Bethlen Évkönyv, 1993-1996 (Ligonier)

Zoltán D. Szücs: Our churches and our federation

Joseph in the Bible, who was sold to a foreign land and became second in rank, many of us also achieved prominence here. He, as many of us, had everything. Yet something was missing from his life. He needed to talk with, he needed to hug his brothers. We also need our brothers, we have to walk together, “Come, let us dedicate ourselves to the noblest goal, to the work of the love of God and to the love of man.” (“Come Closer to Me”, Dr. Ferenc Újlaki, President, Bethlen Naptár, 1945, Pp. 99-100.)

This mutual support, this common bond, in the lives and goals of our Reformed churches and Federation is very clearly mirrored not only through the joint leadership of clergy and laity, but even more through the statistical figures of numerical facts. The Hungarian Reformed church life in America enhanced spiritual growth and unity among our brethren, yet the practical, pragmatic and everyday-expression of this faith was expressed, by our church members, through the works of our beloved Federation. Not only the creation of an orphanage and a home for the elderly, but far surpassing these, they jointly supported every noble Hungarian cause. The convention at Cleveland in 1948 unanimously approved twenty-five cents per member, to ease the misery in Hungary. They also mandated a new wing for the Hungarian Reformed Orphanage. (Dr. Zoltán Beky, op.cit. Page 45.) Between 1922-1955 the Federation granted loans to 43 Hungarian Reformed, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches in the amount of $1,206,292.62. (“The Assets of Our Celebrating Federation”, Emery Király, Treasurer, Bethlen Naptár, 1956, Page 154.) Many of the thankyou notes from the churches to the Federation clearly state the enabling character of these loans, without which the churches could not have been built. This practice is very common even today, as it was a way of life through the entire hundredyear’s history of our Federation. This became one of the strongest bond, that tied these two giants one to the other. Not only in loans to churches, but the Federation, by and large, supporting the various expression of Reformed church life in America, like for example, the subsidies, year after year, granted by the Federation, to the Summer Youth Camp of the Reformed churches.

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