Miami church officials have complained about being shut out of decision process. Leaders of the church's Miami District -- where a third of 15,000 Methodists are Hispanic -- say the board showed insensitivity to Cuban exiles.

 BY D. AILEEN DODD

 United Methodist Church executives have been asked to visit Miami to cool tensions among Cuban-American Methodists angry that they were shut out of a volatile decision to raise money for Juan Miguel Gonzalez's legal expenses.

 The fund-raising drive, organized by the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, collected about $46,000 -- less than half its target amount -- before complaints prompted church officials to halt the effort.

 Leaders of the church's Miami District -- where a third of 15,000 Methodists are Hispanic -- say the board showed insensitivity to Cuban exiles. They have invited the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the Board of Church and Society, to South Florida this month to meet with local congregations.

 ``Our board had no prior consultation with us in Miami on an issue which dramatically impacts the lives of our Cuban-American congregations here,'' said the Rev. Clarke Campbell-Evans, Miami District superintendent. Since ``they did not do us the courtesy of coming ahead of time to listen, my hope is that they will come and hear the reaction of Methodists in this part of the world.''

 Fassett is expected to address the issue this week during the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which is in session through May 12 in Cleveland. He has said the drive, which was open to church members and the public, was necessary to ensure that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would receive ``equal representation under the law.''

 Juan Miguel is the father of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban rafter found adrift off the Florida coast in November. Elian was reunited with his father near Washington, D.C., after a federal raid of Elian's Miami relatives' home in Little Havana April 22.

 At Miami's Coral Way United Methodist Church, which has a flock of 160, some members feel betrayed by the fund-raiser.

 By using the church's name to raise money ``it looks like the whole church is in support of this,'' said the Rev. Daniel Pelay, pastor of Coral Way. ``There are some leaders of the church who are trying to support the politics in Cuba instead of opening their hearts and minds to the exile community here in the U.S. I am very concerned about that.''

 CHURCH DISSENT

 The Rev. Antonio Fernandez, pastor of Hispanic American United Methodist Church of Hialeah, agrees. His church of 200 members has participated in vigils for the Gonzalez family. A banner and a sign outside of its sanctuary reads: ``Here we pray for Elian.''

 ``We as Cubans know that boy is not going to be with his father in Cuba, he is going to be with Fidel Castro,'' said Fernandez, whose grown daughters were forced to work a farm in Cuba at age 11. ``We encourage people to pray for Elian every day.''

 Though the denomination received complaints about the legal fund campaign from many Methodists nationwide, others sent donations. Opinions on the fund-raiser have varied within the Florida Conference, where there are 350,000 Methodists in 700 churches. In Tallahassee, the matter is barely causing a peep.

 NO MONEY DISBURSED

 On April 19, with only half the target funds collected and controversy spreading, the Board of Church and Society transferred the money to the National Council of Churches' Gonzalez Fund. Carol Fouke, a council spokeswoman, said no money has been disbursed yet. She said it was council practice not to release contributors' names.

 The Methodist Church's own financial oversight agency had advised the Board of Church and Society that it had improperly launched the fund-raiser.

 Fassett has said his board did nothing wrong. He said it simply kept a promise the church made to its Cuban counterpart when Elian arrived in Florida in November -- to do what it could to help reunite the boy with his father.

 ``We have to do and have done what we felt is the most moral and ethical thing in context of our own faith,'' Fassett said. ``Our principal goal was to get Elian back to his father. The genius of democracy, when it works, is that Juan Miguel Gonzalez can decide what he wants to do. He's in the United States; he can stay here or he can go back.''

 Still, Florida Conference Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson scolded the board for launching the campaign without consulting the members of the church.

 ``Our brothers and sisters in the Cuban-American community are insulted by the action of an agency of the church to which they have given their loyalty. We pray that they will know we share their pain, anguish and hurt. . . . This unilateral action is bringing considerable embarrassment to United Methodists in Florida.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald