The move to improve parish-to-parish relationships between Episcopal churches in South Florida and Cuba received an unexpected jump start earlier this year when a member of St. Philip’s, Coral Gables, Fla., anonymously offered $60,000 to help rebuild Holy Trinity Church in Bermeja, a small sugar-cane farming town southeast of Havana. The Rt. Rev. Miguel Tamayo, Bishop of Cuba, visited St. Philip’s Aug. 27 to thank the congregation.

“They are really amazed they are going to have a new church just because you are helping them,” Bishop Tamayo told the congregation as reported by the Miami Herald. The initiative to create closer ties between Episcopal dioceses comes at an opportune moment. A spiritual resurgence has begun in Cuba as religious restrictions have eased. Bishop Tamayo told the Herald he was particularly encouraged after a visit to Cuba last February by a diocesan delegation and the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, Bishop of Southeast Florida and a Cuban exile.

Upon his return from the trip to Cuba, Bishop Frade told the congregation at St. Philip’s about the problems at Holy Trinity, a 100-person parish that has deteriorated from age, termites and hurricane damage.

The Rev. Eric Kahl, rector of St. Philip’s, visited Cuba in the late 1980s to establish a relationship between a Jacksonville church and one in Cuba. He said most parishioners at St. Philip’s were excited about the project. Fr. Kahl and some members from St. Philip’s were part of the delegation that visited last February. The group, Fr. Kahl said, came away impressed by the faith of the congregation in Bermeja, half of whom stand outside in the sun because their church building is so dilapidated.

The Cuban Episcopal Church was founded by missionaries from The Episcopal Church in the 1870s. It separated amid worsening Cold War tensions in 1967. With just 25 clergy and 10,000 members spread across 120 parishes and mission, The Episcopal Church remains one of the smaller denominations in Cuba.

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