Calvin Synod Herald, 1993 (93. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)

1993-03-01 / 2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 7 -REFOMÁTUSOK LAPJA

AWAKE! HOLD FASTI STRENGTHEN! '

Revelations 3: 2, I I

Since 1950 when I started to attend our Synod Meetings, I always heard that we are living in "historical times" and that we must save our Synod. At times when we heard this, we smiled; we did not see the "historical" times and we did not see why it was necessary to save the Synod. As we live on, we start to see that indeed we live in "historical" times and truly we must save the Synod; but first of all we must save it from our own insecurity, our doubts, our faithlessness and at the same time from the tarnish of general Christianity. To fulfill our call in these "historical" times in the stronghold of our Synod, we dot have to wait for the call of taps; rather, beneath the banner of our Lord we will march with the motto of our Reformed Church: "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Romans 8:31).

First of all, we have to recognize ourselves in our post.

I. Who are we? We must answer this question not so much to introduce ourselves - we have done this since 1891 - but we have to answer this question to remain conscious of our identity.

We are Christians acquainted with the Church; and in the Reformation we became acquainted with Jesus Christ himself. We are Hungarians, and we suffered for and from Christianity, and our wounds were not healed by human hands...On the battlefield of Mohács we were slain; but the Reformation helped to raise the scattered bones. Our Christianity, through the Geneva genius, became the Hungarian Religion - Hungarian Calvinism - in the fire of Rome and Vienna.

We, Hungarian-American Reformed people, are children of this Church, who in this new world created out of nothing, a new life for ourselves. It is true we received help from the American Protestants and also from our Mother Church, but it is also true that we repaid everything with "interest".

Stephen Parmenius Budai, the first Hungarain Reformed minister who came to North America, arrived on these shores on August 6,1583. he was the "first" minister in America. The document of our religious freedom, the Torda Article of 1557, was the first law guaranteeing religious freedom in the world. This document, the Laws of the United States and our own Denominational and Synodical documents state that we may live and exist as long as we ourselves want to live, until we keep our identity.

II. Our second question is: What is the content of our Hungarian Reformed Christianity or what is our heritage?

Heritage is a sacred trust. The Word says: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Revelations 2:9). What is our heritage, has been discussed many times. Do we think that in theese 500 yeares of our Protestantism the Lord has not given us

anything at all? Then, He would not have said: "Be faithful..."

Christianity in Hungarian hearts became a unique phenomenon. It has a special content; weight, taste, fragrance and strength, just as Hungarian wine, wheat or fruit. The spirit of the Hungarian people, their souls, character, vision, wisdom, historical background met with God's grace in an existential promise became a special form of Christianity. Our Calvinism is a treasure that we own; therefore "hold fast to it."

This treasure consists of the love of our people towards their Church, their Christian Education system and its contents; deep religiousity, wisdom, courage, strong faith in God, a life lived upon this earth in auspices of eternity, liturgy, governing system, unity, love of freedom, love of land, self-sacrifice, etc.

In every country where Protestanism was spread, the Protestant Church was broken into pieces except in Hungary where there was only one Calvinist and one Lutheran Church body. It is unfortunate that this heritage was lost here in this country. Our Worship Services are conducted with the most dignity, our Church government is unique and the proof of our love of liberty is the number of Hungarian soldiers and officers of the War of Independence and Civil War.

This is the heritage that our forefathers brought to this land. In addition, close to 200 Hungarian Reformed congregations were organized, an orphanage and home for the aged was established, books and newspapers were printed and financial help was offered to our Mother Church and diaspora church members.

Our heritage is kept in "earthen vessels." We offer this treasure whole-heartedly to the American Protestantism to enrich it. Let it remain one color in the rainbow; an outstanding flower in the garden. We can offer this gem if we remain together, if we are not submerged in American Protestantism.

III. What is the essence of our being, what is our vocation, and mission?

We have several answers to this question:

1. We have a mission to ourselves. God gave us life; we have to live it. He gathereed us together in our Synod and kept us together. When our Denomination came into being, the legal ties were broken but we remained together. We felt we are one and belong together. That is how we are together now. It is our conviction that we remain one, as has been already expressed in the amendments to our Constitution and By-Laws. In the history of Hungarian Protestantism, we had many struggles, but we never had to struggle against our "Mother Church." The Constitution of our land, the Denomination's Constitution and our gained rights gives us the security that no denominational authority has the right to strip us of our right to exist! We are alive and we will continue to live on.

To Be Continued In Next Issue

Rt Rev. Dr. Francis Vitéz