Bethlen Almanac 1999 (Ligonier)

Kálvin Egyházkerület - Calvin Synod - Keleti Egyházmegye - Eastern Classis

BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

Grace Hungarian United Church of Christ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Pastor: Rev. Dr. Sándor Mészáros Chief Elder: Bertha Barna

The path of Grace Hungarian U.C.C. has been long and tiring with many obstacles to overcome, but we are here more than one hundred years later.

After the Hungarian Freedom Fight of 1848-49, many thousands of Hungarians had to flee their homeland and were scattered all over the world. Some came to America with the Magyar patriot, Louis Kossuth, in the 1850’s. By the end of the 1880’s there were many Hungarians living in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. They were bound together by a mutual fate - the struggle for subsistence and the lack of knowledge of the English language. They were not unmindful of the Lord’s House; they missed saying their prayers and singing the Psalms in their mother tongue which led to our beginning.

Scholars of Church History agree that the Hungarian Protestants in America worshipped in Bethlehem in 1890. One source states that our church was known as the “Church of All Nations.” The ministers preached in several languages representing various southeastern European ethnic groups—Hungarian, Slovak, and Windish. Evidence in our church records show reference to its being established on November 18,1906 and its name being The First Hungarian Evangelical Reformed Church of Bethlehem, PA. The cornerstone of our church was laid on 520 East Fourth Street. The following year a bell was secured and the house next to the church was built to be the Rectory. Through the years a Pastor’s office, Sunday School rooms and a pipe organ was added and a modem kitchen built. The growing congregation struggled through the difficult years of the Great Depression. Many times the treasury did not have enough funds to pay the pastor’s salary. He suffered the lean years with his people. The Ladies’ Society, Choir, Youth Fellowship and, of course, Sunday School and Bible Study groups were organized.

Our church never withdrew from any civic movement which benefited the Hungarian people or the community. They were the standard bearers of the American-Hungarian cause. From our church emerged all the other Hungarian churches in Bethlehem and many other ethnic organizations in the Lehigh Valley.

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