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12/19/2014

ELCA leaders welcome renewal of diplomatic relations between U.S., Cuba

CHICAGO (ELCA) – The White House announcement that the United States will renew diplomatic relations with Cuba, as well as take steps toward the long-standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, came as welcome news for some members and leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

A December 18, 2014, statement from the Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla, executive director for ELCA Global Mission, said the announcement may allow for “the reunification of families and for the two nations. For more than 25 years our church has supported steps such as these toward normalization of relations with Cuba and urged our members to support interdependent efforts and relationships among the churches and peoples in the Caribbean region.”

“In that spirit,” Malpica Padilla wrote, “the ELCA has had ongoing contacts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Lutheran Confession in Cuba, the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Matanzas, and the Ecumenical Council of Cuba to promote dialogue and exchange with the churches in Cuba, as well as provide humanitarian assistance.”

Malpica Padilla noted that earlier this year ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton joined 15 other faith leaders in a letter to President Obama that urged him to open a high-level dialogue between the United States and Cuba, permit people-to-people travel more generally, remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and provide opportunities for U.S. citizens to support emerging small businesses and cooperatives in Cuba.

The full text of the statement is available at http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Charting_A_Course_For_Cuba_121814.pdf.

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Please keep the people of the Florida Bahamas Synod in your prayers as the renewal of diplomatic relations is dividing the Cuban-American communities in this synod. According to a statement recently published by The Reverend Robert Schaefer, Bishop of the Florida Bahamas Synod, "The firsthand memories of fleeing the Castro regime remain strong and real for many in the community; being doubtful and suspicious that normalizing relationships will lead to welcome changes is understandable. However, the suffering 50 years of embargo has created for the Cuban people, while not yet producing different internal policies, is something our own mission teams have witnessed directly. Therefore in the spirit of goodwill and confident in the hope of redemption, I dare to believe these actions truly can become a moment of repentance by which God works a new thing between our countries."

Bishop Schaefer concludes his letter with this request for prayer:

"During these hope filled days before Christmas as we prepare once more for the birth of the Prince of Peace, I ask your prayers for the people of Cuba, that God will be at work in these new reforms to improve lives, reunite families, and build positive relationships not only between the United States and Cuba, but with the entire region."

To read Bishop Schaefer's full statement, click on the link below.

Florida Bahamas Synod Cuba Statement 12 18 14

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