Calvin Synod Herald, 1993 (93. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)
1993-05-01 / 3. szám
' AWAKE! HOLD FAST! STRENGTHEN! ' Continued from previous issue Revelations 3:2, 11 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD__________________________- 3 -_____________ To keep our independence, we need everyone's support. Do not hold back when the life of our Church is at stake! The heartbeat of our Synod is our Church Paper, The Calvin Synod Herald, which is the oldest Hungarian Reformed Church paper on both sides of the ocean. The body receives a stroke if blood does not flow to the brain. Our Church Paper must be revitalized and the editor is must be one who is able to grasp these "historical times!" 2. We have an obligation to our Hungarian Reformed brethren here in the United States. If we would only pray more, honor and love and respect each other more, we will meet and become one in spite of denominational differences. On Prince Rákoczi's coin, ministers of three denominations make a fire on the altar; here the three kinds of ministers are one! 3. We have an obligation to our own Denomination and the American Protestant churches. We would like to be enriched with their treasures, but in return, we would like to offer our own valuables of Hungarian Calvinism to enrich their lives. 4. We have an obligation towards our Mother Church in Hungary. We have to share in their sufferings. Let us not forget that only Christ's Kingdom is eternal. The walls of Jericho fell when the Israelites stood around and shouted! Why don’t we shout out to the religious and secular forums of the World? Spring is here, let us give a helping hand to our Mother Church to get up from the grave! 5. We have an obligation towards the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia, Russia, Romania, Yugoslavia in diaspora. We should cry out for their human rights and not allow them to be annihilated. The synod is the oldest daughter of the Church. Let us help whenever we can and whenever we are able. Let us give of the superfluous of our riches, let us make the second mile for them...The Lord wants to use us as His Hands in preserving the diaspora Hungarian people. Brethren, we hear the sound of many waters...can you add one tear to it? Do not forget, someone once made the supreme sacrifice for you - go and do likewise! "A wake, hold fast, and strengthen those on the point of death..." (Rev. 3:2). ' 'Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of Life. (Rev. 2:10). May the Lord richly bless our Synod Meeting. Amen. Rev. Dr. Francis Vitéz The present issue is repeatedly and lovingly dedicated to our magyar kinfolk in the former Yugoslavia, especially to those who are members of our same "household of faith", mostly in Vojvodina. Previously, we dedicated one issue to our Hungarian Reformed brothers and sister in Transylvania under Romanian rule, an other issue to our magyars in Carpatho-Ukraine (now Republic of Ukraine), and one former issue to our magyar-reformeds in Vojvodina and other parts of the disintegrated former Yugoslavia. "Hold fast unto what you ha ve and I will give you the Cro wn of Life ", said the Angel in the Book of Revelations to one of the seven ancient churches in Asia Minor. How empathetically declares the angel the same message in our modem time to all our churches, wherever they are! POST-EASTER REFLECTIONS Easter: Terrors and Wonders Some cardinal leading thoughts for all year round. This year's Holy Week Wednesday provided an almost perfect overture to Easter weekend. On that night, PBS provided four and a half hours of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, that murky, mysterious opera full of the Easter themes of death, rebirth and redemption. Four and a half hours. Exactly 59 minutes after Wagner and PBS had finished doing their best to purify souls, NASA provided that uplift as space shuttle Discovery biased off at 1:29 a.m. A launch visible from Miami to New Jersey was briefly and gloriously brighter than the moon. Miami needs all the uplift it can get. It has had nothing but coverage of the murder of several foreign tourists lately. At the same time - Los Angeles, Waco, Texas!! It is difficult to contemplate that a species capable of producing the artistry of a Wagner and the technology capable of reaching for the planets can be so mindless as to kill the visitors that bring Miami so much. Man's greatest cruelties are still imposed on each other. Whether it is is Bosnia or Azerbaijan or Northern Ireland or India of the West Bank or the dangerous streets of Miami, man continues to crucify mankind in some fashion or another. Easter gave us time to examine two things. First, how very fortunate even the poorer U.S. citizens are in relation to most of the peoples of the world. We live in a truly blessed land. Second, it is a time to consider the monstrous gap between the wonders of which man is capable and the horrors it insists on perpetrating. They need not be musical geniuses or rocket scientists, merely good people trying to move away from the horrors of cruelty, hatred, greed and jealousy to the wonders of love and peace and compassion. ____________REFOMÁTÜSOK LAF1A
