Cuba Celebrates 70th Anniversary of World Council of Churches

Cuban and American religious highlighted here the work to promote social justice and love among peoples developed by the World Council of Churches, marking today its 70th anniversary.

Members of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) will celebrate the anniversary along with their peers of the Council of Churches of Cuba (CIC) with a special religious service in this capital as part of a working visit of its executive committee to the Caribbean nation that will conclude tomorrow.

Representatives of both organizations expressed yesterday their concern about the drastic staff reduction at the U.S. embassy in Havana, a measure that affects the families of the Caribbean nation, they said.

During a joint statement, read in front of the national and foreign press by CIC President, Reverend Antonio Santana, they said that the decision by the Washington administration also hinders people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

They ratified their willingness to continue the joint work for the restoration of the process of normalizing relations between the two nations started in December 2014 by the then Cuban President, Raul Castro, and former U.S. President, Barack Obama.

NCC executive secretary, Jim Winkler, lamented the current impasse in that process, caused by U.S. President Donald Trump, which is described in the statement as a moment of pain.

The U.S. religious agenda in Cuba includes an exchange of work with their Cuban peers, in which they will discuss some aspects of the relations between their countries and the review of the internal work of the U.S. organization.