Calvin Synod Herald, 1993 (93. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)
1993-05-01 / 3. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD-6-REFOMATÜSOK LAPJA Requiem For Our Greatest ffmerican-Hungarian Church Building The First Hungarian Reformed Church of Cleveland, Ohio Completes Its Move to the Suburb of Walton Hills On March 28, 1993, the people of the First Church bid farewell to their magnificent landmark church in Cleveland on the corner of Buckeye Road and old East Boulevard (renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.) The parting and leave-taking sermons were given by Dr. Stephen Szabó, the building pastor, and Rev. Frank Endrei, the present pastor. The farewell prayer was said by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Piri, honorary chief-elder of the First Church. On March 28, 1993, about 200 worshippers gathered in our Great Church on Buckeye Road for the final Sunday worship service of our congregation there. Our Pastor Emeritus Rt. Rev. Dr. Stephen Szabó brought the sermon in Hungarian as he was the pastor of our congregation when our Great Church was built in 1947-49. The present pastor Frank Endrei preached in English. Others taking a part in leading this service were our Honorary Chief Elder Steve Kabay and Mrs. Ardelis R. Endrei. It was very difficult to bid farewell to this magnificently beautiful chruch building which had been the spiritual home of our congregation for so many years. The Bethlen Hall wing adjacent to our Great Church on Buckeye Road was built even earlier, in 1932. Our entire Great Church building includ-The beautiful and magnificent Great Church of Cleveland -the historical and architectural landmark church in America - is gone! The Romanesque Cathedral Church was sold to non-Hungarians. "New Life in the New Church" was the leading slogan in the years 1947-48-49! Now, the new slogan is "Honor the Past & Build for the Future." A report of the sorrowful, historical even is thus described by the present pastor, Rev. Frank A. Endrei. ing Bethlen Hall is now sold to a large black American church, the Full Gospel Evangelistic Center Church. They are able to fill it with worshippers who come from the general area of the church. Meanwhile our First Hungarian Reformed Church has completed building a new chapel seating 120 and a social hall seating 400 in the southeastern suburb of WaltonHills. We have been holding our English worship services there for over a year now, and we have just now moved our Hungarian worship services there from the chapel of our Great Church. With the money we anticipate to receive over the next three years from the sale of our entire Great Church property, we plan with God's help to build a beautiful new church sanctuary adjacent to our present structure in Walton Hills, and to convert our present new chapel there into six Sunday School rooms. Buckeye Road was once a major center for Hungarian people in the U.S.A. and our church was ideally located there at that time. But now in the interest of holding on to as many of our members a possible and in the interest of attracting new families as well, we have with God's help made our move to our new location. Such a move is not without bumps in the road, but as the Apostle Paul wrote, "God is faithful, by Whom you were called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (I. Corinthians 1:9). We thank God for his faithfulness and His call on our lives. Surely His mercy and grace have been with us. You, too, please pray for us. Frank A. Endrei, pastor Rev. Frank Endrei based his farewell sermon on Rev. 21,1. Some highlights from his sermon are quoted here. "As we have gathered together here in this magnificent and Great Church of the Hungarian Reformed people, the Great Sanctuary of the Hungarian Reformed people in the United States, for the last Sunday worship service of our congregation, we surely feel very deeply that our earthly journey is full of danger and often we can feel mighty insecure about it. We can deeply identify ourselves with the hymn-writer who wrote: "Change and decay in all around I see, O Thou, who changest not, abide with me!"
