Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cuba


The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a major Christian denomination with a significant presence in Cuba with over 35,246 members as of June 30, 2018. The Seventh-day Adventist Church splits Cuba into four Conferences from the main Union under the Inter-American Division.

Sub Fields

The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates a higher education institution called Cuba Adventist Seminary.

History

Seventh-day Adventists first started to work in Cuba after the Spanish–American War in 1898. They started organizing in 1904 with the first church a year later in La Lisa, near Havana. The Cuba Union Conference was set up the next year and from six members in 1905, the Adventist Church grew to over 1,000 by the 1930's. Adventist elementary schools were started in 1922 all over the island, with a secondary school opened in San Claudio. The Adventist radio programs began in 1935 with the "La Voz de Atalaya" in Havana. Membership increased during this period and new schools and churches built and church offices located in Havana with local leaders and ministers. The Inter-American Division in Miami sent additional pastors as needed. After the 1959 Revolution all Adventist institutions such as schools and hospitals remained open, but were separated from the church and put under state control and secularized.
Many members meet in the outdoor for worship in some areas, and now look to see if they can begin to build new churches with the changes coming about.

Maranatha Volunteers

Maranatha volunteers have been renovating Seventh-day Adventist churches in Cuba since the 1990s. The projects are funded by donations and can take years to get completed. Maranatha has renovated hundreds of Cuban churches and assisted in building the Cuba Adventist Seminary in Havana. Volunteers from the Maranatha project have renovated and built churches all over the Island, with the most recent being the Seventh-day Adventist Church in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.