Projects

Partnership Milestones: The Centennial Celebration

Written by John Walter Tuesday, 03 June 2008 00:51

Cabaiguán, Cuba ~ November 2007

I sometimes think of partnerships as if they were organic structures in themselves; and like all living things, they have growth spurts at certain predestined junctures when energies synchronize around some event of common interest. Or perhaps we reach a plateau where critical mass in relationship building produces a needed expansion; either way, it feels like entering a completely new room populated by a recharged and larger group of people all interested in adding their voices and sharing some new horizons.

The Centennial in Cabaiguán was one such experience. Momentum began building a year in advance. The Cuban community in the United States was talking about it; the PCUSA presbyteries with partnerships with El Centro’s churches were planning visits; Baltimore Presbytery put together its largest delegation ever with thirteen people representing four churches and the Presbytery signing up to make the trip.

The delegation contained veterans as well as newcomers, and for that reason the week we spent as guests of the Cabaiguán church became an opportunity to branch out and pursue multiple objectives, all principally centered around giving new people from both sides the chance to meet and begin the process of asking themselves, “What does all this have to do with me?”

A small delegation including Rev. Liz Johnson from Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Jo Anne Torrie, and I (both Ashlanders) traveled to Taguasco, northeast of Sancti Spiritus, to meet Pastor Miriam Naranjo and her congregation. We toured her church, talked about its outreach mission hopes and goals, and traveled to a small community nearby called Margaritas to meet Anaday Pérez Reyes, a young energetic woman who had begun an outreach mission to her community’s children, setting up benches her blacksmith husband had made in her yard to hold Bible studies, sing songs, and do other activities that bring children to a sense of spiritual community.

The power of the Spirit is clearly in her. (One thinks here of the Pied Piper) As we walked down the street all the kids came out to greet us. Later we learned her initiative had led the Taguasco church to purchase a horse drawn coche to get the kids safely to Sunday school. That first Sunday they got to church three hours early, which in turn led to another program: the need to feed them something for breakfast. Once fed, the creative Pastor Naranjo saw an opportunity for the kids to become partners in helping others in the community by hand carrying meals to those without resources to cook or feed themselves, or even worse, no money to buy the food.

Such is the power of love; such is the need in Taguasco and every other community I’ve ever visited in El Centro, Matanzas, and Havana Presbyteries.

A second group drove north from Cabaiguan to visit the Placetas congregation which has lost its sanctuary. Architect Wendy Kunz, Deacon Keith Doughten, and I spent the day as guest of Pastor Dalia Rodriguez, her Session, Rev. Edelberto Valdes, the presbytery’s property manager, and Executive Presbyter Xiamara Arenas.

Wendy had offered her professional services to the community in 2004, but because of time and transportation difficulties had never been able to visit Placetas to begin the process of discovering what the community wanted to create. This trip was the occasion to reverse past disappointments and begin a real time dialogue about a new sanctuary.

In this sense, it was new turf for both sides. There has been a great deal of work in Cuba funded by PCUSA churches and presbyteries, but I know of no project that has been a recent collaborative effort between our two denominations. This week Edelberto wrote to say that Placetas has chosen between the two sanctuary models Wendy offered, it’s a design much like the Luyano or Caibarien churches and will fit in prominently aside the architecture in its neighborhood. I am looking forward to further visits to discuss construction budgets and to spread the news of this progress to our other PCUSA partners and the exiled Placetas Cubans living here in the US working with El Centro Presbytery in this important community project.

“Doingness” is what we estadounidenses do best. Take away our hammers and paint brushes and we get nervous and ask: Is this really mission?

Let me be the first to affirm that yes, clearly this is mission. The centennial celebration brought some six hundred people to Cabaiguán from all over Cuba and the United States; all came to celebrate and congratulate the congregation who had labored mightily to complete the preparations in time and with so much obvious love. It was totally amazing to see the transformation; no one could possibly have been unmoved by the spectacle of a completely renovated church filled with all its friends sharing an historic moment together. The worship service, lasting over two hours, was energetically led by Pastor Mairolet Vega Comas, usually directing the chorus whose energy inspired everyone.

We worshiped and sang and experienced that special moment together. That’s the idea.

We do mission together, both sides invest, both sides receive dividends in love and trust and mutuality. Best of all, together the two sides create possibilities neither alone is capable of conceiving or realizing. What are those possibilities? Perhaps that will be best answered by the Inter-Presbytery Conference to be held on February 9-16 in Santa Clara, Cuba, where a forming group of Baltimore Presbytery pastors will meet their counterparts from El Centro Presbytery’s churches for a week of prayer, reflection, comparison, discussion, and discovery.

Here are some of our photos from this extraordinary event. Click a thumbnail to open a larger picture.  Move your mouse to the upper right hand corner and click "Next" to page through the pictures in a slideshow.