Bethlen Naptár, 1960 (Ligonier)
Bethlen Almanac
BETHLEN ALMANAC 167 TORONTO, Ont., Canada The temporary substitute for the pastor is the Rev. Dr. László Pokoly. The chief elder is Benjamin Rabb. The church consists of 35 persons, the value of its properties is $22,000, its debt is $11,800. Their income in the past year was $2,303.21, their expense was $2,252.80. The church officers are: Benjamin Rabb chief elder, Emery Molnár vice chief-elder, Farkas Körösi treasurer, Eugene Kunvari secretary. The Rev. Louis Nagy, Dean of Western Classis, visited the church on August 2, 1959 and held the worship service there, after which the Dean participated in a picnic held in the honour of his family. The local body of the believers is a small, faithful group which is dedicated with a great loyalty to the faith of their fathers. HUNGARIAN WORSHIP IN ALASKA The 49th state was the scene of an historic occasion for Hungarian Protestantism. The Rev. Dr. László Betfia, member of the Eastern Classis of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, preached in Anchorage in June, 1959. Ten of our Hungarian brethren gathered there in the First Presbyterian Church to worship in their mother tongue. Dr. Betfia is an accomplished cartographer (he holds an earned doctorate in this field) and went to make a scientific study of our largest state. His devotion to the church has enabled him to serve his brethren so long without the church’s ministry in their ancestral language. The number of Hungarian in Alaska is small. Many are former GI’s who once served there. Some refugees from the ’56 Revolution have since settled there. It is hoped that in time an itinerant ministry can be established in Alaska to serve our widely scattered brethren of the faith. Participants of the First Hungarian worship service ever held in Alaska.
