Calvin Synod Herald, 1980 (80. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1980-11-01 / 11-12. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD RT. REV. BISHOP ARPAD L. BERETZ 1914-1980 Pastor of the Faith United Church of Christ, Hammond, Indiana, was duly nominated and elected first Bishop of Calvin Synod Conference of the United Church of Christ, Buffalo, New York on April 28,1971. He was a native of Bridgeport, Conn., a graduate of the Reformed Seminary of Sárospatak, Hungary, and did graduate work at the Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Conn. After a brief ministry in Cleveland, Ohio, he served in Wallingford from 1948-1961 from where he was called to the Faith United Church of Christ. He served in various denominational and synodical appointments: Secretary and Vice President of Synod, Secretary and President of Eastern Classis, Chairman of the National Missions Christian Education, Youth, Liturgical and Press Committees of Synod. A pioneer in the Ecumenical Movements he was named Secretary of the Ecumenical Council of the Reformed Church in Hungary, Chairman of the Church World Service Committee of the Connecticut Council of Churches. He was named by the Church World Council to assist Hungarian refugees in Austria; Appointed Dean of Vienna by the Reformed Church of Austria. Elected Vice President and Director of the Northwest Indiana Council of Churches; he attended the Second and Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches. He was a delegate to the Four-Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of the Reformed Church in Hungary and to the National Council of Churches Assembly in Miami, Florida. Also, delegate lo the Ninth and Tenth General Synod of the United Church of Christ. Locally, he gave leadership in the relocating of our congregation from East Chicago to Hammond and dedicating the new sanctuary and educational wing and the new parsonage which was dedicated May 27, 1979, and also in the uniting with the First Evangelical Reformed Church in Hammond, Indiana. He was married to the former Helen E. Kosa of Kalamazoo, a teacher in Highland. He had two daughters, the Rev. Margaret Beretz, married to the Rev. Donald D. Kelley, co-pastors of St. John’s United Church in Chesterton, Ind., Juliana Beretz, married to Thomas J. Hathaway of Granbury, New Jersey. His first grandchild, Susanna Clare Hathaway, was born on September 27, 1980. His mother is Anna Berecz of Stanford, Conn., and brother Louis (Ida) Berecz is of Trumbull, Conn. (Continued from page 6) Mr. Sándor Hody sang several Hungarian Songs accompanied by Mrs. Margaret Kmiec on the piano. The Rev. Albert Kovács, son of the congregation, offered the Closing Prayer. CHURCH WORKERS CONFERENCE A Church Workers Conference was held at Fairport Harbor, Ohio on Saturday and Sunday, September 27-28, 1980. Churches being represented Saturday Sunday Akron 3 10 Allen Park 16 16 Buffalo __ 9 Cleveland East Side 7 20 Cleveland Presbyterian — 4 Cleveland West Side 5 5 Elyria 1 11 Fairport Harbor 8 9 Lorain __ 4 Niles __ 4 Toledo 2 2 TOTAL 11 Congregations 42 95 There were nine ministers present: Tibor Dömötör, Aaron Elek, Frank Juh asz-Shepherd, Paul Kantor, Csaba Orosz, Tibor Petróczy, Dr. Joseph Piri, Dr. Stephen Szabó, Dr. Zoltán Szűcs. The two speakers were: Miss Ethel Molnár of Toledo, Ohio and Mr. Edmund Vigh of Allen Park. Michigan. Saturday we had Sunday School teachers training with workshops and Sunday we had leadership training with workshops. The next meeting will be held at the Cleveland Hungarian Presbyterian Church on the last weekend of September, 1981. The next Youth Conference will be held on the first Sunday of May, 1981 at the Cleveland East Side Church. It is the recommendation of the 1980 Church Workers Conference that since people are trained to learn a profession, it should be also our responsibility to train our church leaders in youth work, Sunday School, Consistory, ladies’ and men’s organizations, etc. Our denominational leaders should make every effort to have regular yearly leadership training programs. As we express our thanks to all the participants we would like to encourage those too, who did not come. Our churches can grow with good leadership and decline with inept leadership. We have seen congregations falling apart because of those who were at the top. And we might even see a whole denomination on the decline under weak and inefficient leadership. In this turbulent age and changing time we need the help of all ministers and officers to train better leaders for our Hungarian churches. Please do your best and help our leadership training programs in the future. Paul Kantor 1
