Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: September 19, 2026
Today we are celebrating an answer to prayer: Pastor Alexis Padrón Lorenzo is no longer imprisoned in Cuba. We thank God!
Pastor Alexis was released last week and reunited with his family after three months behind bars.
For those three months, Pastor Alexis was denied any contact with the outside world. We could only imagine what he was enduring, based on our knowledge of how Christians are treated inside Cuba’s prisons.
‘Being separated from my family was especially painful,’ he said after his release. ‘I suffered a lot there.’
He described the conditions as ‘very difficult’, with food that was almost impossible to eat and sometimes spoiled.
Now Pastor Alexis is back home with his family for the first time in months. That is a victory worth celebrating!
But the story isn’t over yet.
Tomorrow, when many of us will go to church, Pastor Alexis will have to report to the authorities to sign in. He must do this every week, on Fridays and Sundays, while he awaits his trial.
Yet he should never have been arrested at all.
When his community suffered days without water and electricity in yet another national blackout, Pastor Alexis spoke out. He stood alongside ordinary Cubans calling for justice and publicly challenged a government official. He was arrested on public disorder charges.
Many believe Pastor Alexis' detention was never really about public disorder at all, but about silencing a respected church leader whose faith, influence and service to vulnerable people were making a difference in his community.
Please continue to stand in prayer with Pastor Alexis, his family, the Communion in Faith Church which he leads, and all those in Cuba who are targeted for their beliefs.
His release reminds us that the Lord hears the prayers of his people, as we read in Psalm 107:
‘Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.’
Dear Lord,
We cried out to you for freedom, our prayers joining with Pastor Alexis and his family in their time of trouble, and you heard. Thank you for saving him from the distress of prison, and bringing him home to his family. Please be with them today and provide them with all they need.
We ask for more, Lord: that Pastor Alexis would be fully exonerated, fully free, and able to serve his community in peace.
And we pray: do it again, Lord! Wherever people are held unjustly, whether in Cuba or around the world, we call on you to bring people out of darkness, break away their chains, and cut through bars of iron.
You alone have the power to save. You have done wonderful things, and you still do wonderful things today.
We place Pastor Alexis, his family, and all those still suffering injustice into your hands.
We trust in your unfailing love.
Amen.
P.S. Thanks to the support of people like you, we were able to provide advice, assistance and solidarity to Pastor Alexis’ family when they needed it most. Our advocates documented Pastor Alexis’ case and made sure people in authority knew about it. Thank you.