Hungarian Church Press, 1950 (2. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)
1950-06-01 / 10. szám
fr _,cv. mneiy Somogyi D.D, , President of the Hungarian Baptist Churen; THE FREEDOM OE RELIGION AND THE RELIGIOUS MINORITIES I. The Free Exercise of Religion Since 1945* The Opening of Church Doors... The streets of the capital were still littered with corpses and carcasses, one still walked, on debris and broken glass, guns were still rattling and thundering in the Buda hills, when wo crawled up from the cellars and saw on the street corners th.j first posters, the first order of the Russian city commandant TIuj blue poster appeared as the signal of life in the realm of death. Tears came to our eyes and we nearly sang in our joy as we read it. One of the points was this: "The holding of divine services in churches and in chapels will not be hindered". We suddenly visualized our churches, not yet seen but known to be in ruins; we thought of our own church which was badly damaged, but our hearts were filled with hope. On the same day, wo got ro'-c’.y our provisional mooting hall and started to repair our church which had been hit by two bombs and eight shells. Our case was typical of the whole land. Then, with the complete liberation of our country, postal and rail road traffic was gradually resumed and the work of national reconstruction, on a grandiose scale, was started by which the Hungarian workers and the government of the republic has since deservedly elicited the appreciation of the whole world. The reconstruction of ruined or damaged churches and chapels has kept step with the reconstruction of factories, bridges and highways. These ar_ facts, demonstrating that there can be no doubts as to the freedom of religion in Hungaiy. The Baptist congregations of the country took up the care of each other; they hastened to the help pf those congregations which had had great losses owing to the bombing. Peasants and land workers, industrial workers and artisans competed with each other to have their chapels restored. By 1947, more than two-thirds of. the war-damaged chapels, had been imstcred, and, in the same y$ar, 12 new meeting halls wore built. This building activity - often by a handful of pec.pie and with great sacrifices - was continued throughout the following two years. The other free churches have had similar experiences. All these churches gave indications of their eagerness to repair their damages and also of their inner renewal. The missionary activity received a strong impetus both in the larger and in the. smaller congregations, in towns and in villages. It was one of the first noble gestures of the democratic government that it v st rod the rights of those denominations and communions which had been outlawed by the war time governments and by the Arrow Cross regime. The Federation of Hungarian Free Churches has arranged several times Reformation festivals, with other Protestant denominations, in the concert hall of the Music Academy in Budapest Re..have also taken part, Baptists, Methodists and other free ui:mbc .es, in the activities of the National Protestant Days, in various public festivals, in the work of the Bible Council and in the prayer week of the Evangelical Alliance. In the seven mission districts of the Baptists, there have been, ovoiy summer, large Gospel conferences, with attendances, in many cases, of-7- ‘Hungarian Church Press
