October 25, 2004
By Jose Aurelio Paz

HAVANA, Cuba - Presbyterian pastor and former president of the Cuban Council of Churches Rafael Cepeda received the "Usefulness of Virtue" award, granted by the Jose Marti Cultural Society to individuals who live a life in line with the integrity and honor that characterized the great Cuban thinker and Patriot.

In the act, celebrated Friday at the foot of the Jose Marti monument in the historic Revolution Plaza was also given to 20 Cuban intellectuals including Eusebio Leal Espencer, historian from the City of Havana, film maker Alfredo Guevara and writer and researcher Salvador Bueno.

Cepeda who together with being an exemplary Christian is an upright citizen and a scholar of Marti's work, received the diploma from Armando Hart Davalos, president of the institution.

The prize was accompanied by a text chosen specifically for the man who was also one of the founders of the Latin American Union of Evangelical Youth (ULAJE) on the continent. "The soul of a man, like the heavens in the water of the ocean, is always reflected in his work."

Cepeda was also president of the History of the Latin American Church Study Commission (CEHILA) in Cuba and a teacher of generations of Cuban Evangelicals.

The award also belongs to the Cuban Church, which has given rise to renowned theologians in the generation that this pastor belongs to and who have exemplified the ethical conduct of Cuban Evangelicals within the complicated Cuban reality, said Church leaders.

A prolific writer, Cepeda is author of La herencia misionera en Cuba (1986); Josi Martm, perspectivas iticas de la vida cristiana (1991); Josi Martm: su verdad sobre los Estados Unidos (1995); and Vivir el Evangelio: reflexiones y experiencias (2003), among others.

ALC News Service/Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency