Magyar Egyház, 1957 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1957-02-01 / 2. szám

12

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

CHRISTIAN AID CONTINUES FOR HUNGARY'S REFUGEES

By the end of the first week of January, 180,000 refugees had escaped to Austria. More than half of these have been moved to other countries. At the beginning of the New Year a nightly average of 700 people continued to cross into Austria, the proportion of Protestants being slightly higher than the previously reported estimate of 30 per cent.

In a interview with the vice-president of the United States, Mr. Richard Nixon, the director of Service to Refugees of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Edgar Chandler, urged the importance of adequate financial support for the Austrian Government, the Red Cross and voluntary agencies helping the refugees.

Dr. Chandler asked that the United States Government should try to introduce into the legislation a provision for refugees who had accepted temporary asylum in European countries other than Austria to enter the United States. Existing legislation in America provides only for immigration from countries of “first asylum”. Dr. Chandler also took the opportunity to plead the cause of displaced persons and escapees who have been temporarily neglected owing to natural emphasis on the new Hungarian arrivals.

During the Christmas and New Year seasons fifty special Protestant services of worship were organized by a team of pastors working as a unit with the assistance of the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.

Mobile teams and seven resettlement officers of the World Council of Churches continue to register and process refugees for resettlement abroad.

The YMCA and YWCA maintain their recreational, cultural and spiritual activities within forty to fifty camps spread all over Austria. It is estimated that together they touch 21,500 refugees. Information bulletins in Hungarian giving details about migration possibilities, temporary settlement in Austria and methods of tracing relatives and friends are published every second day in the Tyrol and Upper Austria. Community activities in the camps include language classes, needlework, handicrafts, film programs and orientation for resettlement.

The YMCA-YWCA was also working among the refugees who came to Austria with arms or in military uniforms and were put as internees into a special camp near Salzburg. With the permission of the Defence Ministry and in accordance with an understanding with the International Red Cross, this camp was supplied with equipment and program materials. In cooperation with the Vocational Training School in Salzburg courses for electricity and radio mechanics have been prepared. The camp has now disbanded and the inmates have been sent to other centers.

A two-day conference for Protestant Hungarian refugee pastors in Austria was held January 16-17 in Vienna under the sponsorship of the Austrian Evangelical Churches, Lutheran and Reformed. The Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches were represented at the conference. Twenty-five persons attended.

At the Ecumenical Institute of the World Council

THE Y.M.C.A. AND HUNGARY

On Saturday, December 8th 1956, the Y.M.C.A. in Hungary celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding by John R. Mott.

Before the war, and until 1946, the Hungarian Y.M.C.A. was rapidly expanding. It had an excellent centre in Budapest and Associations existed in most urban areas. In addition the Movement owned a farm and trained boys for agriculture, and for Y.M.C.A. leadership in High Schools. Very close co-operation with the Y.M.C.A. and the Roman Catholic youth organisations was established and emphasis was placed on Church membership. In 1945-46 when the Y.M.C.A. was being pressed out of existence it found a home in the Churches and during the recent short period of freedom it came to open life in all parts of the country.

Its National General Secretary POGYOR ISTVÁN was imprisoned, as were other leaders. He died in prison three years ago — a Y.M.C.A. martyr. He was the friend of all in distress and the father of the whole Y.M.C.A. family.

Some Y.M.C.A. members have recently had to leave their country. They are joining our staff for the purpose of helping all Hungarians who are now refugees and are holding themselves in readiness to return to their own country should the opportunity arise.

They have asked us to give you and all Y.M.C.A.s a message of goodwill and greeting and to commend to you the saying which is over the door of the Budapest Y.M.C.A. building “God brought you here. Where is your friend?” They also commend a message which has been of great help to them and which became something of a watchword amongst them — “Live dangerously.”

Please pass these greetings and messages on to all Associations asking them to pray for our friends in Hungary and for those who have had to leave everything behind and seek refuge with us and others. Especially ask our members to give time to prayer and thanksgiving for the Hungarian Y.M.C.A. at this their 75th birthday time. EDWIN BARKER

(This message was received from The British Y.M.C.A. May God help to free Hungary from Communism, that free Christian Youth organizations may resume thier work as before.)

of Churches, Bossey, Switzerland, theological students of fifteen countries and ten confessions, attending the Graduate School of the Institute, have addressed an appeal for ministry to the Hungarian refugees to theological students throughout the world. They seek ten thousand dollars for the pastoral care being provided by the ecumenical team of refugee pastors and theological students now at work in Austria.

The Protestant youth movements in Austria have cooperated from the beginning in serving the refugees. The Reformed, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist and Old Catholic Churches have recently established an “Ecumenical Youth Service”. In addition they provide volunteers for work after office hours among the refugees, including emergency transport.

E.P.S., Geneva