Grants will bolster Methodist Church in Cuba

NOTE: This is a sidebar to UMNS #256.

 STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) – A total of $941,450 in grants to bolster the Methodist Church in Cuba has been approved by United Methodist Board of Global Ministries directors.

More than half of that money, $510,000, will be used in the next two years for repair and maintenance of current church buildings and the construction of two new churches.

Because of a scarcity of building materials and the requirement that such materials be purchased with hard currency (such as U.S. dollars), the Methodist Church in Cuba has been unable to make repairs on most of its 108 church buildings since 1959. New churches also are needed to serve a growing membership.

The board funds will be supplemented with local supplies and volunteers from the Cuban church. Volunteers-in-Mission work teams will assist with the project.

The board also made grants of $121,250 to enable additional Methodist students to receive training at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Mantanzas; $181,200 to build housing and develop programs for the elderly; $72,000 to provide small subsidies in hard currency for Cuban pastors over a three-year period; and $57,000 to begin a program of mission partnership and exchange among Cuban Methodists and Methodists in the Caribbean, Latin America and the United States.