On February 14, 2022, Mary Hopkins (Fresh Pond, MA, Friends Meeting), Christel Jorgenson (Cambridge, MA, Friends Meeting), and Rebecca Leuchak (Providence, RI, Friends Meeting) traveled from Boston through Montreal, to bring love and greetings to Cuban Friends and to represent New England Friends at the 2022 Cuba Yearly Meeting (CYM) Sessions. The last Yearly Meeting delegation to Cuba Yearly Meeting had been in February 2020, shortly before Covid shut down travel. With restrictions eased in November 2021, Cuban Friends decided to plan in-person sessions February 17 through 19, 2022, and we were invited.
This year’s theme for CYM Sessions was taken from Acts 2:44-45 (NIV): “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
About 40 people were present at the gathering in Gibara, with attendance restricted by Covid caution to three people per meeting (pastor, clerk, and a clerk of a pastoral/ministry committee), as well as the directiva (board) and officers of the yearly meeting and the musical/praise group Hijos de La Luz.
Friends in Cuba shared with us the trials that individuals and families have experienced during this global health crisis, challenges which have been compounded in Cuba by the already difficult situation. Many Cuban Friends have experienced loss of family and friends. At this time in particular, being together in the Spirit was a time of strengthening and bonding, reconnecting the web of relationships.
Our one-week visit was broken into three parts: a short stay in the residence at the Friends Church in Puerto Padre, attendance at Cuba Yearly Meeting Sessions in Gibara, and then a return to Puerto Padre with day excursions to visit other monthly meetings. We enjoyed worship and fellowship with Friends in Puerto Padre, Floro Pérez, Delicias, Gibara, and Holguín. These are programmed meetings with very devoted pastors and in each visit we were warmly welcomed, worship together was joyful and filled with song and love of, and for, the Holy Spirit.
Each of us carried two 50-pound suitcases filled with medical supplies, tools and materials for construction projects, Covid-related personal protection equipment, arts supplies, and reading material for first day school classes—and there was more donated to go with the next group. We also couriered packets of valentines and videos and written messages from sister meetings. We spent a morning in Puerto Padre dividing up supplies for each meeting and worship group, which were delivered at Sessions and received with much gratitude—however far we felt from filling the vast need.
Sessions opened joyously, the first time Friends from all the meetings were reunited after an almost two-year period of isolation. After a brief greeting from Yearly Meeting clerk, Jorge Luis Peña, the first morning was the time for workshops: Finance was led by Odalis Hernández Cruz. Chris Jorgenson, with Rebecca Leuchak’s assistance, facilitated a workshop on silent worship using a Spanish translation of Mo Willems’ book Waiting Is Not Easy. Chris and Rebecca "played" the story, the connection to “waiting worship” was made, and a moving time of connection (with yarn connecting us as a physical metaphor), messages, and singing followed.
The Cuba Yearly Meeting Sessions were filled with a sense of worship, as monthly meetings took turns leading and sharing a message. Two workshops (on Unity and on Service) expanded on the Sessions theme, “United Serving the Lord.” Meetings for business dealt with the challenge that Covid restrictions and economic pressure has presented to the community. While virtual gatherings were conducted during lock-down, many Friends, especially the oldest and youngest and those without cell phones, were unable to access them. News for the last two years from the monthly meetings, committee reports, and statistical and financial reports were presented. The body discussed the challenges of ongoing building projects at several meetings, how to support the Yearly Meeting financially, progress on Faith and Practice revision, and how to restart the Peace Institute. The Yearly Meeting received with gratitude the donation of Ramón González Longoria’s personal library, to be housed in Holguín. The fund to support pastors was announced.
The part played by us New England visitors (who were the only foreign visitors) included a greeting and message about love and community from Rebecca, an evening session led by Mary to support the grieving of losses, as well as the presentation of copies of the Pendle Hill pamphlet #51 Adoración by John Woolman, translated into Spanish by Susan Furry and Benigno Sánchez-Eppler. We also presented a certificate marking the 30 years of Puente de Amigos friendship between our yearly meetings (and received one in return from CYM for us). Donations of cash and materials from our Yearly Meeting and from Friends United Meeting were reported; some Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, certificates presented.
Music and hymn singing carried us in divine light and love through these three days. After the closing celebration of sessions, we boarded the Yearly Meeting’s van and headed back to Puerto Padre. In the next day and a half we were able to worship with and get to know Friends at Floro Pérez, where Rebecca is beginning the sister relationship with Providence, and at Delicias, where Mary connected to the Fresh Pond/Framingham sister congregation. We were housed in Puerto Padre in the dormitory at the church, where construction continues as funds and availability of materials allows.
Our last day before departure we made a visit to the church in Holguín (which is in its own construction project of dormitories), got our Covid tests and results, and took a short walk around the town. Our time with Cuban Friends was brief but exceedingly rich with sharing. We spent many hours connecting in worship, in song, in prayer, in conversations, in travel over rutted roads from meetinghouse to meetinghouse. Our return home was greatly facilitated by Cuban Friends who helped us with the hurdles of Covid testing and navigating airport protocol.
While the preparations felt pressed for time, we were amazed and grateful for the generosity of donations that poured in from our monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, the Yearly Meeting, the Legacy Gift Fund and the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund, and many, many individual Friends in our communities. This could not have happened without your help. Your support, we acknowledge with much gratitude, had very great impact. Thank you.