Reformátusok Lapja, 1969 (69. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1969-10-01 / 10. szám
12 REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Churches sat in the House of Magnates (since 1926 in the Upper House). This was abolished in 1945. Bishops in the Reformed Church in Hungary have always been elected for life. An attempt to change this was made in the late thirties of the twentieth century by Bishop Imre Révész (Transti- biscan District) who called for a procedure of re- election every 3 years. The suggestion, however, did •not find any following after Bishop Révész. The new constitution of the Reformed Church in Hungary, promulgated in 1967, does not show significant changes in regard to the office of bishop. A thorough examination and evaluation of the new constitution will be necessary, however, to. confirm this statement. In Memory of Father Hlinka “We are neither Czechs nor Czechoslovaks: we are just Slovaks and we intend to remain Slovaks for ever.” —Father Hlinka at the 1919 peace conference in Paris. + “Masaryk repeatedly declined to grant autonomy to the Slovaks on the ground that it would encourage them to secede from the republic and reunite with Hungary. Whenever the Slovaks referred to the Pittsburgh Agreement, Masaryk pronounced it invalid. In a letter to Hlinka in 1929 he contemptuously dismissed it as a forgery. This was all the more surprising because the original draft had been written and signed by him.” (page 36.) + “... the Slovak Council was founded at Geneva in 1933. The Council submitted to the League of Nations a memorandum declaring that the Slovaks aspired to self-government not in Czechoslovakia hut in Hungary. Hlinka’s own words may here be aptly quoted: “Our Hungarian motherland treated us much better than this hateful Czech republic. We lived and fought with the Hungarians for a thousand years, during which we did not suffer half as much as we have suffered at the hands of the Czechs during the past few years. The Czechs claim to have set us free, hut this freedom is far worse than our previous condition.” (page 37.) (Reminiscences of Professor Francis Jehlicka: Father Hlin- ka's Struggle for Slovak Freedom, Published by the Slovak Council, London, 1938, Pp. 45.) THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA The Trianon Treaty attached a part of Hungary, 18,902 square miles to the newly formed Czechoslovakia. Living in this area were 1,702,000 Slovaks and 1,874,000 others, comprised mostly of Hungarians. According to the 1921 Czechoslovak census, in Slovakia there were 144,549 Reformed church members, and in Ruthenia (which at the present time is annexed to Russia) there were 60,277 Reformed parishioners, a total of 204,826. This membership was divided into three Synods. In the Dunáninnen Synod (western Slovakia) there were seventy-nine mother congregations and nineteen affiliated congregations; in the Tiszáninnen Synod (eastern Slovakia) there were one hundred nineteen mother congregations and forty-two affiliated congregations; and in Ruthenia there were seventy-six congregations; altogether then there were two hundred seventy-four mother congregations and sixty-one affiliated congregations. In the Reformed parochial elementary schools in the Dunáninnen Synod in 1928-29, there were 6,867 pupils with forty-one teachers; in the Tiszáninnen Synod schools there were 9,418 pupils of which 6,597 attended the parochial schools in 151 classrooms; and in Ruthenia there were 8,702 pupils with sixty-nine teachers. Only one secondary school was annexed, the Protestant Gymnasium of Rimaszombat, which was taken over by the State. After many difficulties and hardships, the Reformed Church in Czechoslovakia organized a Seminary in Losonc, a Teacher’s College for men in Komárom, an Orphan's Home in Beretke, and acquired a church press in Munkács. In 1938, the southern part of Slovakia was reunited to Hungary. After World War II, the Czechoslovakian borders were realigned, and following this act, severe persecution of the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia commenced. Many Hungarians were deported to Bohemia into slavery, many were imprisoned and executed, and the remaining were constantly harassed. About 200,000 Hungarians, mainly members of the Reformed Church, were expelled from their old homeland. The government confiscated the parochial schools and land belonging to the Church. A so-called “reslovakization” program was forced on the Hungarians, and many of the congregations lost meaningful parts of their parishioners who were transported to Hungary. In Ruthenia the situation of the Hungarian Reformed Church is similarly miserable. Our constant prayer to the Lord would be for a brighter future for the persecuted Church of the Hungarian Reformed people in the Carpathian Basin.
