OUR PLANE TOUCHED DOWN at José Martí airport. After deplaning, we each walked separately through a small, narrow immigration office. The officer talked to each of us alone, asked a few questions, then instructed us to look up and straight ahead. Then he let each one walk through to the baggage claim. As I gathered with the others, I suddenly realized that this was living history: the Christian Science Board of Directors had come to Cuba!
Christian Science was introduced to Cuba in 1903 by Alfred Blundell, an Englishman, who had been healed in New York. Blundell started holding meetings to read the Christian Science Bible Lessons, and later the same year a Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss came to assist him. Early in 1906, Blundell left Cuba, but the Hotchkisses decided to plant roots on this beautiful island. They regularly opened their home in La Habana (Havana) to groups ranging from 25 to 80 people. They founded a Christian Science Society in 1916, and the first Reading Room opened in 1919.
By the time of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, two Christian Science churches in La Habana were well established. After the Revolution, churches from many other denominations closed. But because the Cuban Christian Scientists stayed in good contact with the government, respecting the laws of the country and government resolutions, and because the services had no personal preaching, the members received permission to continue offering services to the public. Today hundreds of Christian Scientists live throughout the island, but there is only one Church of Christ, Scientist, in La Habana.
