Calvin Synod Herald, 1985 (85. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1985-08-01 / 4. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 6 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Synod votes church offering changes After considerable floor debate, delegates voted major changes in giving patterns through All Church Offerings and Special Appeals. In no year will there be more than four All Church Offerings and two Special Appeals, although the specific offerings will change over the next two years. One Great Hour of Sharing and Neighbors in Need will continue as All Church offerings. Just Peace will be funded with an All Church Offering to be received on Pentecost Sunday in 1986 and 1987. Beyond 1987 funding for Just Peace efforts will depended on the results of an Executive Council study. Beginning in 1986 the Veterans of the Cross Christmas Fund Offering will change from a Special Appeal to an All Church Offering. Funds received from this offering are administered by the Pension Board which has full responsibility and authority for their promotion and use. And beginning in 1988 the Family Thank Offering will become an All Church Offering, to be taken either in the spring after Easter or at the time usually selected by the local church. Proceeds from this offering will go for strengthening leadership and churches through the Board for Homeland Ministries, the Office for Church Life and Leadership, and others. However, before final action is taken on this change, Synod requested additional study by the Executive Council and the Stewardship Council in consultation with other bodies. 1 he Neighbors in Need offering will be taken each fall to provide special support for ministries in the U.S.A. to persons in need. The major change in this offering is that proceeds would be allocated by percentages (yet to be determined) to the various instrumentalities which develop projects in line with the offering’s purposes. No changes were made in the One Great Hour of Sharing offering typically received on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Synod voted A decision of historic significance was taken in Budapest by the synodical delegates, representatives of the congregations, at the 5th session of the Vlllth Budapest Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary, when, after intensive studies for many years, the highest legislative body of the church, with Bishop Dr. Tibor Bartha and General Curator Dr. Kálmán Ujszászy in the chair adopted a revised Order of Worship in the following resolution: “The synod accepts and approves generally and in its details the draft-prepared by appointed study commissions and subsequently by the Collegium Doctorum — of the Order of Worship of the Church Reformed according to the Gospel. The synod states that, in the preparatory work over two decades, the majority of our pastors and many of our consistories and church members participated. In the whole history of our church no new order of worship has ever been preceded by a wider ranging and better organized collective effort. to continue the Hunger Action Fund as a special appeal, but asked that the work, funding and placement of the program be reviewed and a report made to General Synod 16. One of the primary differences between an All Church Offering and a Special Appeal is how they are promoted. Churches automatically receive enough materials for all members for All Church Offerings but only sample materials in KeyPak for Special Appeal they must request additional materials from the Stewardship Council. (United Church News) At the same time, prayers asking for spiritual renewal attended from the beginning this project. We believe that, in this way, the-re-thinking of the cause of our Evangelical worship has also been an instrument of the New Reformation which is the work of the Holy Spirit. The synod authorizes its presidium to take action, after consulting the Liturgical Commission and having given due attention to the comments of the synodical members and after effecting stylistic modifications not touching or substance, for the printing or the Order of Worship now before the synod. The synod decrees that, pending on the completion of the work of the printing press, the new Order of Worship shall be introduced on the 1st of January, 1986. Its use will be obligatory.” CHURCH NEWS BUDAPEST — Hungarian Baptists had an extraordinarily high attendance at their annual conference when 290 out of 300 possible delegates and 100 guests gathered in Budapest. In his first report as president of the Union the Rev. Janos Viczian emphasized the call to evangelism and brought the good news of 330 baptism in 1984, the highest number of baptisms during the last ten years. One church, with a previous membership of 40, baptized 40 persons. The union counts 200 churches and 220 missions which are served by 95 pastors. During the past 20 years 47 new church buildings have been dedicated. Of the eight others now under construction, three are to be dedicated in 1985, including one in Debrecen. The conference honored the memory of Dr. József Nagy who died in February 1985, and of five retired pastors who died since the last conference. The Rev. László Revesz resigned as vice-president for health reasons. He continues as pastor of the Pestlőrinc Baptist Church. His successor will be nominated later by the executive committee. The conference pledged to collect 12 million Forints ($240.000) during the three year period 1985-1987 for a new seminary building. Since the total membership of the union is 12,000 this means 1000 forints per member on average. This is in addition to an amount of 900,000 forints collected before Christmas last year. This semester the seminary has 25 students,, which is the highest in Eastern Europe. (E.B.P.S. — A Kurt) I ERNEST KÁPLÁR DIED | Mr. Ernest Kaplar was born on Dec. 23, 1921 in Duquesne, Pa. A year later, the family moved to Gary, Indiana and there he attended Emerson High School graduating in 1940. He went on to obtain his B.A. Degree in Organ and Choral conducting at the Cosmopolitan Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois and also at Indiana University. He started playing the organ at the age of 13 in the Gary, Indiana Evangelical and Reformed Church under the Reverend Arpad Bakay, on an old pump organ. The church later purchased a pipe organ. Mr. Kaplar also worked with the late Rev. B. Szathmary, Rev. B. Bacsó and Rev. L. Molnár at the Gary church. He was the organist there until 1947, at which time, he took a position at the First Presbyterian Church in Gary, Indiana and in September of the same year, he went to the Detroit, Michigan, Hungarian Reformed Church where he has served for the past 38 years to the present as its organist, choirmaster, office manager, business manager and Director of Religious Education. Mr. Kaplar died Augst 20th, while vacationing in Sarasota, FL. He was past president of Dellwood Kiwanis Club and a past liutenant governor of Kiwanis’ Michigan branch. Surviving are his wife, Helen; two daughters, Debbie Indre and Rebecca; his mother, Esther Kaplar; two grandchildren; a brother and a sister. Bishop Dezső Abraham of Allen Park, MI was officiating at the funeral service of Ernest S. Kaplar. New order of Worship in the Reformed Church
