Magyar Egyház, 1960 (39. évfolyam, 1-9. szám)
1960-05-01 / 5. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ PASSION FOR UNITY IS NEEDED Difficulties faced by Christians in Asia, South Africa and East Germany were brought before the 200 delegates to the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference for the World Council of Churches at Buck Hill Falls, Pa., April 27-29. Delegates from thirty U.S. member churches heard overseas visitors including the Council’s general secretary Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, Geneva, Switzerland; Dr. Hla Bu, distinguished Burmese educator and president of the Burma Christian Council; and Bishop Johannes Lilje, presiding bishop of the council of Lutheran bishops in Germany. They also heard reports on interchurch aid, youth work, and study. During the three-day meeting the representatives of American churches were reminded by the World Council’s executive secretary in the U.S., Dr. Roswell P. Barnes, New York, N.Y., that through their participation in the Council, churches should “find new insights into the riches of the Gospel.” “No one church alone has mined all its treasures. Through association with churches of other traditions and experiences in different historical and cultural situations, the understandig of our faith should be enlarged,” Dr. Barnes said. Through such enlarged understanding of the Gospel and enriched Christian experience, he said, the churches are renewed. Nor were delegates made to feel complacent about the state of the unity of the churches today. Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill, Boxford, Mass., Protestant Episcopal Church, chairman of the U.S. Conference and president of the World Council, asked “How can we be content in the face of the world situation with a divided Christianity, divided to the point of absurdity?” Bishop Sherrill urged his listeners to have a passion and an “impatience” for the unity of the Church like that of the early pioneers for Christian unity.-----------oOo----------Custom Fitted From Sponsors' Gifts 114 children of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Jugoslavia have received good winter-coats from Swiss Reformed church people. Swiss families had accepted individual “sponsorships” of Hungarian Reformed children in Jugoslavia and had been sending gifts to them. For the first time this past winter the sponsors, instead of clothing sent money to the bishop’s office in Feketics, and the coats were bought in the country. This procedure is now being repeated. On money received from the sponsors material for new spring outfits has been bought. Three seamstresses were working under the supervision of Deaconess Zsuzsa Farkas in Feketics to have the outfits ready by Easter. The new procedure has two advantages. First, certain government regulations can more easily be met; second, the clothing are custom fitted to every boy and girl. The children receive their outfits as gifts from their sponsors and thank them in individual letters. Former R. C. Priests Discuss Future What becomes of Roman Catholic priests who give up their religious vocation and leave their Church? According to a group of former Roman priests now serving as ministers and laymen in the Reformed Church of France, a small number enter other Churches but the majority seem to reject any Church relationship. Noting that accurate information is extremely difficult to obtain, the former priests, meeting April 4-7 at Sete (Hérault), France, estimated that between 1,000 and 2,000 priests have left the Roman Catholic Church in France since the end of World War II. They indicated that an even larger number had given up the priesthood during the same period in Italy, and a small number in Spain. The Sete conference, attended by some 20 former Roman priests now serving as ministers or laymen in the French Reformed Church, was called by French Reformed leaders to consider problems involved in assisting former priests to adjust to their new way of life. Officials of the French Reformed Church say that more than 40 former priests have joined the Reformed Church of France either as ministers or lay members of congregations. Another dozen are active in other Protestant Churches, while others still have entered the Orthodox Church or the Old Catholic Church. Within the Reformed Church of France this group of former Roman priests have organized a fellowship of service to provide assistance for ex-priests in need of spiritual or material help. They also provide specialized information and theological advice for the French Reform Church in its effort to gain a better understanding of Roman Catholicism, and assist the French Church in fulfilling its role in the current ecumenical situation. The Sete conference took steps to establish better means of coordination in meeting the problems of former priests from Italy and Spain who seek refuge in France. At several points centers have been established to receive former priests.-----------oOo----------PROTESTANTS AID ROMAN CATHOLIC CHARITY (New Haven)—Protestants at Yale University, New Haven, Conn., gave a special Easter offering to the Little Sisters of the Poor here as evidence of Christian unity “in a world torn asunder by racial, economic and national strife”. The Roman Catholic religious congregation conducts St. Andrew’s Home for the Aged in New Haven. A statement announcing the contribution said that despite areas of theological difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants they can take common action in “our ministry to those to whom circumstances have brought privation and suffering”. EPS, Geneva-----------oOo----------HUNGARY Four Hungarian theological students have been expelled from the Lutheran theological seminary in Budapest by Bishop Zoltán Kaldy. The expulsion was at the request of the state which charged that the students’ parents had been implicated in the Hungarian national uprising of 1956.
