Bethlen Naptár, 1959 (Ligonier)
Bethlen Almanac
22 BETHLEN ALMANAC THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN SOUTH AMERICA It is a number of years since we have surveyed Church activity of this area. This article deals with activities in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. In the early part of this year I corresponded with Sándor Haypal, “preacher” to the Chilean Hungarian Protestant Church. He replied in July and I simply enclose interesting sections of his letter. CHILE: “We organized our congregation about nine months ago. Two thirds of its members are Reformed, one third Lutheran. Together we number thirty families, about fifty adults in all. They are scattered about the country, but the largest single group lives in Santiago. We have been visited in the past two years by Pastors George Posfay, Dr. Bela Lesko, Dr. William Vajta, and László Hefty. A youth conference was also arranged by Pastor Hefty. We have worship services once a month with 20 to 30 adults in attendance. Much has to be done but I hope as we grow stronger that our work areas can be appreciably expanded. We live in harmony with the Roman Catholics. We had difficulty in setting up a Board of Elders but are certain that in the service of Christ and our Hungarian people we must be united.” URUGUAY: The life of Hungarian Protestantism in Montevideo began anew when my wife and I visited there on August 25 of 1957. We took steps at the World Alliance of Reformed Churdhes to secure pastoral services here. Since then László Hefty, Lutheran pastor visited there three times, and we have been there four times. The Church was formally organized on January 26, 1958 and the Rev. Árpád Kallós was elected to serve as the first Pastor. He is still in Italy where he deals with Hungarian refugees. His salary is to be paid by the Churdi World Service and until he arrives a Committee of twelve members, made up of Reformed, Lutheran and Unitarian members, will govern the church. I have been asked to care for the pastoral services, but am able to get there only once every few months. The Buenos Aires’ Church is aided by the Hungarian Reformed Church in America and the Hungarian Reformed World Service. THE REFORMED CHURCH IN ARGENTINA went through a difficult phase the early part of last year. God produced great results later on. The World Service Commission of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and Congregational aid granted it $30,000. A large mansion was purchased in Buenos Aires for 1,341,846 pesos. The building was cleaned up and renovation was begun by the
