Church service hears a bit about Cuba

March 10, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Cuba was on the minds of many Friday, especially those taking part in World Day of Prayer services.
The local service was held at Christ Church, Anglican, in Bolton, and included a talk about that Caribbean nation from Brampton resident Vilia Fera.
This year’s service was composed by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Cuba.
The Brampton resident spoke about her experiences when she visited Cuba about eight years ago to visit Presbyterian churches there. She went down with a church group.
“It was pretty eye-opening,” she said.
She said Cuba is drawing a lot of interest these days, as American President Barack Obama is planning to visit. This will be the first such visit in more than 50 years; since the revolution that saw Fidel Castro take power, the Bay of Pigs incident in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year, which saw a blockade imposed around Cuba.
“Hopefully, they’ll stop the blockade permanently,” Fera commented.
She added there are Cubans living in the States who are resisting the efforts to normalize relations. “It will take some time before they really have negotiations,” she observed.
“They’re resilient people,” Fera commented, referring to the Cuban people. “Hopefully, they’ll get some results.”

Vilia Fera described her visit to Cuba eight years ago.

These ladies were leading this year’s World Day of Prayer service, which was held Friday at Christ Church, Anglican, in Bolton. Written by the World Day of Prayer Committee of Cuba, the service was led by Hectorine Villanovich, Molly Jakeman, Lydia Rogers, Doris Porter, Isabelle Bottoms, Lenore Gibson, Joyce MacKinnon and Marg Boughen.