Calvin Synod Herald, 1976 (76. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-03-01 / 3-4. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 7 SPOTLIGHT: HUNGER HURTS! HELP HEAL THROUGH ONE GREAT HOUR March 28, the Fourth Sunday in Lent, is the day when most congregations of the United Church of Christ concentrate their annual giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing allchurch offering. The OGHS appeal focuses attention on the emergency and long-term needs of people overseas. Flood and drought both hurt, but you can help to heal through One Great Hour of Sharing. Ever since the river Tel in the State of Orissa, India, flooded and deposited sand in lowlying fields for a stretch of more than twenty-five miles along its bank, the families who lived there and worked the fields have had to find work elsewhere. They were made virtually landless. Even though they still own the land, the^ cannot possibly use it now. This is one place in the world where hunger really hurts. However, the Rural Life Program of the Church of North India proposed a way whereby the sand could be removed from the fields in a foodfor-work program. Through this program, over 385 acres of land have been cleared and 408 farmers from 17 villages have benefited. The cultivation of their fields has been restored. In order to make sure that the floods will not happen again, two checkdams have been built and six irrigation and drain'age channels have been constructed. For the price of what one ordinary American family pays for its food in one month (approximately $150), you have helped to heal by providing each Indian family in this area with the resources for raising its own food for many years to come. This is but one example of the many ways you help to heal the hurts of people in over forty countries around the world through One Great Hour of Sharing. Hunger hurts! Help heal — give generously! REPRESENTATIVES of Reformed churches in ten European countries and the USA attended a week of celebrations (February 9-14) organized by the Reformed. Church of Hungary to mark the 300th anniversary of the liberation of 26 Hungarian Protestant pastors from galley slavery. The commemoration, which centered on the Doctoral College of the Debrecen Theological Academy, consisted of a full program of lectures and discussions in the areas of theology, church history and ecumenism. Preacher at a service of thanksgiving in the Great Church in Debrecen on February 11 was Dr. Tibor Bartha, presiding bishop of the Reformed Church of Hungary; a commemorative address at the service was given by Prof. László Makkai, professor of church history at Debrecen. An exhibition of Hungarian church art and cultural history was specially organized for the occasion. RPS—March 1976 AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION The American Hungarian Foundation has received a grant of $15,000 from ‘the Rockefeller Foundation to aid in microfilming, cataloging and developing what historians describe as the foremost collection of materials on Hungarian immigration and Hungarians in the United States. Formal announcement of the grant took place on Wednesday (January 21) at 4 p.m. at a combination reception, exhibit and press conference at the Four Seasons, 99 East 52nd St., New York City, with many prominent members of the Hungarian community throughout the country in attendance. The materials in the collection have been gathered in more than 50 years of effort by Edmund Vasvary and consist of 400 notebooks, 20,000 file cards and countless items of unique historical value. They will then become part of the American Hungarian Foundation’s project of furthering the understanding and appreciation of the Hungarian cultural and historical heritage in the United States. The Foundation maintains a library, museum and archival collection to facilitate this effort. It also supports fellowships, publications, research and academic programs at colleges and universities. Its effort to make the Vasvary materials available is a move toward the establishment in New Brunswick of a Hungarian Heritage Center to focus on American Hungarian Life. The Rockefeller grant will support the first phase of a major Bicentennial project to research, write and publish the history and contributions of the Hungarian pioneer immigrants, their children and descendants in all walks of life in America since 1776. This seven year project is expected to cost about $200,000. August J. Molnár, president of the American Hungarian Foundation, explained the particular significance of the project and its relationship to America’s Bicentennial Year. “We plan to write a definitive history of the Hungarian immigrants and their descendants in this country, but that will take much more time than we have this year. We do plan to complete some popular histories and a documentary history during this Bicentennial Year, however,” he said. “The Foundation will soon appoint an editorial advisory commission to search for one or more outstanding historians to conduct research and do the writing of the definitive history as well as other publications,” he added. Edmund Vasvary of Washington, D.C., the “Grand Old Man” of Hungarian immigration history in the U.S., came to this country in 1914 from Hungary to accept a pastorate in Buffalo, N.Y. Overall, he served a total of 31 years with congregations that included Pittsburgh, Springdale, Pa., Cleveland, and Coatesville, Pa. For 21 years he served as comptroller of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, a fraternal organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. In more than half a century of effort, he not only accumulated his historical collection, but also published more than 850 articles mainly about Hungarians in America. His major work is the book. Lincoln's Hungarian Heroes. At 88, he is currently working on a book about Colonel Commandant Michael Kovats, the first Hungarian to give his life for this country when he was killed in action at Charleston, S.C. in 1779. Dr. Peter Goldmark, former president of CBS Laboratories and formerly president of the Foundation, credited Dr. David Denker of Somerset, N.J., a former university officer and faculty member at Rutgers, with being the moving spirit and source of enthusiasm and inspiration behind the project to catalog and microfilm the Vasvary Collection. “Without his involvement, it would have taken much longer for us to have reached this stage in our effort,” Dr. Goldmark remarked. August J. Molnár
