Calvin Synod Herald, 2012 (113. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2012-07-01 / 7-8. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD (a) Other churches and ministers will be invited to join with Calvin Synod, who are in accord with the theology expressed in the Scriptures, Creeds and Confessions of the Reformation churches and consistent later expressions. These may presently be independent congregations, churches that have withdrawn from the United Church of Christ or other denominations, or presently in other affiliations of the United Church of Christ. They may unite with Calvin Synod, upon approval and consent, by their own initiative and without necessity for transfer of affiliation. Provision must be made for their foil recognition and foil communion, with all rights. This requires recognition of the greater diversity within the Synod, necessarily surrendering barriers to their foil participation, and building together a workable community of Christ’s servants. Provision must be made for the churches of Hungarian heritage to celebrate and work within their traditional ways and with the Hungarian language, and also those of other ethnic groups and languages. (b) In recognition of the theology, principles, traditions and values inherited from the churches varied roots, resulting in the several strong denominations bringing their proud heritages to the merger off the United Church of Christ; and recognizing that too much of these have been ignored, devalued and suppressed for these many years, resulting in a Church barren of familial ties; Calvin Synod will emphasize and reclaim the historic beliefs and histories of its churches. (c ) Calvin Synod will commit itself with its new structure to proceed upward and onward to reverse the sorry direction of the United Church of Christ, which has lost half its membership since the merger and suffered humiliating declines in respect among its membership and the churches’ communities. It will not be content until the health of the United Church of Christ has been renewed, it is led by moral and competent officers without party spirit that ignores the impact of the denomination’s public policies and statements upon the local churches, and corrects the divisiveness that destroys the Church internally. Talpra Magyar! While I have presented the subject before you, to offer some ideas for your consideration, be assured they are not mine alone, but reflections of the thinking of many others like Dr. Butosi, Dr. Stephen Szabó, Dr. Zoltán Király, Dr. Francis Vitéz, and still many others sitting among you today. But any decisions about our Synod’s direction for the coming years needs to be your decision, and of our churches’ members. What is presented here, if carried out, will require the boldness that thinking people brought to Philadelphia and Independence Hall, to Debrecen and the Great Reformed Church, and is necessary today. You may be assured our denomination’s leadership won’t like what we propose, and we will hear cries, “You can’t do that!” Some of you will remember their displeasure when we were approached by Biblical Fellowship Churches about twenty years ago. However, for all this time we have been playing by their rules. And what has it gotten us? Every General Synod goes farther astray with its so-called progressive agenda, its same-sex marriage agenda, its rationalist theological agenda, and so forth, as in Orwellian fashion they write out creeds and confessions, and promulgate their post-Christian world of new idols. Bishop David C. Anderson of the American Anglican Council, which has a congregation worshipping in the Bethlen Chapel right now, wrote just last week, “In the revisionist mind, nothing is ever over until they win, while the traditionalists tend to be more focused on fair play and living within the rules and agreements.” That’s what has happened with the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the UCC. We may be heartened by the Methodists’ rejection of the gay agenda last week, but another assault awaits them we may be sure - and us as well. The Moment To Decide Frankly, if we would go through with this new structure, it will take even more persistence every year to accomplish this goal. We will be fought tooth and nail and told we’re not playing by the rules. But did Golden Gate play by the rules, or Potomac Synod, when they ordained avowed and practicing gays and lesbians before the denomination gave its approval? Have we been heeded when we objected to these onerous actions at General Synod? Who cared for their impact upon us, as members left us because they refused to be affiliated with the UCC? When our congregations were taken over by other Conferences, who stopped them? How often have we heard, “I know what the rules say, but we don’t do it that way!” Now it is our turn! There are churches and ministers out there who don’t want to leave behind their historical connections, but are on the verge of bolting from the UCC - or quietly submitting and hanging on. They need and deserve a place where they are welcome, valued and encouraged in their biblical faith. The Serbs fled from the Turks to St. Endre in Hungary, the Jews fled the pogroms in Russia and eastern Europe to Hungary, the East Germans fled the Communists through the Iron Curtain’s cut barbed wire in Hungary. Gospel loving churches and ministers are looking for a haven, but more than that - the means to reclaim their heritage and restore their Church. The old way didn’t work despite our trying, because the rules were changed along the way. Now, we must do it our way, but with new colleagues to help. Be assured of change and work! However, God is with us, “Keeping watch above His own.” The Founding Instruments A prenuptial agreement called The Basis of Union with The Interpretations was an essential word of honor agreement that preceded the merger that brought the United Church of Christ into being, the marriage in fact of the Evangelical and Reformed Church with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957. At that time, many Congregational churches were concerned for insistence upon the perpetual freedom of the local church, and the Basis gave assurance that these rights would not be diminished or abrogated in the foture. It was the concern of the
