Ivan Perez

IVAN PEREZ
Former Pastor In The Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba

Dedicated In A Service Of Worship At McCormick Theological Seminary
Chicago, Illinois
January 14, 1998

Many of the stoles in the Shower of Stoles collection are extraordinary works of art.  But some of the simplest stoles tell the most powerful stories.  When Ivan Perez came out as a gay man, he was forced to leave behind not only his church but also his country.  He arrived in the U.S. with almost no possessions.  His stole is made out of an old pair of pants.

Ivan graduated from the Seminario Evangelico de Teologia in Matanzas, Cuba.  He was ordained in the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Cuba and accepted a call to a church.  Suddenly aware of the painful double life he was forced to lead and the toll this would take on his ability to serve his congregation, he resigned a year later.  To make ends meet he began working as a freelance translator, but continued to search for some way to follow his call.

Through his work as a translator he happened to meet Rev. Alison Boden, Dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, who was leading a group of divinity students on a tour of Cuban religious sites.  Through the efforts of Boden and others at the University of Chicago, Ivan was offered a full scholarship at the Divinity School.  With only $1,200 in savings, however, he was well short of the $10,000 needed for immigration.  The Divinity School contributed a $3,000 stipend, and then he contacted friends he knew in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  Then, in what Ivan describes as a "miracle," word spread across the country and around the world, particularly through the Presbyterian Cuba Connection, and another $6,000 was raised, giving him just enough to get to the U.S.  He arrived in Chicago on Jan. 1, 1998, to a double dose of culture shock: full-time English immersion, and Chicago's bitterly cold winter.

Through the Hyde Park Cluster of Theological Schools, a consortium of seminaries on Chicago's south side, Ivan quickly made many friends.  Shortly after his arrival in the U.S., three students at McCormick Theological Seminary told Ivan about the anticipated arrival of a display of the Shower of Stoles, and offered to help him make one to add to the collection.  On the morning I arrived, two of the students met me at the door with four stoles, telling me proudly that they had worked all night, finishing them around dawn.  The four stoles had been made out of an old pair of light gray jeans, with bits of ribbon added for color.  One is Ivan's stole; the others honor two anonymous students and an anonymous educator.  All four, along with several others, were dedicated at a worship service in McCormick's chapel, with Ivan in attendance.

An extraordinarily bright and articulate young man, Ivan said it was his hope that, after completing his Masters degree, he could stay on at the University of Chicago to earn a PhD.  Although he did not know what doors might still be open for him after that, he still hoped that one day he might be able to return to Cuba to teach in a theological institution there.

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006