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| "We think the US blockade of Cuba is against the Holy Scriptures. We dare to say that what Cuba needs the most is our solidarity to break the blockade," |
The funeral of Baptist pastor Lucius Walker took place on September 17, at the Convent Avennue Baptist Church, in Manhattan, New York. Organized by his family, the memorial service was attended by noted religious leaders and American graduates of Havana’s Latin American School of Medicine.
Cuban Presbyterian Pastor Miriam Ofelia, who is also the head of the World Council of Churches for Latin America and the Caribbean and deputy to the Cuban parliament, attended the ceremony on behalf of the Cuban people, who so much loved and admired Walker.
Other Cuban religious leaders were unable to attend the ceremony because their visa applications to enter the United States were granted too late or denied. Such is the case of Reverend Raul Suarez, head of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center; Episcopal Pastor Pablo Oden Marichal, who is also the executive secretary of the Cuban Council of Churches, and Baptist Pastor Estela Hernandez, head of the Pastors for Peace Distribution Commission.
Comrades Fidel Castro and Raul Castro sent wreaths to the brave and faithful friend of Cuba.
Walker, who for died on September 7, was the executive director of the Pastors for Peace Interreligious Foundation for the Organization of the Community, an organization he directed since its foundation in 1967.
He was also the founder and promoter of the Cuba-USA Friendship Caravans, known in Cuba as the Pastors for Peace Caravans, which in 1992 began challenging the US blockade of Cuba by travelling to the island carrying humanitarian aid. "We think the US blockade of Cuba is against the Holy Scriptures. We dare to say that what Cuba needs the most is our solidarity to break the blockade," said Walker once.
> Adios to Lucius Walker Jr. in Harlem
> Lucius Walker is in the Hearts of the Cuban People
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