Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) — March 2023 Update

As this year began for SET, one of our partners in Cuba, there were many challenges presented by the severe economic crisis on the island: shortages of food, unavailability of even basic educational supplies like paper and thumb drives, fuel shortages, and power cuts. Yet despite those hardships, the seminary began the new year with energy, vision, and a renewed commitment to providing ecumenical theological and pastoral training across the island, with comprehensive remote learning opportunities as well as classes on campus in Matanzas.

Cuba Appeal - September 2021 Update

With gratitude for your generous response to our Cuba Emergency Appeal, we have been able to share more than $38,000 to meet the urgent needs of our partners at this critical time on the island, due to the pandemic and the collapse of the economy.

On June 21 at the Seminario Evangélico de Teologica (SET) in Matanzas, the school opened an annex ward of the local pediatric hospital which had been overrun with COVID cases. 120 patients and their accompanying relatives were received along with 20 medical personnel. For 47 days, ten SET employees and an onsite manager provided meals for 140 people. This included their daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as two snacks and food for babies under one year of age. Disinfecting cleaning, internet access and electricity had to be supplied by the seminary, along with the staffing of the kitchen and maintenance.

Gifts for the Presbyterian Reformed Synod of Cuba were sent with our wish that the funds be divided equally amongst the three Presbyteries who could then disburse resources, as needed, to their congregations which were in great need of assisting families to purchase food and medicine. Most of these congregations are found in small towns and villages and you can meet some of your Presbyterian family here, whom your gifts have both helped and encouraged…

Latin America, Projects, PartnershipElizabeth CarterSeptember 13, 2021Cuba Appeal, Cuba, Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) - August 2021 Update

Below are excerpts from a recent letter sent to us from one of our strategic partners in Cuba:

Dear sisters and brothers:

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time, we thank you for your prayers and your expressions of concern related to the current situation in our country. We are living in an acute economic crisis and a crisis of values since the “special period” (decade of the 1990s) when the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc collapsed; we have not yet recovered from those times. The crisis has become worse …

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought negative consequences: the sad death of loved ones, which has produced a great emotional impact on the people. Furthermore, the State lost millions of dollars due to the fall of tourism. Despite that, it invested millions of dollars to try to heal and save the people.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cuba News

News has reached me that our seminary partner in Matanzas, Cuba, has been asked by the government to open one of their facilities (students are not yet allowed back on campus) to receive children (and their caregivers) who are suspected of having COVID-19. This comes as the local pediatric hospital is overwhelmed with cases. They have agreed to do this—an extraordinary act of service, as you can imagine. Please join me in prayer for this, that Christ may be glorified and that the seminary community is kept safe…

Cuba Partnership - February 2021 Update

Below, you will read excerpts from an important letter recently received from the General Council of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba. With an economy already on the verge of collapse, the pandemic has brought enormous challenges to daily living. The Outreach Foundation has provided multiple gifts to support these fragile congregations over the past year, thanks to your gifts.

---Marilyn Borst, Associate Director for Partnership Development

Letter to Our Partners in Mission

The General Council of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, in the confidence that the bonds in the love of Christ give us, wishes to share with you, sisters and brothers on the journey, a brief look at the current Cuban situation, even when the complexity of the times in which the world lives do not allow it to be isolated or considered unique. Our intention is fundamentally to shed light on many questions that naturally arise in these times and that we have received from some of you.

The national situation

In the midst of the global crisis as a result of COVID-19, the Cuban State has launched a process called "economic reordering" that consists mainly of monetary exchange and wage reform. This process presents great challenges…

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary - July 2020 Update

The Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) provides a high quality, diversified theological education program that prepares young church leaders to meet the challenges of growth in existing local congregations, including those of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, and pursuing new church developments throughout Cuba. We recently received this note from the Rev. Dr. Carlos Emilio Ham, president of the seminary:

Undoubtedly, the world is undergoing one of the most difficult moments in its history with the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease that does not distinguish social classes nor geographical locations. Many countries have been affected in a bigger or lesser magnitude in a surprising way since this disease causes severe damage to human beings’ health. Cuba has not been free from it, which is why our Council of Ministers, together with the highest leadership of our country, determined to take a series of measures corresponding with the different epidemiological stages that our country could go through. Educational centers at all levels have closed their premises; sometimes these places have become isolation facilities for patients who were suspected to carry the disease or were positive for the virus. However, alternatives have emerged by using the media to continue teaching students.

Matanzas Theological Evangelical Seminary - June 2020 Update

The Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) provides a high quality, diversified theological education program that prepares young church leaders to meet the challenges of growth in existing local congregations, including those of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, and pursuing new church developments throughout Cuba. We recently received this note from the Rev. Dr. Carlos Emilio Ham, president of the seminary:

Undoubtedly, the world is undergoing one of the most difficult moments in its history with the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease that does not distinguish social classes nor geographical locations. Many countries have been affected in a bigger or lesser magnitude in a surprising way since this disease causes severe damage to human beings’ health. Cuba has not been free from it, which is why our Council of Ministers, together with the highest leadership of our country, determined to take a series of measures corresponding with the different epidemiological stages that our country could go through. Educational centers at all levels have closed their premises; sometimes these places have become isolation facilities for patients who were suspected to carry the disease or were positive for the virus. However, alternatives have emerged by using the media to continue teaching students.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary - October 2018 Update

I just came back from my 15th trip to Cuba leading another team from The Outreach Foundation. I am usually asked a simple question by those who are surprised to hear that there is a Presbyterian presence there: “Oh, really…how did you find the Church there (i.e. what is going on with it)?” My simple answer: “I find that it is persevering…”

Often you meet a person on these Cuban journeys who seems to embody this like Mercedes Cardenas, an 89-year old elder in the village church of Sabanilla. Rail thin, with thick glasses and an effervescent personality, this Afro-Cuban retired school teacher models an inspiring life of faithfulness – of perseverance. She remembers the first Presbyterian evangelist who came to town in the 1930s when she was a small child.

Cuba Update - November 2016

Much has been in the news over the past months about the improving of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. For those of us who are not just “Cuba watchers” but “Cuba goers,” the changes occurring, as a result, are a mixed blessing. Charter companies were once the only way to get to the island and involved complex reservations and long check-in processes. Now, commercial flights have begun, and you can book online. On the other hand, more travelers are now flooding the island, both from the U.S. and elsewhere, making the limited number of hotel rooms both scarcer and pricier. Our partners in Cuba (the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba and the Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary) also see the “good and the bad” of it all.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary - April 2016 Update

Four in 1980 and four hundred and forty-four in 2016. Quite a big difference, yes? And, amazingly, it represents the somewhat exponential growth of the number of students being served by the Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary – our Presbyterian partner in Matanzas, Cuba! The Rev. Dr. Carlos Emilio Ham, who was installed as president this past June, has experienced it all. Our Outreach Foundation team met with him on the verdant seminary campus which overlooks Matanzas Bay.

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary - August 2014 Update

Dear Friends,

You might think that with only 22 Cuban students in full-time residence on the fairly expansive campus which is the Seminario Evangelical de Teologia (SET) in Matanzas, things would be pretty quiet. But nothing could be further from the truth as our Outreach Foundation team discovered on a recent visit there.

ProjectsThe Outreach FoundationAugust 19, 2014Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary, Cuba

Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary - June 2013 Update

In pursuit of our priority of helping global partners equip their leaders, The Outreach Foundation partners with the Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET) of Matanzas in Cuba, an ecumenical seminary where several denominations including the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba train their pastors. Here is an update on some recent activities of the seminary:

Partner Updates