Calvin Synod Herald, 1996 (96. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1996-07-01 / 4. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD AMERIKAI MAGYAR REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA- 7 -Bishop's Report - 1996 A hajó - Az Anyaszent egyház jelképe The Ship - The Symbol of the Church 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 Fluctuat nec mergitur. Motto of the City of Paris STATE OF THE CALVIN SYNOD Our Bishop's ADDRESS at the Banquet of Calvin Synod Conference of the United Church of Christ held at their yearly meeting in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, May 21-24, 1996 My Dear Brethren in Christ, We are here after another year has passed by, at our Synod Meeting, to give an account of the year and events that have gone by. We give thanks to the Lord that He was with us, kept us and gave us the opportunity to receive His blessings with thanksgiving. Let us remember the words of Paul the Apostle: "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not destroyed... (2 COR. 4:8-9). I well remember the days when I studied at the Protestant Theological Seminary, part of the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. The coat-of-arms of the City symbolizes a ship on the ocean in a storm and the motto under it: "Fluctuat Nec Mergitur." which means the ship is in danger of submerging, but it is still afloat. I feel that we were and are in the same situation: we had to undergo many trials and hard situations, storms of the Christian life, but the Lord spared us, He was with us as He was with His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. We called upon Him and were spared, not because we were completely faithful to Him, but because He was faithful to us! We withstood the outside storms and attacks, but now we are in another dangerous situation! The ship is floating on the water, an outside storm cannot destroy it because Someone is watching over us. The danger is on the inside! Some of us are doubting, some of us feel that we are being swallowed up in the ocean and it would be better to bail out. Some us are rocking the boat and instead of helping us to arrive at a safe haven and giving us encouragement to sail to the safe harbor, they plan to leave the ship. Meanwhile, we become les in number and weaker in resistance. In her 57 years, Calvin Synod has never had a smooth sail. We survived the storms of the merger of transition. Since we found ourselves in the United Church of Christ, we do not have the former rules of the Evangeliscal and Reformed Church. We were freed, but we stayed together. This unity meant more to us than if we would have separated into independent congregations and been submerged one by one. We stayed together, we survived because we know that "E pluribus unum" (out of several, one). Just as the United States is made up of many states, so our several congrega­tions form the Synod. We call our denomination, United Church of Christ, however we are not "united". We are together in the Synod, so let us remain as one. Together we have something to tell the United Church of Christ, but if we one by one look for a "theologically" safe haven, we jump into the ocean without a safety belt, we jump out of the airplane without a parachute... If we remain faithful to the faith of our forefathers and we remain one in the faith, we will prolong our life. It was only in Hungary that the Reformed Church was not broken up into pieces, why should we now want to break it up and go astray? We are planning to meet with our brothers in the Hungarian Reformed Church in America and to work out a mutual platform of service and a future. Language is not a problem anymore, but our doubting is a problem, our little faith is a problem, our not feeling responsibility for each other is a problem. Wake up from your deep sleep, be conscious and conscientious! The Lord has given you a position fo fill in the darkest hour, in the night of our Reformed Church which has been torn into pieces and struggling for three-quarters of a century...Let us remain faithful to the faith of our fathers, to the faith of our galley slaves and let us remain united, let us ask the Lord for strength, let us shake the gates, let us knock on the door of our Heavenly Father until it will be opened and we would be heard and received... Jesus had twelve disciples and moved the world; there are more than three million mem­bers in the Reformed Church of our forefathers.... Jesus said if you have faith just as much as a mustard seed, you can move mountains... All of us here, from our respective congrega­tions, from our four Classees, from the whole Calvin Synod, do we not have faith just as small as a mustard seed, that faith that is strong enough to move mountains? Awake, Stand up and Onward Christian Soldiers, With the cross of Jesus going on before! If we have to talk about the future of the Synod, let us discuss it, if policy change is in order, let us do it together, but let us stand together, united and swearing that we will be faithful to the faith or our fathers; and say with Paul the Apostle and as it appears on our Synod falg: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) We have a good relationship with the headquarters of the UCC. At the General Synod Meeting held in Oak­land, our Synod delegates witnessed. We were heard, but we did not receive an affirmative vote. The majority still did not win, we were winners because we stood on the Lord's side! Your Bishop Francis Vitéz Dear Members and Friends of Calvin Synod, Through the grace of Almighty God, we are gathered together at our Calvin Synod Meeting, beloved spiritual mother of us all. We give thanks to our Heavenly Father for keeping us and for His never ending bless­ings. Another year filled with struggle has gone by and we are here to thank God for His support and guidance, and for the op­portunity to continue to labor in His vineyard.. We thank God for our forefathers who found their home in the Carpathian Basin. With thankful hearts, we remember our homeland and those that wnet before us these past 1,100 years filled with joy and sorrow. We offer our thanks to God that He cared for us, and though we had to undergo centuries of struggle, sadness and sorrow, He was with us and protected us against annihilation, especially in this past century now almost gone. We struggled for our ex­istence and survival, and though the glori­ous years were short lived, we continue to strive upward. We ask Good, the preserver of His own,, to bless for us the celebration of millecen­­tenarium. While our former motherland was torn to pieces, while our people and our Churches were almost destroyed, we stand before the Lord and ask Him to restore our lives, our Churches and our land. This year we also observe the 100th An­niversary of our Classis established on June 6,1896. This Classis underwent many hard­ships but it developed into our Calvin Synod, our family and our spiritual mother. We ask the Lord to protect us against outside and inward dangers and to help us to live, to be­lieve and to spread the Gospel received by our ancestors. This year is the 100th Anniversary of our Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. The Federation has had a glorious past and we acknowledge the helping hand that has been extended to our Churches. Our mem­bers are asked to support the Federation wholeheartedly so that it would be strong spiritually and financially. This August, there will be a great Hungar­ian reformed gathering in Transylvania; the meeting of the Hungarian reformed World Federation. Let us be supportive of this meet­ing and be there in body, soud and mind. Let us lift high the banner of Jesus Christ and under His banner march in His footsteps from loss to gain, from defeat to victory, from death to life upon this earth and in eternity... □

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