Calvin Synod Herald, 1978 (78. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1978-11-01 / 11-12. szám
6 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD local loyalty with the service of greater communities (city, state, synod, national agencies) and I am happy to see that the name of Rev. Mrs. Maria Babos has been submitted by Bishop Beretz as a nominee for the Antoinette Brown Award... I wish to say many more things about their ministry among us, but I feel that these events are too close to us to evaluate them or to draw general conclusions from them. Let me say then only this much: We all consider to have the Babos’ among us for 28 years as a great privilege, honor and challenge. I know that all that they confessed in Erdély and in Manchuria was put to a fiery test here in America, not to destroy them, but to refine and purify them as the silver and gold are purged (Mai. 3:3). America is a great purgatory for many of us. But Jesus Christ is the same! Let him who has an ear, hear it!... When on February 11, 1973, a few friends surprised Sándor on his 70th Anniversary and they wanted to sing a song, he suggested one! “As the rooster cries, says that day is nigh! If the Lord for me ordained you, some day you’ll be mine. Wait bird of mine! Someday you’ll be mine! In the forest in the meadow walks a bird sublime. What is she and why is she walking by? She’s a bird of green and blue, she is waiting there for you! Wait bird divine! Some day you’ll be mine. If the Lord for you ordained me, someday I’ll be thine! Wait bird of mine! Someday you’ll be mine!” Yes, Sándor and Máriskó, there are birds we cannot capture (even if you captured each other). There are unfinished tasks in life. We are on the road ... So we wish both of you an active retirement to complete many tasks, but also to wait with eager yearning when the bird sublime — by the grace of God — will be really yours forever... And to us may the Lord grant ears to hear. * AULD LANG SYNE Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never bro’t to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And days of auld lang syne? For auld lang stjne, my dear, For auld lang syne? We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet For auld lang syne. And here’s a hand, my trusty friend, Anc give a Hand of thine, We’ll take a cup of kindness yet, For -aid lang syne. ROMANIAN DISSIDENT STANDS UP TO PRESSURE By Paul Lendvai in Vienna A former member of the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party, Mr. Karoly Király, has defied strong official pressure to silence his protests over discrimination against ethnic minorities. Accordng to information from reliable sources reaching Vienna, the 47-year-old leader of a campaign for minority rights was recently sacked from his last minor job as manager of a furniture plant in the small town of Caransebes and summoned to Bucharest where he was accused of being a traitor to Socialist Romania. Despite threats, Mr. Király, of Hungarian origin, refused to denounce his own appeals, which earlier this year were widely published in the Western Press. The same sources report that friends of Mr. Király are concerned about his safety following the recent ominous incidents. First, Mr. Király had a near collision with a heavy lorry which was heading straight for his car. Second, a few days later the windshield of his car was shattered after he had heard a shot. After two weeks of investigation, however, the police told him that it must have been a stone from the road that caused the damage. Mr.Kiraly is the highest-ranking party official ever to oppose publicly President Ceausescu’s policies. Until 1972 he was an alternate member of the Political Executive Committee and until 1974 a member of the Central Committee to the top leadership. In 1970 he accompanied President Ceausescu to Moscow for the Lenin centenary celebrations. As vice-president of the Hungarian Nationality Council, Mr. Király protested both at closed meetings and later in three appeals sent to top officials against the alleged suppression of Hungarian language and culture and the appointment of Romanians to all key posts even in towns with a Hungarian majority. Several Central Committee members of Hungarian origin, including Professor Lajos Takacs and the celebrated writer, Mr. András Sutoe, sent similar memoranda to the Communist authorities on behalf of the 1.7 m strong Hungarian community. Mr. Király is now said to live again in his native town of Tirgu Mures in Transylvania with his wife and 13-monthold baby. He has no job and lives in his parents’ house, which is kept under a 24-hour watch. President Ceausescu reaffirmed in several recent speeches the full equality of the Hungarian and German minorities and only passingly referred to traitors willing to sell their country “for a plate of goulyas.” Mr. Kiraly’s protests and the Romanian crackdown on Hungarian dissent has provoked some tensions between the two countries. An article by the prominent Hungarian writer, Mr. Gyula Illyés, publicly expressed concern about the treatment of ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring countries. In turn, Mr. Illyés was attacked this summer by a leading Romanian cultural functionary, Mr. Mihnea Gheorghiu, as a Fascist reactionary seeking to turn back the wheels of history.
