While Protestants arrived in the island of Cuba early in its colonial days, most of their churches did not flourish until the 20th century with the assistance of American missionaries.
[2] When Fidel Castro’s regime overtook the country in 1959, Protestant churches were legally allowed to continue.
[9] Even with the opening of trade, tensions remained strong between Catholics and Protestants in Cuba throughout the early days of the colony.
[12] One of the main Protestant churches in Cuba today is the Iglesia Evangélica Pentecostal which originated in 1920 with help from American missionaries of the Assemblies of God.
[19] Through these years, Protestant Churches had to be creative with their evangelism, disguising their outreaches as musical or cultural programs.
[23] Before the Cuban Revolution, these Protestant schools succeeded in training thousands of students with their American ideals.
[24] Despite the political and economic uncertainty the Revolution brought to Cuba, the Cuban Protestant Schools remained stable for a time due to their outside support from U.S. mission agencies.
[26] As a result of the growing U.S.-Cuban conflict, the Cuban Protestant’s association with the U.S. became a burden to these churches and schools and many of them were forced to close down.
[30] By September, he asked his political party to respect these religious groups and promised to help solve the material needs of these churches.
[34] In 1999, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba which brought a significant amount of religious tolerance and awareness to the nation.
[40] The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) as the Evangelical Church in Germany Diaspora agency recently started to actively support persecuted Protestant Christians in Cuba.
A current project in Cuba includes a congregation center in Havannna, the cooperation is a sort of new approach for the GAW which had not been active in the region before.