Calvin Synod Herald, 1992 (92. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1992-03-01 / 2. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 7 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Split Forming Within United Church of Christ The Washington Post By Gustav Spohn February 22,1992 Religious News Service would appear so we would have a chance to put our fihgers into the marks of the nails, then we as Thomas could confess Him Lord and be certain of the resurrection. Yet according to Christ those are blessed “Who have not seen and yet believe”. John himself assures us that Christ did many other things that were not written in the Bible, yet for us it is quite efficient, for “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.” God formed the future in the creation. God renewed and reshaped the future in the resurrection. He always plans ahead. He planned your future and mine, when Christ came to earth. He planned your future and mine when he paid the price of your sins and mine, atoning for us on the Cross. He planned your future and mine when he prepared a place for you and me in our eternal home, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Christ. He planned ahead when he inspired John the Disciple, more than nineteenhundred years ago, to write down His gospel and especially this twentieth chapter, that you and I may believe and through our faith make reservations in our eternal home. All what we need to be counted among the Blessed is just to believe! This is what I, as your pastor’s pastor, wish for all of you this Easter of 1992, that we may all believe and God be merciful with us in our disbeliefs. One with you in Christ and one from amongst you in that fear and expectation-filled room, Zoltán D. Szucs Bishop Conservatives in one of the nation’s most liberal Protestant denominations, the United Church of Christ, are forging ahead with plans to create a conservative enclave despite strong objections from church leaders. A group of conservative congregations in the denomination, known as the Calvin Synod, will vote in May on whether to admit more congregations, effectively creating a “church within a church.” The standoff in the United Church of Christ turned bitter in the fall when conservative dissidents labeled the denomination’s officials “apostates.” The dissidents have twice refused to recant. The denomination’s president, the Rev. Dr. Paul Sherry, will address the Synod in May, asking its leaders to refuse to admit congregations that are not part of their traditional structure. The Calvin Synod is a nongeographic grouping of congregations with historic ties to the Hungarian Reformed Church. Members are primarily people of Hungarian descent. In the Dayton statement, Rev. Richard Germaine of Hopkington, Mass, and 148 other conservatives accused church leaders of setting themselves agianst biblical mandates “in word, deed, direction and intent,” particularly by endorsing positions such as the ordination of homosexuals, the right of women to choose abortion and the use of gender-neutral language in church liturgy-In October, the church’s 44-member Executive Council asked the Calvin Synod not to take any steps that would permit affiliation of conservative congregations of non- Hungarian origin. The Calvin Synod currently is divided into four geographic regions that span the country. The proposal that will be considered in May calls for creation of a fifth grouping open to congregations that are non- Hungarian but that profess commitment to a “biblical and confessional faith.” The Calvin Synod was established in 1921 to provide a Hungarianlanguage home for congregations in the German Reformed Church. It kept its identity through a 1934 merger, which created the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and through a 1957 merger that created the United Church of Christ. Editor’s Note: In the United Church of Christ the Synod (Conference Association) is by Constitution a “church within the church” — actually — in final analysis every individual congregation of it is indeed a “church within the church. ” «^| Memorial Concert in Cleveland There will be a great Concert to memorialize the late John Kiss, world-renowned composer of our age. Time: May 3, Sunday, 4 p.m. Place: West Side Hungarian Lutheran Church (W. 98th and Denison). The famous compositions will be presented by students of the great composer by vocal groups accompanied by a variety of musical instruments.
