Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, February 23, 2024
Right now, as we meet here in Durham & Portland Maine, Quakers are gathered for worship in Gibara Cuba for the closing Sunday worship of Cuba Yearly Meeting. With them are eleven Friends from New England, including Kristna Evans and Mimi Marstaller from Durham and Maggie Fiori from Portland, four adults and three children from Dover meeting and one from Providence meeting.
Friends began worship this morning earlier than we did, and will continue after we close. I am hoping to share, as much as I am able, the experience of worship and of Friends in Cuba.
The church in Gibara is full – everyone has walked to worship this morning- from their homes or from the dormitories. It’s 80 degrees, the front door of the church is open, the breeze off the harbor blows through the windows.
The service begins with song – everyone knows the songs and everyone sings together enthusiastically. Jesu’s band accompanies the hymns. I saw a photo of the band earlier this week at Puerto Padre. This year there is a saxophone, a bass guitar, a drummer and Jesu.
The theme for this years gathering is “a family on a mission” The Chorus is “We are the community of God”. Each year CYM composes a song for sessions. The Verse is Acts 2:42 (Pentacost)
“The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. “
After singing, a pastor will share a message on the theme and the verse: and the community will participate, sometimes interrupting, sometimes agreeing sometimes arguing. As Friends everywhere know, Cuban Friends know that we experience god directly and intimately and that authority rests in that experience, not in the person of the pastor. In Cuba, Friends share during a message, as well as out of the silence.
Judy Goldberger wrote in a recent newsletter from FUM that:
“[In Cuba} I was immersed in communities who KNEW and trusted the constant presence of G*d. Who used their minds and hands and hearts to their full capacity, but knew they were not acting alone, knew they didn’t carry the burden of outcomes.
I’m privileged [in the US]. My intellect knows G*d is by my side, but it’s so easy to fall into trusting the work of my hands, and taking on the burden of outcomes. In Cuba, so much was out of our hands. The power could go out at any time. We might need to pull over and let the bus engine cool off. The pharmacy shelves were bare of western medicines. The doctors couldn’t run basic diagnostic tests.
But God was always with us, revealing Godself through each other, and giving Cuban Friends power. Not mastery, but power. As I return to the United States, where I’m privileged to be able to get what I want instantly, let me remember that. To confuse power with mastery is the road to despair. Let us reveal Godself to each other, in our workplaces, in our communities, with power.
Above the cross, in the Friends church in Delicias, it reads, “The place of Your presence.” And it is also everywhere I walk.
[As Jorge Luis , clerk of CYM said} “Somos seres humanos, no somos angeles.” (We’re human beings, we’re not angels.)
Back in Boston after eight days with Cuban Quakers, I don’t even know where to begin. G*d was truly as close as our breathing and moved among and through us. I was witness to the deep joy and deep heartbreak that Cuban Friends live with every day. I miss them already and my heart is a little larger now.” —Judy Goldberger, New England Yearly Meeting
I hear in Judy’s reflection a meditation relevant to the verse that has been at the center of worship during sessions: Acts 2:42, The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (the passage continues) 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
This verse comes after the community has experienced the spirit descending upon them at Pentecost. They have been drawn together, have spoken in many languages and understood each other, have been mocked by the community and have been formed into this fellowship of believers. Judy’s description is a description of a community that has been formed into such a fellowship and that is gathering today praying and feasting together.
I’ve sat with the theme “a family on a mission”.
One of the realities in Cuba now is that everyone has had people they love leave the island. They cannot return and they cannot be visited. Caring for family is complicated. The Cuba Friends are wrestling with how to remain in relationship with those they love who are absent. How to include them in the fellowship of believers. –
We in our country are living through a time where those we love are being targeted, because of their identity, their heritage or their job and it is unclear if we can protect them. My daughter works for USAID and she has been called a criminal, a lunatic and corrupt by rich and powerful men. How do we enfold those we love who are in harms way into the power of our fellowship of believers. In Judy’s reflection she links both the deep joy and the deep heartbreak that Cuban Friends live with as part of their experience of God moving among them. That stretches me – Do I recognize the deep heartbreak that I live with as part of God moving through us? This theme – “a family on a mission” has felt particularly tender both in the lives of Cuban Friends and in our communities.
After the message the children will lead the gathered community in song. There are a lot of children, singing and dancing enthusiastically. The whole congregation is singing and dancing with the children. The Epistle from CYM to Friends everywhere will be read, any new pastors will be installed and any retiring ministers or elders will be honored. The clerk will offer a prayer at closing and the whole community will gather for a luncheon feast. Local Friends will walk home, Friends from other meetings will crowd into whatever transport have been found to return home and the New England Friends will go to Holguin Airport and catch the 3:00 flight to Miami.
Revival Sing: ”When the world is sick, ain’t nobody feeling well, and at camp we’re so beautiful and strong.”
Queries: What have we experienced as a community that has forged us into this fellowship of believers, who gather and pray together and break bread together?
Do we know the feeling of the power of God’s presence among us, how do we recognize this and not mistake mastery of our hands and the authority of the world for the power of God’s presence?
Click this link to play the audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mgpAGV5ZATNrBAnjx3ZthbgFdXOL9YKY/view?usp=sharing
