Bethlen Almanac 2000 (Ligonier)
Keleti Egyházmegye - Eastern Classis
completed and approved at our June 2000 annual meeting. Mostly there was nothing difficult about writing the bylaws and getting congregational members to ratify them. We simply articulated longstanding practices in the program and mission of our congregation. Our membership had ample opportunity during the spring to read and study the proposed bylaws, ask questions and even offer changes concerning how we live our lives as the body of Christ at the Manville Reformed Church. The result is a set of bylaws that can be used as an evangelism tool and in new members and confirmation classes to introduce who we are. After the bylaws were accepted unanimously, a proposed amendment to the bylaws was discussed and voted upon. This amendment involved communion and our children’s role in communion. Should children be invited to participate in communion before confirmation? It is the practice in the Hungarian Reformed Church to require our children to confirm their baptismal vows before receiving communion for the first time. The amendment questioned the meaning of the Lord’s Supper maintaining that our admission to the Table is less dependent on our knowledge and merits and more dependent on God’s grace. Proponents of the amendment cited examples from Scripture and the Heidelberg Catechism that show that all of God’s family should partake of the sacrament, including pre-confirmation children. Younger children are clearly able to express their faith and trust in Jesus and thus should be nurtured through Jesus’ body and blood in communion even though they may not be able to quote questions and answers from the Catechism or engage in an adult theological discussion about the Eucharist. In the end, the amendment failed. Since the amendment’s acceptance would have meant a departure from Hungarian Reformed Church practice and the norm in Calvin Synod, we can now conclude that it was probably good for the Manville Reformed Church and Calvin Synod that such an amendment failed at this time. This is an important enough issue that we should call all of Calvin Synod and the Hungarian Reformed Church faithful to study the Lord’s Supper and our children’s role in it. Let us be prayerful as we study! Although our Living Stories program and our Ladies Aid dinners were hampered and slowed as a result of the flood, life at the Manville Reformed Church has continued. The newest ministry is called Shepherd’s Heart, a way of living the Christian life based on the Early Church practice of Christians sharing their resources so that “there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). A house has been rented for 11 people (some related by blood and marriage, others not) to 39
