Reformátusok Lapja, 1959 (59. évfolyam, 1-22. szám)

1959-07-01 / 13. szám

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REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Hungarian immigrants gladly offered their youthful energy, skill, sweat and blood to help build and operate the railroads, steel mills and coal mines. They planned to stay for a few years and return rich to their native land. For the journey and short stay the Protestants were spiritually equipped with the family Bible, hymnal and prayer book. The majority settled in the industrial and mining centers in the Eastern and Midwest sections of the United States. On Sundays they assembled in homes and boarding houses for fellowship and devotion. For pastoral services they often turned to the local Presbyterian minister. They asked the Presbyterian pastor of the community to baptize their children, perform marriages and bury the dead. The Presbyterian ministers, without exception, had a sympathetic interest in the spiritual welfare of the newcomers with a Calvinistic background. In true brotherly spirit the Presbyterian pastors gave them counsel, guidance, encouragement and financial assistance. The Reverend Ferdinand von Krug, pastor of the Kingston Presbyterian Church, claims that “as far back as 1897, I gathered Hungarians into my church at Kingston, Pa. Having heard that they belonged to the Reformed Church of Hungary and were without a shepherd, strangers in a strange land, I felt it my duty to do something for them. While they could not understand my speech, nor I theirs, as they brought their hymn books from the old country, we could at least have a song and prayer service.”

From the minutes of the Lackawanna Presbytery we learn that in 1899 the Committee of Home Missions reported that many Hungarians of the Calvinistic faith had settled in Throop, Pa. The Presbytery directed the Dun- more congregation to receive them into their fellowship. The following year they were dismissed in order to organize their own congregation and build their own church. The church edifice was dedicated in 1903.

The Hungarian Presbyterian Church in Youngstown, Ohio, was organized on January 19, 1902. The local Presbyterian church welcomed the Hungarian immigrants into its fellowship. Later, it gave them considerable financial support to organize their own congregation and provided them with a building to use for religious services.

A similar event took place at Newark, New Jersey, in 1903. The Reverend Robert Scott Inglis, pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, made the following earnest appeal to his session that the newly organized congregation may use the church building: “The Hungarians are our spiritual kin, their church is older than our Scotch Presbyterian Church, and that they will grow to a full manhood, when they will be

able to share with us the great work of the church.”

The pioneer missionary work in the Presbyterian Church was done by the Reverend Julius Hámborszky, Dr. Géza Kacziány, Dr. John Dikovics and the Reverend Julius Hankó. Reverend Hámborszky and his sons were aggressive organizers. Dr. Kacziány was a man of rare mental ability and unusual eloquence. Dr. Dikovics was a highly respected educator and a dedicated missionary worker. Reverend Hankó was a learned man and a powerful preacher. Within a few years an acute shortage of ministers was felt by the newly organized congregations. The Synodical and Presbyterian superintendents were searching for ministers in the United States as well as in Hungary in vain. The Board of National Missions finally tried to remedy the situation by contacting Bloomfield Seminary in New Jersey to train students of Hungarian extraction for the Christian ministry. Dr. Henry J. Weber and Dr. Arnold W. Fismer, accepting the challenge for such a specialized ministry, persuaded the Board of Directors to inaugurate a Hungarian Department. In 1904, Dr. John Dikovics started his fruitful teaching career at Bloomfield Seminary. For more than four decades students were trained in this institution to become pastors of bi-lingual churches. Bloomfield graduates have organized many Hungarian congregations in the East. The same was done in the Midwest in a much lesser degree by the Hungarian graduates of Western Theological Seminary. It is regrettable that the standard of Bachelor of Arts degree was not made mandatory to the graduates until 1931. Bloomfield graduates now are serving not only in congregations affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, but also in congregations belonging to the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in America and the Hungarian Reformed Church in America.

The spiritual life of the congregations had been greatly promoted by the weekly printed religious journal, the Reformátusok Lapja. This paper received a subsidy for many years from the Reformed Church in the U. S. and the Presbyterian Board of Publication. The Reformátusok Lapja now being published as the official paper of the Evangelical and Reformed Church is still welcomed in many Presbyterian homes.

During the twentieth century more than 50 Hungarian congregations had been organized by the Presbyterian Church. All congregations have received financial help during the process of organization. Most of the congregations are still receiving subsidy.

The Hungarian congregations belong to the local geographical presbiteries. They were or-