Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-11-01 / 11. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ faith and his native genius for straight talk, he has created many life-long friends (as well as severe critics). There must have been those responsible for his appointment who, finding something had immediately stirred within the Austrian problem, recalled the story of the man who rubbed a small lamp and released a genie. Then the man found he couldn’t quite control the spirit. That is what happened in a way with this man who is officially based in a neat office in Salzburg but who wanders widely. His firmness matched with endeavor have become widely-known within his adopted land. Many would cite for an example of his down-toearth approach the day a young theological student, a volunteer worker, arrived for camp duty. “Did you say your prayers this morning?” the short, bespectacled senior officer asked him. “Yes, I did, Mr. Foster.” “Good,” was the sincere comment. “Now I want you to stay on your knees a while longer—and get some floors scrubbed.” And the theological student afterwards thanked him for the lesson in witness he had that day on his knees before the world’s homeless. To live in Mr. Foster’s new WCC homes (and any for that matter that are being built in Austria during World Refugee Year) a man needs work. This, too comes within World Council planning. Projects include a refugee furniture factory in Upper Austria and a galvanizing plant in the Salzburg Province. Strange Talk The galvanizing enterprise brought strange and technical talk of chrome and nickel, the names of potent acids and dipping degrees, to the Salzburg refugee center. It began out in the countryside three years ago. There was no working capital. A two-story building was acquired, and a craftsman from behind the iron curtain returned to his old trade. But the profit and loss process of business which accompanies such a venture sends facts and figures on to a balance sheet with the jerkiness of a flickering silent film. The galvanizer and his refugee colleagues were craftsmen, not bookkeepers. And they fell heavily into debt. A check this month shows that Galvania, trade name for the refugee enterprise, while still owing money, is now making a small profit. Today’s team of 19, working a 45-hour peace-time week, handles anything from dental equipment to ladies’ high heels. The worst days are over. Expansion awaits new capital. Just the debts remain to be underwritten. They have become a vital issue. Closure is now a possibility under local law. This, as with the housebuilding, is part of the four-fold WCC work of resettlement, integration, welfare work, and education. Through Church World Service, the American churches take an active part in the program to rehabilitate refugees. To supplement meager diets, there are the packages distributed by Evangelical Hilfswerk, the aid arm of Austrian Protestant churches. Into these packages go such foodstuffs as com oil and sugar supplied by Church World Service. Threadbare refugees are supplied with clothing sent by CWS. But perhaps the biggest boost given the WCC program in Austria by American churches is the sponsorship of those refugees able to migrate to the News From Hungary New Constitution For Reformed Church (EPS)—A new constitution which will take into account “the changes in the social order” is being prepared for the Hungarian Reformed Church. Five special commissions have been at work since last April on the new document, Bishop Elemér Győry told a recent meeting here. He said the new constitution is necessary because “the church is no longer a national church in a capitalist environment. Its task now” he declared, “is to give service in a state where socialism is being established.” He said that leaders of the Reformed Church have “repeatedly stated” that they recognized the need for a new constitution. A draft of the document is expected to be submitted to the church bodies concerned for ratification before final action is taken. Seminaries To Have Courses In Socialism Courses in the “study of society” will be added to the curricula of the theological academies of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Budapest and Debrecen, according to an article in the church paper “Reformátusok Lapja”. It said that the courses will include study of “the fundamental laws of Marxist sociology” and questions concerned with “the construction of socialism as it effects pastoral work”. The article reported the decision to add the courses was made at a joint meeting of members of the governing boards of the two academies. It quoted Dean Czeglédy of the Budapest academy to the effect that the new courses “will provide those who have responsibility for pastoral care with more knowledge of the social structure of the world in which their duties will be performed”. United States. Churches cooperating with Church World Service have taken responsibility for finding homes and jobs to re-establish families in a new life. For education and the care of the young, unaccompanied people, often beset by moral problems, there are WCC working centers at Innsbruck, Badgastein, Linz, Kotschachsdorf, Spittal, and Chandlerheim. Mr. Foster puts it this way: “We have always felt that we must do something for the young people and children. We have gone into university, high school, and general education. We have taken girls off the streets and given them a new hope in life. “At our well-known trade school for refugee children at Spittal the problem boys are being turned out as the best young blacksmiths, motor mechanics, and iron workers in the country. We have a waiting list of employers.” Chandlerheim, a holiday center for groups of boys, has become one of the most successful homes of experimental living, boys of many nations discovering a common way of life. As Mr. Foster tells any visitor to World Council of Churches’ work in Austria: “This is the Church at work in the world. And the Church is not a home for angels but a school for sinners.”
