By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

HAVANA -- As President Fidel Castro listened, an influential Christian leader from
the United States asked thousands of Protestants on Sunday to pardon the
American people for their government's embargo against Cuba.

``For people of faith, there are no embargoes. There are no barriers,'' said the Rev.
Joan Brown Campbell, secretary general of the National Council of Churches in
Christ U.S.A.

``Jesus tells us to love our neighbors. . . . It is on behalf of Jesus the liberator that
we work against this embargo,'' Campbell said. ``We ask you to forgive the
suffering that has come to you by the actions of the United States.''

For the Cuban government, it was more than a mere religious gathering. It was an
opportunity to gain political support with Protestant groups at home and with top
religious leaders visiting from the United States.

Campbell drew cheers and applause from those attending the Cuban Evangelical
Celebration in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution.

``There are a million people in the United States praying for this event,'' said
Campbell, whose council includes most major U.S. Protestant and Eastern
Orthodox denominations.

Organizers of the service billed it as the first Protestant gathering of its kind in
Cuba and the largest ever in the Caribbean. Tens of thousands streamed into the
plaza for a morning of hymns, prayer and praise under an unrelenting tropical sun.

Wearing his traditional olive-green fatigues and cap, Castro sat in a folding chair
facing the stage. Also present were Vice President Carlos Lage, Havana
Communist Party chief Esteban Lazo, new Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque
and many other Cabinet members -- indicating the level of importance the
government placed on the event.

The majority of those in the crowd were believers from 49 different Protestant
denominations around the island. Some, however, said their work centers or
neighborhood leaders pressured them to attend -- even if they were not Christians.

``I am kind of embarrassed because I don't know the words,'' said a young woman
who wouldn't give her name. A man who also wouldn't give his name said leaders
of his communist neighborhood watch group stopped by his home encouraging
him to attend.

Protestant groups are largely credited with persuading Castro to change the
government from an officially atheist one to a secular one in the early 1990s.

``There has been a growth in openness by the government,'' said the Rev. Bill
McAtee of Lexington, Ky., top representative of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

``I've been coming here since 1990, and I have seen dramatic change,'' he said.
``The churches have become more involved outside the walls in the church and
are now working in the community.''