moderator.
1918 The Disciples of Christ close their work in Cuba, transferring two churches,
two missions and one pastor to the Presbytery of Havana.
1918 Later in the year, the PCUS merges its work with that of the PCUSA under the
Presbytery of Havana, adding six ministers and eight churches. As a result of the two
1918 mergers, there are 27 organized churches under the care of the Presbytery of Havana.
Robert L. Wharton is named Superintendent of Schools and the Rev. Edward A. O'Dell,
pastor of the English-speaking church in Havana, is named Superintendent of Churches.
1930 - The Presbytery of Havana becomes the Presbytery of Cuba, still a part of the
Synod of • New Jersey.
1941 - Robert L. Wharton is required to retire from La Progresiva at the age of 70, the
last US missionary to be heading a Cuban Presbyterian church or institution.
The Rev. Emilio Rodriguez Busto is named Director. Wharton continues to live in
Cuba and is elected Moderator of the Presbytery of Cuba in 1954, 40 years after serving
as first Moderator of the PCUS Central Presbytery. He is living in Virginia when he dies
at the age of 89. By his request and with Fidel Castro's personal permission, his body is
returned to Cuba for burial beside his wife in Cardenas.
1946 - The Evangelical Theological Seminary is established in Matanzas under
Presbyterian and Methodist sponsorship, later joined by the Episcopal Church in Cuba.
1950- The Presbytery of Cuba celebrates the Fiftieth Anniversary of Cuban
Presbyterianism in the mistaken assumption that it began in 1900 with the
organization of churches by the US missionaries.
January 1, 1959 - Triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro. T
he initial period was welcomed and supported by most Cuban Presbyterians.
A number had served in the revolutionary struggle and several served in the
new government in various capacities. One year later, on December 31, 1959,
the Presbytery of Cuba reported 4293 members in 34 congregations with 46
ministers. There were 5987 in Sunday School and there had been 231 infant
baptisms during the year. In 1960, there were 1419 students in Presbyterian day
schools and an additional 1961 in Colegio La Progresiva.
v1959-60 - The Presbytery of Cuba initiates a special service project in a poor
area in Oriente Province that had been devastated in the war, using land
donated by the new Government and $100,000 from the Board of National
Missions. Education, healthcare and literacy training along with Bible study
and prayer services were provided at camps at Tanamo and El Caney and
Sunday services in ten surrounding communities.
1960 - The Presbytery of Cuba adopts a Five Year Plan to double membership
and establish new • work in principal Cuban cities, with a program of
stewardship and missionary education intending to engage in mission
efforts in Latin America.
1960 - The Presbytery of Cuba acquires property for a Centro de
Actividades Nacionales (CAMP) near Santa Clara as a camping center.
1961 - Following the breaking of diplomatic relations and the imposition
of an embargo by the US and the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Government
declares itself socialist and Communist and confiscates the schools and clinics
of the churches. The US embargo blocks pension payments to retired ministers
and aid to the church as well as all normal communication channels and mutual visits.
The Presbytery of Cuba suffers from bitter internal division and the departure of
members to the US begins. In the next few years, more than half the members and
ministers leave.
1963 - The Presbytery of Cuba convenes the first National Presbyterian Institute
to consider its present situation and the challenge of the future, with John A. Mackay
as keynote speaker. The Institute produces the vision of a Cuban Presbyterian Church
"that is rooted, prophetic, indigenous, charismatic and ecumenical."
1966 - The Rev. Francisco Norniella and Elder Rene Castellanos go, with great
difficulty, as Commissioners to the Boston General Assembly to interpret the
Overture from the Presbytery of Cuba asking to be released in order to form an
autonomous and independent Presbyterian Church in Cuba. The Overture passes
in spite of opposition of the Synod of New Jersey and Cubans in Florida.•
1967 - The Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba is inaugurated in January with the
presence of UPC Moderator Ganse Little, Stated Clerk Wm. P. Thompson and COEMAR
Secretary John Coventry Smith. The PRCC applies for membership in the W. orld Council
of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Latin American Council of
Churches. Statistics show 3,082 members, 146 Elders, 30 churches served by 17 pastors,
three Commissioned Church Workers, two Lay Pastors and four students in the seminary.
1969 - UPC San Antonio General Assembly adopts policy urging an end to the embargo
against Cuba, the restoration of normal diplomatic relations and the closing of the
US Naval Base at Guantanamo.
1977 - The Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba adopts a new Confession of Faith
to add to the Book of Confessions. The Cuban Confession of 1977 is the only Confession
of Faith produced by a Reformed Church living in a socialist society.
1979 - Reported membership drops to 1289 with seven infant baptisms
and 418 in Sunday School.
1985 - The Presbytery of Long Island and the Presbytery of South Louisiana establish
contact and begin visits to Cuban congregations in the Presbytery of Havana and the
Presbytery of Matanzas respectively.
1985 - The PRCC invites agencies of the reunited PC(USA), the Program Agency
and the General Assembly Mission Board, to a consultation in Havana. They draft
a Mutual Mission Agreement that includes procedures for forming ties between
governing bodies of the two churches. The agreement is adopted by both General
Assemblies in 1986.
1989 - The disintegration of the Soviet Bloc causes immediate and catastrophic
economic collapse in Cuba, as Cuba loses not only the subsidy from the Soviet
Union but most of its foreign trade partners. Cuba enters the "Special Period
In Time of Peace."
1990 - The PRCC celebrates the Centennial of Presbyterianism in Cuba, having
had the historical record clarified by the work of Rafael Cepeda and Alfredo Chao.
UPC Moderator Joan Salmon Campbell leads the US delegation in the first phase
of the celebration. The Rev.Manolo Rodriguez leads a delegation from Santa Fe
and is installed as Pastor Emeritus in the Matanzas Central Church, the only
Presbyterian Minister who left Cuba in the 1960s to be so honored.
1990 75 Protestant Church leaders meet with Fidel Castro to discuss church-state r
elations Castro asserts that religious groups were providing important support for
the Cuban people in a time of great stress and should be respected. A video tape of
the meeting is broadcast over national television and there has been a new climate
of openness to religion since.
1991, the law is changed to permit religious believers to become members of the
Communist Party. In 1992, after a national referendum, the Cuban Constitution
is changed so that Cuba is no longer defined as an atheist state. Three Protestant
clergy now serve in the National Assembly, One is a Presbyterian, the Rev. Dr.
Sergio Arce. The years since 1990 bring a period of steady growth in membership
and in vocations for the ministry in the Cuban churches, though the growth has
leveled off in recent years.
1995 The first Partnership Consultation is held in Havana, bringing together
leaders of the PRCC with not only PC(USA) General Assembly staff but also
representatives of the then four partner presbyteries: Long Island, Santa Fe,
South Louisiana and Transylvania.
1996 - The Presbyterian Cuba Connection is founded as an unofficial network
of Presbyterians for interpretation, advocacy, and financial support of the life
and mission of the PRCC.
1996 - PC(USA) General Assembly Moderator John Buchanan visits the PRCC,
participating in the October Conventions of the presbyteries.
1998 - Pope John Paul II visits Cuba in January.
1999 - The Cuban Evangelical Celebration unites the great majority of Cuba's
49 Protestant Churches in a series of 19 municipal and four national public rallies,
culminating on June 20 in the Jose Marti Revolution Plaza in Havana in a three-hour
program of hymns, prayers, music, dance and a sermon attended by 100,000
persons including President Fidel Castro and a number of government leaders.
2000 - A Celebration of Mission Partnership in the New Millennium in November
in Cuba brings together 28 representatives of GA, presbytery, congregational and
institutional PC(USA)partners with an equal number of representatives of the PRCC
from all levels of church life. A joint declaration of intention and commitment is adopted.
2002 - The Rev. Tricia Lloyd-Sidle is appointed a Mission Co-Worker for Cuba Partnership’s .
First Gathering of PC (USA) Cuba Partners held in Washington DC in September.
2003 - PC(USA) General Assembly Moderator Fahed Abu-Akel visits PRCC with wife
Mary Zumot during Holy Week.
2003 - PC (USA) Cuba Partners meet in Chicago in September.
2004- A Symposium on the Biblical theological/Pastoral Foundations of Partnership in
January brings together 12 from the PC(USA) and 12 from the PRCC to discuss papers
prepared and presented by some of the participants. The papers and responses were
printed for advance study for the Mission Partnership Celebration in Cuba in October 2004.
2004 - Seven Presbyterians graduate in the pastoral ministry track of the Evangelical
Theological Seminary in the largest graduating class in the history of the seminary.
2004 - Cuba Partnership Gathering at the Matanzas Seminary in October brings together
representatives of some thirty PC(USA) partners with Cuban counterparts.
2006 - PC (USA) Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase visits the Reformed Presbyterian Church
in Cuba, visiting all three presbyteries, the Matanzas Seminary and preaching or speaking
to large congregations.
2006 - PRCC Moderator Hector Mendez and his wife Oneida Padilla visit the Birmingham
General Assembly of the PC (USA) to commemorate several important anniversaries: the
40th Anniversary of the 1986 action of the Boston General Assembly of the UPC to approve
the request of the Presbytery of Cuba to be dismissed to form an autonomous Church; the
20th Anniversary of the adoption of the Mission Partnership Agreement by the General
Assemblies of the PRCC and the PC (USA); and the 60th Anniversary of the founding of
the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, Cuba. The Birmingham Assembly
also adopted a Statement on Mission Partnership With the PRCC and protesting recent
restrictions by the US Government on religious travel to Cuba.
2006 - The Methodist Church of Cuba votes in June to terminate relation with Matanzas
Seminary. (2006) - The Evangelical Theological Seminary celebrates its 60th Anniversary
on October 2-5.
2006 - A Gathering of the PC (USA) Cuba Partners Network will be held in
Louisville in October.