Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-12-01 / 12. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Thirty-Five Years Hungarian Our church life has always been plagued by anniversaries. It is almost an unchangeable fact. Yet, while we are celebrating almost everything connected with our local church life we are guilty of by-passing anniversaries of much higher importance. Now I have in mind the 35th anniversary of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, formerly known as the Free Magyar Reformed Church. On December 9th 1924, seven congregations were represented at the historical constitutional meeting of the Free Magyar Reformed Church in America, in the old church building of Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Actually, the seven churches were only six. The Scranton Hungarian Reformed Church was not represented although it accepted all decisions taken by this assembly in a statement before the Duquesne meeting. Duquesne and Donora was represented by the Reverend Sebestyen, the “prophet” of our Free Magyar Reformed movement as he was called by his friends and foes. Balázs Morvay was the lay representative of Duquesne and Ferenc Ősiéger came from Donora. The Church of Perth Amboy was represented by Dr. Louis Nanassy and Steven Bodnár, the present president of the Eastern Elders Association. The late Dr. Charles Vincze and Lajos Kovács were sent by Carteret, Reverend Mihály Kovács and G. Joseph Farkas came from Detroit. The Church which has suffered most for the concept of the Free Magyar Reformed Church, that of McKeesport, Pennsylvania sent two lay delegates: Lajos Koos and Mihály Tóth. The pastor of the McKeesport Church was the minister then most recently arrived in the United States (in 1924): the Reverend George I. Borshy Kerekes. A small group of people indeed. Many other “independent” churches did not dare to believe in the success of this assembly. The “provisional dean” of the 1923 preparatory meeting in Trenton, did not even show up at Duquesne. (Continued from page 7) “Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth; Born to give them second birth.” Christmas meant new life for the whole mankind. Christmas means new life in Christ for you and me. Christ in the home means new realationship with each other. His spirit will renew everything, churches and nations alike. Such newness of life cannot be celebrated by any cheap or sinful way. The commemoration must be suitable to the occasion. It is a beautiful tradition in our Hungarian Reformed churches to participate in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper on Christmas morning after appropriate penitential services the evenings before. But the real remembrance of the first Christmas should be continuous, when the Spirit of Christ finds a home in your heart — not for a short while, not “for the season”, but to rule it evermore. Reformed Church In America But the Lord has really blessed the work started on December 9th, 1924. And we should lovingly appreciate their historical decisions. This constitutional assembly has made Hungarian Reformed faith and tradition really transplanted into American soil. As church history teaches us, America made churches conscious of one very much neglected aspect of the characteristics of the New Testament Church, namely, that the congregation of Jesus Christ should not depend upon the state or on the rich membership only: all Churches, Roman Catholics not excluded bear the marks of this, the American, influence: free church in a free state. There were Hungarian Reformed Churches in America before 1924, and there were a great many after that. But the historical Duquesne meeting and the foundation of the Free Magyar Reformed Church in America shows that the lay people of the seven churches as led by Dean Sebestyén and Dr. Nanassy have really understood this great American Christian vision: that of the self-supporting Church. We are willing to concede to the opponents of this movement that this act of our fathers has been an act of disobedience towards the political and church leadership of Hungary which has recommended to its American congregations to unite with an already existing denomination because of political and financial reasons. The leaders of those seven churches discovered in the light of our historical creeds and through the liberating influence of the American environment the Biblical truth: “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts: 5:29). It is the story of all Great American denominations: the Episcopalians, the Presbyterians or the German Reformed organized their self-supporting and indigeneous church bodies in this great country opposed very much by the mother bodies in the old world. It was the great vision of Dean Sebestyén and Dr. Louis Nanassy, and their people, to trust God and to start this movement. If we recall the resolutions passed by the local churches before the Constitutional Assembly the decisions of Perth Amboy strike us most: the Church should be called simply as the Hungarian Reformed Church in America and not very much later a Bishop should be elected as head of this denomination. Our denomination was called Free Magyar Reformed Church due to historical necessity, and the consecration of a Bishop was delayed for great many years; the minority opinion of Perth Amboy in 1924 has prevailed in the Second Constitutional Assembly of Duquesne in 1958. We must emphasize again that from the view point of American church history Hungarian Calvinism became a force in American church life only after 1924. The organization of our denomination was not an old fashioned, nationalistic movement of retardation as charged so many times, but the first really American step.
