Michael Kinnamon Thanksgiving Message in Cuba
begins a historic visit to Cuban Council of Churches

Matanzas, Cuba, November 24, 2011 – In a Thanksgiving Day sermon at the Evangelical Seminary in Matanzas, Cuba, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA named challenges facing U.S. churches – including the fact that growing fears about national security have created boundaries between nations and people.

“Fear tends to turn neighbors against neighbors,” The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon told his Cuban hosts, noting many Americans are “convinced that a huge wall along America’s southern border will keep us safe. And that a continued blockade against Cuba makes us more secure.” 

Kinnamon’s Thanksgiving sermon precedes a historic visit to Cuban churches by a 15-member delegation of U.S. church leaders November 28 – December 2.

The future depends on hope in God,  Kinnamon told his Cuban audience. “In anxiety, we live in anticipation of possible danger. In hope, we live in anticipation of promised fulfillment. And that allows us to risk life in diverse community rather than in guarded enclaves.”

The complete text of Kinnamon's Thanksgiving sermon is here.

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org