United Methodist agency requests Cuba license
4/14/1998 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
NEW YORK (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries has requested a U.S. Treasury license to support important ministries of the Methodist Church in Cuba.
The request follows a recent series of meetings in Cuba involving the Rev. Randolph Nugent, the board's general secretary, other United Methodist church leaders, Cuban Methodist church leaders and Cuban government officials, including President Fidel Castro.
The license would allow the Board of Global Ministries to provide materials and other resources to build or rebuild churches and parsonages in Cuba, according to Nugent.
Other assistance would include humanitarian aid, such as food and medicine, materials for theological education, and salary subsidies for pastors and church staff.
In an April 9 statement, Nugent also expressed his support for efforts in Congress to pass the Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act of 1997, which would lift restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. His position is supported by the 1996 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body.
Under the current U.S. economic embargo, churches and church-related groups must receive government approval to travel to Cuba, to send humanitarian aid or missionaries, or to provide financial support for church projects in Cuba.
Nugent visited Cuba last December as part of a National Council of Churches delegation and returned in February with a United Methodist delegation of bishops and agency staff.
On Feb. 9, Castro officially welcomed the group to Cuba and joined in a two-hour dialogue about church history and traditions, with special attention to the Methodist tradition, of which he confessed little knowledge. Nugent later sent him a book on Methodism founder John Wesley.
Methodism in Cuba has always been closely related to the church in the United States. More than 100 years ago, Cubans exiled to the United States after the war of independence with Spain returned to their country and planted the seeds of the future church.
The Methodist Church in Cuba has official membership of about 10,000, but it serves a constituency of more than 30,000.
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