Calvin Synod Herald, 1991 (91. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1991-11-01 / 6. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 5 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Our Ministers Meet in Ligonier Executive Council, concerned in part about difficulties that could result if congregations left their geographical conferences and joined a non-geographical one, urged the Calvin Synod to reconsider its action. It went on to call for further consultation on the matter between Calvin officials and Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, president of the General Synod. The council also thanked Calvin Synod and its bishop “for their concern for the unity of the United Church of Christ and for their commitment to a church in which diverse understandings of God’s Word for us are received and honored.” The Calvin Synod’s bishop, the Rt. Rev. Zoltán Szucs, pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church (UCC) in Lorain, OH, stressed that the Calvin Synod had acted in response to churches that came seeking a new home within the denomination. “We don’t want those churches to leave our fellowship,” Szucs said. “We are pleased that the Executive Council recognized that we did not invite the churches to join us. We responded to an apparent need.” Congregations in the United Church have unhindered title to their property and are free to leave the denomination at their own discretion. A shift of from 40 to 120 congregations into the Calvin Synod, as various observers suggest, could be accomplished with minimal effort. However, the Hungarian churches would have to agree before the refugees could be received and they must consider the implications if the denominational leadership is right in its fear that the transfer number may top 200. Efforts to unite the Calvin Synod and the other major Hungarian denomination, the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, have bogged down in recent years. Even a plan to merge the publications of the two bodies has failed to materialize. Well placed observers suggest that a threeway merger of the two Hungarian groups with a comparable number of largely German Reformed congregations could produce a new major player in the American Reformed world but that it would almost certainly result in a United Church of Christ rupture. Editor’s note: Quoted from the “Ch. Observer’s last Issue; the Magazine that across two centuries has been publishing what Calvin’s friends are doing today. They are the source for the who, what, why, where and when of the Church today. The annual meeting of the American Hungarian Reformed Ministerial Association was held in Ligonier, Pennsylvania on September 2 and 3, 1991. Our Bethlen Home chapel was filled for the opening worship service of the ministerial meeting at 11 a.m. on Labor Day, which was also the closing worship service for the American-Hungarian Reformed Presbyters’ Association meeting. The enthusiastic singing of the theme song of the recent World Meeting of Hungarian Reformed Churches opened this worship service. Rev. Sándor Farkas, president of the Ministerial Association preached the sermon on the need for our churches to grow spiritually and in membership as well, entitled, “Do We Want to Get Well?” (See the Gospel of John 5:1-9). Then we partook of the Lord’s Supper. Lunch and supper both days was served for all participants in the excellent covered picnic grove at Bethlen Home, and there were 37 Hungarian Reformed ministers present, as well as the family members of same and also some guests. Some were from as far away as Hungary or Czechoslovakia, others from nearby Canada, but most were from the several denominations in which our Hungarian Reformed congregations function in the U.S. A., such as the Calvin Synod of the U.C.C., the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S. A.) and others. The Ministerial Association meetings took place in the meeting hall of our Bethlen Home where our special guest speaker was Rt. Rev. Dr. Lóránt Hegedűs, the Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Church in Hungary, accompanied by his wife Dr. Suzanna Hegedűs, a practicing medical doctor. Bishop Hegedűs, who was elected to his position recently after democracy has prevailed in Hungary, stated in his presentation that he sees his task to be that everything in the life of the church should be done on the basis of Holy Scripture. To that end a process of renewal must take place in the church, that is, in our personal lives, in the theology of the church and in the government of the church. In our personal lives there must be genuine repentance for all wrongdoing. In theology Jesus Christ must be the foundation. That kind of theology also brings social duties and challenges with it. Renewal in church government must bring within it a democratically run church, which is also keenly aware of the need for close harmony and cooperation within the church, so that the church may present a united front against the willful destruction of moral standards so prevalent in society today. “We wish to be a confessional church, whose members have made a personal decision,” he said. Then he cited instances where after so many years of communist rule in Hungary sometimes grandparents come to request that their grandchildren be baptized. Whereas, he said, this is an honorable request, in such a situation the parents themselves should come to the pastor. In many cases the parents have not been baptized or confirmed because of the communist pressure in the past. They first need to be confirmed, then be baptized if they have not been, and then we can arrange the baptism of their children. That is good theology. A long discussion followed Bishop Hegedűs’ well received presentation. In the Bishop Dr. Lóránt Hegedűs installed the newly elected officers of the American Hungarian Reformed Ministerial Association. They are (left to right), Revs. Csaba Baksa co-president from Canada, Frank Endrei, vice-president, Alexander Forró, president, Anthony Szilágyi, secretary, Joseph Vásárhelyi, treasurer. evening the conference featured a presentation on the situation in Transylvania. The following day among other events Bishop Hegedűs led in the morning devotions and there was a presentation by four of our pastors on the bilingual life prevalent in most of our churches, Rev. Szabolcs Kálmán, Rev. Dr. Csaba Baksa, Rev. Ödön Seress and Rev. Anthony Szilágyi. It was concluded that not all congregations have the same need, and that this question should be decided individually for each congregation. It was also decided that this very serious topic should be addressed again in another Ministerial Association meeting. A choir organized on the spot and led by Mrs. Suzanne (Szabolcs) Kálmán sang beautifully in the afternoon. Rt. Rev. Dr. John Bütösi, president of the World Al-
