Moderatorial Statement During Plenary Debate
Of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
On an Amendment to the World Mission Council Report
Relative to Cuba
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
(on a new Section 11 of the World Mission Council Report, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland adopted the following: “Instruct the Council to engage with the
Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba and others to support measures to entreat the
USA to lift its embargo on Cuba and promote the re-engagement of Cuba on the world stage.”)
Neal Presa, 751, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Moderator, I rise to support and amplify the word of my friend and colleague, Daniel Izquierdo Hernandez, the General Secretary of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba (IPRC). This past February, I traveled to Cuba with our director for world mission. There we saw the 1950s/1960s infrastructure that the previous speaker mentioned. We were told of stories after stories of families, a family of four like my own for instance, who live on monthly rations, such as 5 pounds of cooking oil, and living on proteins, not even chicken and beef, but eggs and beans. We went there to express our solidarity with the IPRC, and to share the current and consistent policy of the PC(USA) General Assembly in seeking normalization of relations between my country’s government and that of Cuba and the ending of the economic blockade and embargo. No country should have to live under the conditions we saw. If this General Assembly should approve the proposed amendment, your church will join us in advocating to our government the necessary normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, and the dismantling of the economic blockade.
Thank you, Moderator.
