Two Female Pastors Make a Difference in Cuba
From ANN, September 29, 2015: Two female pastors are helping the Seventh-day Adventist Church expand in eastern Cuba.
Gilma Carbonell, 44, leads the largest Adventist church in Cuba, the Guantanamo Central Adventist Church in the city of Guantanamo. She ministers to more than 1,000 church members, who pack the inside and outside of the church every Sabbath.
![Pastor Gilma Carbonell and IAD President Pastor Israel Leito pose for a picture at the Guantanamo Central Adventist Church, in Guantanamo, Cuba earlier this month. Carbonell leads the largest church on the island with over 1,000 church members. [Credit: ANN/Israel Leito.]](https://atoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/csm_GilmaCarbonell_8__-_final_d5bb7c5e79.jpg)
Pastor Gilma Carbonell and IAD President Pastor Israel Leito pose for a picture at the Guantanamo Central Adventist Church, in Guantanamo, Cuba earlier this month. Carbonell leads the largest church on the island with over 1,000 church members. [Credit: ANN/Israel Leito.]
Carbonell has been instrumental in expanding the church in eastern Cuba, said pastor Israel Leito, president of the Adventist Church’s Inter-American Division, which includes Cuba. Leito traveled to the island this month to officiate the change of status of the Alto Oriente Mission to the Alto Oriente Conference.
Leito praised Carbonell and the work of other local ministers and church members who have helped expand the conference’s membership to 7,078 believers.
“Carbonell’s skills and leadership abilities have uniquely qualified her for such an important position in the entire Cuban Union,” Leito said.
Carbonell and other female pastors in the Inter-American Division are not ordained, in line with Adventist world church policy, Leito said. Nevertheless, the division does not view the lack of ordination as a limitation to service, and it has many male pastors who also lead churches although they are not ordained.
“I love to teach Christ as the center of doctrines, teach Bible prophecy and prepare leaders,” said Carbonell, who holds a degree in Marxist philosophy and education and taught in a government university before being baptized into the Adventist Church in 1995.
She linked the growth of the church in her district to its focus on education, doctrinal teachings, training in the functions of church departments and church planting.
After Carbonell joined the church and served as a church elder, she felt the call to the ministry and attended the Adventist seminary in Havana. Soon after, she served as the pastor of the Caribe Adventist Church in Guantanamo and later moved to the Central Church.
“There are so many different needs throughout the different congregations I oversee, but we try to focus our members on the concept of mission and how we are a movement, and continue teaching about Christ to members and visitors who come every week,” Carbonell said.
Church administrators on the island spoke warmly of Carbonell’s impact on the region.
“Ever since Sister Gilma arrived in Guantanamo, the church has lived a revival,” said Eduardo Rodríguez, treasurer of the Alto Oriente Conference. “Her work as a servant of God has been tremendous here and the results speak for themselves.”
Carbonell dreams of studying for a doctoral degree and of doing more to train younger ministers. Leito said the Inter-American Division is considering helping her to achieve that dream.
Meanwhile, Argelia Linares, 78, has been living out her own dream for most of her life, working as a Bible worker. Her pastoral leadership has brought scores of people into the church. She played a crucial role in reaching a town called Caimanera that no other Seventh-day Adventist had been able to enter.
For the past 10 years Linares has ministered to a small Adventist congregation in Caimanera, Cuba’s closest town to the U.S. Guantanamo Bay naval base.
“For years she was given a special pass that allowed her to enter the town periodically to minister to the church there,” said Leito, who spoke briefly to Linares about her work in Caimanera during a five-day tour of east Cuba.
Linares, known affectionately to residents as Sister Jeje, eventually was informed that she no longer needed to secure a pass and could visit and serve as a pastor to the congregation, Leito said.
Linares, the longest-serving Adventist worker in Cuba, told Leito that sharing the gospel was her passion. She studied at the former Antillian Adventist College when it was based in Santa Clara, Cuba, in the 1950s.
“We are thankful for Bible workers like Linares who commit their entire lives to preaching the gospel,” Leito said.
Linares’ faithful ministry has been instrumental in keeping the congregation in Caimanera alive and growing, he added.
The congregation used to number in the dozens but has shrunk to 10 members because of migration out of the area, local church leaders said.
Throughout Cuba, however, the Adventist Church has expanded in recent years, noted Leito, who has visited the country dozens of times as division president.
“The church in Cuba is very strong,” he said. “The government allows the church to function with more freedom than in the past, and we are thankful for that. God continues to bless the church, our dedicated leaders, and our active church members who give their all to fulfill the mission of the church.”
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Cuba Union has more than 32,000 members worshiping in 458 churches and congregations. The church oversees the work of four conferences across the island.
The Adventist News Network (ANN) is the official news service of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.
Who can deny the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in these women to serve Him as they are doing? May God both continue to richly bless them in their ministries and raise-up more women to be like them!
The Church at large and at last seems to be waking up to the reality that especially in ministry to societies that are nominally atheist (China, Cuba, Vietnam, and others) a Church that stands in the way of the spiritual gifts of women will in no wise be accepted by either the leaders of these nations, or its general public.
Here in the US Northwest, participation in organized religion and general belief in God are very low (as they are in some parts of Europe)and our desire to call fully on the talents of women ministers has absolutely nothing to do with Women’s Liberation or even the Suffragette movement of a century ago. It’s a common sense desire to expand the kingdom of God in our territory where organized religion’s influence has diminished.
Using methods and blessings we believe God has ordained for our time and place in society, we feel hampered by the “Male Headship” emphasis (and, yes, as a man I recognize that I have a role to play in the religious education and uplift of my family, and I am not averse to preaching and leading out in Bible studies, when God calls) is tending to express a spiritual wind contrary to the winds of the Spirit in our Godless age. Let us beware lest we haply find ourselves opposing the very Spirit of God.
We live in awful times, and many of our generations are indeed perverse, and yet, God be praised, respond well to a woman’s touch in beginning to repair the breach between heaven and earth.
While it speaks of women in ministry, as I believe is the point of an article like this, it speaks even greater of what the Holy Spirit can do in and through a person willing to be used. Pastor Carbonell is a testament of what God can do through anyone, regardless of gender. I ask for a double portion of her anointing in my ministry, and for all who are asked to lead as pastors.
In a church that is dominated by a woman teacher to the point of Canonizing her writings it is no surprise they keep pushing the limits of scripture by ordaining women. When are we going to wake up?
1 Tim.2:11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man;b she must be quiet. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
1Cor.1434Womenf should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.g
36Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored.
I think you, brother, are completely misguided in your thinking concerning women in the Christian church. Paul addressed cultural issues that would affect the gospel’s acceptance as well as needed theological issues. But he also said that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, free nor bond, neither male nor female. All are one in Christ. See Ga.3:28. That means that now there are no exceptions, no inequalities among beleivers.
All of this accomplishment, and yet our church will not ordain these women or any other! I remember the alarmist statement by Batchelor released just before GC, warning that if we ordained women, members would leave the church in droves. The work of the Holy Spirit through these two exemplary female pastors exposes that statement for what it is: fearmongering! My pastor (female) is another testament that the opposite can occur, membership growth and vitality in the life of the church. May the Spirit continue to work through ALL pastors ordained or not. It’s all about God’s glory, despite the shortsightedness of the denomination!
We definitely Love, cherish and appreciate these two and their works; period.
So who is to blame for the 34,018 members to 31,530 drop in membership in the Cuban Union in 2014? Do we blame Israel Leito or the world? Should the numbers not be displayed and represented for what they are? I do blame him for that and in justification for his ideologies. Should this same ideology be able to claim the new openness and politics in Cuba?
Should the Church be blamed in it’s entirety? The voice of the many and the vote of “no” was heard. Should we blame evil? Should we not look at this within wisdom at all?
HE will use everything available because HE Loves us; but should we not follow HIS PLAN? How many more might be brought to HIM through such? Do you have those numbers? Since HE will have the last voice, no matter what; that is the scary part, maybe HE will tell you those numbers.
There you go again! Whatever happens, your view is “Blame the church!”
Those female pastors are growing their local churches. What about YOUR local church? Is it growing, or shrinking? What impact is your ministry having on your congregation? What’s happening “over there” isn’t your problem because God holds you responsible for the impact you are having where you are and in your local church. The way you continually criticize everything and everybody else makes me think if I visited your church that I would find you doing anything other than destroying it.
At least those female pastors in Cuba are growing the church!
We cannot blame the Church; the vote was “no”. We cannot blame these two trying their best. I do not see you fixing anything.
From the article “The congregation used to number in the dozens but has shrunk to 10 members because of migration out of the area, local church leaders said.”; do we blame migration? Did they migrate to other unions; the numbers dropped in all Cuban Unions. How is any of this growing the Church?
How do you know “what is happening over there” isn’t all of our problems; here and there? Do you even know what is happening here and there? Maybe reading the BIBLE and following HIS PLAN is better? Maybe following the conviction and vote of the Church might be better?
I can see your actions as a stumbling block to others and the Church. How do you judge that I am destroying the Church? Can you provide proof? When the Church voted and asked us all to follow Sound Doctrine (and point out failures)?
As we all continue to see the same failing areas continuing and promoting the same failed and vain doctrine; not following HIS commands, that the Holy Spirit should have placed in remembrance of. I blame people like you; as does 2 Timothy 3, provided in correction.
How is it you have such perfect clarity of vision to see the faults you imagine in others when you don’t know them? How do such criticisms grow the church and minister God’s love?
“How is it you have such perfect clarity of vision to see the faults you imagine in others when you don’t know them?”
Because you are blind and we have lived them.
“How do such criticisms grow the church and minister God’s love?”
Because Love include criticisms, chastisement, exhortation and rebuke; all commanded. That does not change just because you do not understand or wish to change the definition.
We are commanded to have clarity in identifying stumbling blocks to others. The BIBLE says “no”, Sound Doctrine says “no”, the Church says “no”, the majority of the members say “no” and yet you continue the same failed doctrine that got us here; as others fight to save the failing Church.
You do nothing to help, you do not correct and continue to lead others astray. Exactly how does this grow the Church within your individual ideology? But wait, you are unable to even explain or defend your ideology.
what worries me is the contentions among members within the organization of the so called God’s church. my question is ehete has it come from? according to what i read from the scriptures the church of GOd will speak the same thing, teach the same thing. may you please clarify my concerns.
The gains however are mainly female from my anecdotal evidence…..still that which plagues western churches….men running away from church…..show me a church winning men more than women and I will show you a woman worthy of ordination…..
The controversy around the ordination of women in the SDA church is nothing less than a class war in the church. Men, no matter how dull they are, do not want women to share power and influence in the higher strata of church organisation Ordination, to them,is the acme of ministerial recognition; and they are afraid to admit women into the fraternity, lest they take it over sooner than later. Face it, ordination does not make the recepient any more efficient or competent! It may give him a bigger ego, but othrewise it is superflous. In some areas it brings more pay to the member of the clique – nothing more.
Some people think that Paul was expressing a cultural bias when he orders women of his time to keep silent in church, and to refrain from teaching men; but Paul was going well when he advocated the equality of the sexes, races and other groups before God. His prohibition set the stage for the huge contention that exists among church leaders today. Jesus did not put such barriers to the execution of the mandate he gave his disciples. Where did Paul find this authority? In the way the Christian church has developed, it would seem that Paul has been given more authority than Jesus who is himself the author of the Christian Way!
“Show me a church winning men more than women and I would show you a woman worthy of ordination”
I wish I knew how to understand this statement. Is it that only men can win men? Or is it that only ordained men can win more men than women, and ordained women cannot do so? Does Danny think that men’s souls are more valuable than women’s? Or does he think that men are more valuable than women in the church?