Calvin Synod Herald, 1991 (91. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1991-07-01 / 4. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 3 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Council Members

Rt. Rev. Zoltán D. Szűcs

Bishop

Rev. Raymond Kaiser

Auxiliary Bishop

Rev. Albert Kovács

General Secretary

Rev. Louis Medgyesi

Synod Treasurer

Mrs. Julie Reitz

Synod Presbyter

Calvin Synod: Its Life and Relationship

By: Rev. Albert W. Kovács

The question arose at the 1991 Annual Meeting of Calvin Synod, a Conference of the United Church of Christ, as to the possibilities of other congregations becoming constituent members of the synod, most by transfer from geographical conferences. Citing dissatisfaction with the present biblical and social stances of their conferences, and acknowledging their affinity with those espoused by Calvin Synod, a number of churches which have even seriously considered leaving the United Church of Christ are now viewing this new option as the means to remaining with this faith communion.

Whether Calvin Synod can afford them this opportunity needs to be considered in the light of the history of the denomination’s constituent bodies at its organization, the previous mergers resulting in earlier unions, and the Constitution and Bylaws of the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Reformed Church in the United States. How this could be achieved also needs to be answered, keeping in mind the continuing special circumstances and needs of the Hungarian Reformed Churches and also the integrity and needs of the non-Hungarian churches. (In this latter regard it should be noted that the 1991 delegates re-elected a Hungarian speaking Bishop to head of Conference, but the new Auxiliary Bishop does not speak Hungarian and is, in fact, of German ancestry. Also, two other members of the Conference Council do not speak Hungarian. Yet all acknowledge the unique needs of these congregations during the years of transition, as a spiritual necessity.)

I. History

When Hungarian immigrants settled in the United States, establishing their first Reformed congregations in 1891, they received respectful assistance from their Calvinist kindred in the Reformed Church in the United States (German Reformed), the Presbyterian Church (British), and Reformed Church in America (Dutch), as well as the “Mother Church” in Hungary. As mission-aided churches, many congregations aligned themselves with these American denominations, eventually becoming full members.

“That having in mind the greatest good and highest spiritual benefit for the members of the congregations involved, and to avoid any future legal or ecclesiastical complications, it is determined to receive these congregations whether self-supporting or missions, now composing the Eastern and Western Classes of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, into organic relationship with the Eastern and Pittsburgh Synods of the Reformed Church in the United States, as Classes;...”

“That the Conventus of the Reformed Church of Hungary, through its representatives, dismiss the congregations and ministers belonging to the said Eastern Classis of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America to the Eastern Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, and the Western Classis to the Pittsburgh Synod of the Reformed Church.”

With the Tiffin Agreement, signed, on October 7, 1921, the majority of the Hungarian Reformed congregations united with the Reformed Church in the United States. In this momentous event, it must

be noted that individual congregations were not merely swallowed up by a larger indigenous body, but received as Classes in organic union with each other, with previous legal and ecclesiastical ties to the continental Reformed Church, receiving their ministers by the authority of the Hungarian synods.

It cannot be stated too strongly that this document, signed by the representatives of the Conventus, only consented to the release of the churches and ministers according to several stipulations binding upon the American synods and Reformed Church. It may also be properly assumed that these remain binding upon their successors, guaranteeing certain rights in continuity and perpetuity to the American-Hungarian Reformed Christians.

The original agreement provided that there be a separate Magyar classis in each of two Synods. However, as the denomination merged in 1934 with the Evangelical Synod of North America, creating the new Evangelical and Reformed Church, it was agreed then to unite all the Hungarian classes into one ethnic synod, with the others being realigned geographically, in consistency with the Tiffin Agreement’s principles.

This was still the situation in 1957, at the merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church with the Congregational Christian Churches, giving birth to the United Church of Christ. However, there appears to have been a lapse, and the important provision was omitted from the new Constitution of the United Church of Christ. The Evangelical and Reformed Church provided in its Constitution the section on “Special Synods”, to wit:

“82 Hungarian congregations may constitute a Hungarian Synod.”

This synod, known then as the Magyar Synod, was a fully established Synod of