Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1984-02-01 / 1. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

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REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Our readers might know that the Reformed Church in Hungary has two academies to train pastors: one in the Reformed College in Debrecen and the other in the Ráday College of Budapest. Both colleges — in the spirit of the historical traditions of Hungarian Calvinism — give shelter to other institutions as well: libraries, archives, museums, etc. It was but a few years ago that the renovation of the Debrecen College compound was completed, and the wonderfully restored complex of buildings has since earned recognition not only for the Reformed Church but for the country also. The Ráday College however, though discharging the same functions, continued to exist until shortly under very unsatisfactory conditions. For this reason, in the succession of renovation projects of the past quartercentury in the Reformed Church, a proposal was adopted that, after the renovation of the Reformed College in Debrecen, the construction of the Albert Schweitzer Home for Old People, the sequel be the reconstruction of the Ráday College with the addition of a new wing. Work on the latter project began in 1978.

Now that the new wing is completed half of the work is done. As the school-year in the Theological Academy began, the future pastors of the church found their accomodation

MIHÁLY BABITS:

JONAH S PRAYER

To me already words are faithless things or I’ve become a flooding creek which brings its shoreless aimlessness, wavering, vain, bearing old idle words, so many, tom and carried onward in the same way as a rambling flood bears hedgerows, signposts, dykes. 0 how I wish my Master had supplied my creek's flow with a bed, so it could glide with safety to the sea, and that my poems could all be tipped with His prefashioned rhymes, and, as it’s on my shelf and clear to see,

His Holy Bible were my prosody,

so that I could, like Jonah, indolent

and skulking servant, on my dark descent

into the fish, into the living, deaf

darkness of flushing pain find for myself,

over not just three days but three whole months,

three years or centuries before a mouth

of a yet blinder and eternal whale

swallows me so I vanish for good and all,

find the old voice, my words correct In lines

of battle order, speak His bravest tones

as prompted, and as well as my sick throat

allows, and never tiring till the night,

or as long as heaven and Nineveh comply

to let me go on speaking, not to die.

(Translated by Alan Dixon)

The Ráday College

which meets all requirements in the new wing where the Ráday Library and Archives are also housed together with a number of professors’ flats.

Bishop Toth thanked those in the difficult and responsible work of architectural planning and construction who, by their dedicated work, helped to complete the project according to plans. He also thanked the representatives of church corporations, institutions, seniorates and all those whose substantial donations have been of great help both in the work of construction and in the equipment and furnishing of the rooms.

“The Ráday College will fulfill a threefold function in the life of our

church today” — said Bishop Toth. “It will train pastors for the congregations, it will maintain a most valuable library and archives which witness to the legacy of our past, while the ecumenical relations of our College remind us continually of our inseparable and close ties by which we are connected with world Christianity and the church universal of Jesus Christ. We believe that God will bless this place and will make our College a source of blessing for others also.

The West Side Hungarian Reformed Church of Cleveland, Ohio, where Rev. Aaron Elek is the pastor, has contributed $1000 toward renovation of the Ráday College. The Hungarian Ministerial Association, which usually meets in Ligonier, PA also donated $200 to this worthwhile project.

Open letter to the United Church of Christ on the suspension of the nestle boycott

by Avery D. Post President United Church of Christ and David M. Stowe, Executive Vice President United Church Board for World Ministries

We know you share our joy and sense of achievement with the announcement that the Nestle boycott has come to a successful conclusion. The United Church of Christ has played a leading role in this accomplishment.

In October 1983, the United Church Board for World Ministries’ board of directors, reflecting deliberations by the corporate members, recommended to the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ that the boycott be canceled pending ecumenical agreement. In November, the Executive Council voted such authorization. An agreement was reached between the International Nestle Boycott Committee and Nestle, SA on January 25, 1984.

The United Church of Christ faithfully participated in the Nestle boycott for six years, the initial concerns having been raised several years before that. You who were so consistent and dedicated in affirming this action are indeed exemplary of the work of our church in the world.

Your contribution and the role of the United Church leadership in the boycott has been instrumental not only in establishing an international

infant formula code (World Health Organization) through negotiations with UNICEF, but in entering into “faithful dialogue” with a major multinational corporation towards its abiding by and carefully implementing that code. The Nestle boycott effort has been one of the most influential consciousness-raising campaigns for churches and corporations. In light of this historic moment in the life of the church, it is important to maintain our work in three areas. We must: 1. monitor Nestle to verify its full compliance with the WHO code; 2. seek the implementation of this code in developed countries, and 3. link the practices of other multinational corporations to this agreement.

Jesus once said, “Let the little ones come to me; do not try to stop them for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Luke 18:15 — 17) Now is a time for us to rejoice and celebrate this very successful action, which begins to safeguard the children of the Third World from hazards related to the inappropriate marketing of infant formula. You should, therefore, in all good conscience consider Nestle products in your consumer decisions.

January 27, 1984.