Calvin Synod Herald, 2010 (111. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2010-07-01 / 7-8. szám
6 Rt. Rev. Béla Póznán Voted New Calvin Synod Bishop Delegates Elect Officers CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Delegates to the Seventy-second Annual Meeting of the Calvin Synod chose the Rt. Rev. Béla Póznán to guide its life for the coming three years. The pastor of Calvin United Church of Christ in Fairfield, CT he has served the Synod as its Auxiliary Bishop and in several denominational instrumentalities. The Synod also elected a new Auxiliary Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Csaba Krasznai, from Walton Hills, OH. In the General Secretary role is the former bishop, Rt. Rev. Koloman K. Ludwig, of Hammond, IN. Two members of the Conference Council were reelected, Ms. Lisa Toth-Maskarinec, Synod Treasurer, ofMunhall, PA, and Mr. Lehel Deák, Synod Presbyter, from New York. Bishop Poznán’s pastorate in Fairfield began in 1994, preceded by ministries in Perth Amboy, NJ, and New York, NY. Prior to his arrival in America in 1983, he served Reformed congregations in Slovakia, including Gyorke. He married Julianna Vitéz, the daughter of the late Bishop Francis Vitéz, in 1982. With America’s bi-lingual churches in need of pastors, a Call from Perth Amboy's church opened the door to serve God in the United States. The Póznán family also includes Christina, who taught for a year in Budapest at Karoli Gaspar Reformed University on a Fulbright scholarship and is pursuing doctoral studies at William and Mary. Their son, Attila, is enrolled at Philadelphia Biblical University preparing for youth ministry. A graduate in 1976 of the Commenius Theological Seminary, Charles University, Prague, the bishop has also received a Th.M degree in 1986 from Princeton Seminary. His interest in hospital chaplaincy led him to clinical studies in the field and on-call chaplaincies at several hospitals in New York and Connecticut. Rt. Rev. Póznán served Calvin Synod in several important instruments of the United Church of Christ, including the Board of Directors of the Office of General Ministries, and as a Member of the UCC’s Executive Council, meanwhile heading a number of committees during General Synod meetings. Locally, he served two terms as Dean of Eastern Classis, as well as two terms as its Treasurer, and was elected the President of the Ministerial Association’s Eastern Division. Previously he was the Chair of Calvin Synod’s Church and Ministry Committee. Bishop Poznán’s willingness to represent Calvin Synod among the Reformed family of churches led him to the World Alliance of the Hungarian Reformed Churches in Hungary and neighbor nations, over a span of many years. Then he participated in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches meeting, in Ghana, Africa in 2004. He is currently Calvin Synod’s voice with the Hungarian Coalition, Washington, DC. He is committed to a sprit of reconciliation and ecumenical cooperation within the Christian churches and beyond. Rev. Albert W. Kovács, Pastor He Has Gone Up On High We Christians follow a leader we have never seen-in the usual sense at least. We do not see Him as they did in his flesh. We do not see Him as they did in his resurrected body. Perhaps we have seen Him as did Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road. Or maybe we have seen Him as Julia Ward Howe claimed, .. in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps.” Ascension means: Once here. . . now away. Is our angle of vision an advantage or disadvantage? St. Matthew says: On the mount of ascension some doubted. (Matthew 28:17b) The Risen One speaks to St. Thomas: “You have found faith because you have seen me. Fortunate are they who find faith without seeing me.” (John 21:29 paraphrase) St. John records our Lord saying: “It is necessary -essential -for you that I go away.” (John 16:7a paraphrase) Otherwise translated: “... it is to your advantage that I go away.” (John 16:7a) We ask, “Where have you gone?” He answers, “To the presence of the Father.” Question: “Where in heaven’s name is that?” Answer: “Not in time or space ... no kinetic energy required. The Hubble Space Telescope even with repairs will not detect my location in eternity.” Question: Why is it necessary that you go away? Why is it to our advantage? Answer: “Otherwise my Spirit, my alter ego, your divine attorney, cannot come. (John 16:7b paraphrase) Then I can be close to you in Jerusalem and with you at the Calvin Synod 2009 Annual Meeting. So that when two or three gather in my name in Bethlehem, in Bagdad, in Bangladesh, at Bethlen Home, I can be with you.” As the Gospel of Thomas will say, “Split wood and I am there. Raise a stone and you will find me.” (Saying No. 77) But something more dramatic yet happens in Ascension. When He goes away he takes with Him the wounds and scars of the world. In His resurrected self they are on perpetual display in eternity. Is not the very Godhead changed? As an emissary of the Father to us He brings a new covenant signed in His own blood. As a representative of us to the Father he bears our wounded selves into the heart of God. The days of His flesh constitute the condescension of the Father to us. The Ascension signals the raising of humanity into the very heart of the Father. Karl Barth wrote, “Our flesh, our human nature, is exalted in Christ to God. The end of his work is that we are with him above. We with Him beside God.” (Exact location unknown.) In the Ascension, our wounds-physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, relational-rise into the heart of God. A European artist in the 10th century depicts Christ seated on the curve of the earth with angels. A tunny looking man, wearing his best hat, approaches on gimpy legs. The angel helps-Christ reaches out. An interpreter of the scene notes the dignity in the man’s face. Christ reaches out to him. There is a curious resemblance between the face of Christ and the little man. What is the meaning? Our wounds, even our revealing faces, the Son bears into the heart of the Father. □□□ Continued on page 7
