The Methodist Church in Cuba was established in 1883. In 2023, it had approximately 10,000 members and the head of the church is Bishop Ricardo Pereira. [1]
In 1883 the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) in the US started working with Cuban Methodists living in Florida. The first church was organized in Havana later that year. However, the Spanish-American War interrupted the work, and it was not until 1898 that American missionaries arrived in Cuba.
In 1964 the General Conference passed an enabling act to allow the Cuban Methodist Church to become autonomous if it wished. Autonomy was declared on February 2, 1968, and Rev. Armando Rodriguez elected as the First Cuban Bishop.
In the 1990s, the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and Methodist Church in Cuba met to discuss a partnership; a ministry called the Cuba/Florida Covenant (later called Methodists United in Prayer) was born from this meeting. [2]
In 2023, the church had a membership of approximately 10,000 people, with another 30,000 attending church services. [3]
In 1941, the church worked with other Christians to create the Evangelical Theological Seminary at Matanzas (SET), which opened in 1946. [4] Preachers are trained with students from 12 other denominations. [5]
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
The Free Methodist Church (FMC) is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement, based in the United States. It is evangelical in nature and is Wesleyan–Arminian in theology.
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, the MEC reunited with two breakaway Methodist denominations to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people; though it welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination with churches in 17 countries. It is Protestant, with an episcopal structure and Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th-century Pennsylvania, as well as close ties to Methodism. It was organized in 1800 by Martin Boehm and Philip William Otterbein and is the first American denomination that was not transplanted from Europe. It emerged from United Brethren churches that were at first unorganized, and not all of which joined this church when it was formally organized in 1800, following a 1789 conference at the Otterbein Church.
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or the AME Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American Christian denomination based in the United States. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.
Walter Russell Lambuth was a Chinese-born American Christian bishop who worked as a missionary establishing schools and hospitals in China, Korea and Japan in the 1880s.
The Archdiocese of Miami is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in South Florida in the United States. It is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami, which covers all of Florida.
A bishop is a senior role in many Methodist denominations. The bishop's role is typically called the "episcopacy", based on the Greek word episkopos (επισκοπος), which literally means overseer. Superintendent is another translation of episkopos but in Methodist churches this is a role distinct from bishop. The first Methodist bishops were appointed in America, and American Methodist denominations still recognize the office of bishop.
John Warren Branscomb (1905-1959) was an American bishop of the Methodist Church, elected in 1952.
Daniel Alexander Payne was an American bishop, educator, college administrator and author. A major shaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), Payne stressed education and preparation of ministers and introduced more order in the church, becoming its sixth bishop and serving for more than four decades (1852–1893) as well as becoming one of the founders of Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856. In 1863, the AME Church bought the college and chose Payne to lead it; he became the first African-American president of a college in the United States and served in that position until 1877.
Christianity is the most widely professed religion in Cuba, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. A significant share of the Cuban population is either non-religious or practices folk religions.
Robert McGrady Blackburn was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972.
The General Conference, in several Methodist denominations, is the top legislative body for all matters within the denomination.
Christianity has played an important role in Cuba's history. Cuba was discovered by Christopher Columbus a few days after he arrived to the New World in 1492. In 1511, colonization began when the Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar established the Catholic Church in Cuba with the early priest Fray Bartolomé de las Casas known commonly as "the Protector of the Indians". Along with Catholicism, Protestantism came during the same time.
Methodist views on the ordination of women in the rite of holy orders are diverse.
The history of Methodism in the United States dates back to the mid-18th century with the ministries of early Methodist preachers such as Laurence Coughlan and Robert Strawbridge. Following the American Revolution most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America came back to England. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, sent Thomas Coke to America where he and Francis Asbury founded the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was to later establish itself as the largest denomination in America during the 19th century.
Candler College and Colegio Buenavista were educational institutions founded in Havana, Cuba by the United States Southern Methodist Episcopal Church. They were founded on two different dates, Candler College in 1899 and Colegio Buenavista in 1920. They both ceased to exist in 1961 when they were nationalized by the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro.