Magyar Egyház, 1963 (42. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-01-01 / 1. szám
(i MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH Service of Intercession on the Convening of Congress Bishop Dr. Béky Among the Participating Church Dignitaries. High ranking officials of the national government attended the annual Service of Intercession and Holy Communion in the National Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., on the occasion of the convening of Congress on January 9, 1963. This was the 17th service of intercession held under the auspices of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in cooperation with the Council of Churches, National Capital Area. Members of all branches of government responded to the invitation extended by Moderator Marshal L. Scott “to come to the Holy Table of the Lord to find rest and refreshment for the soul.” It was for the first time that a Hungarian Reformed Bishop was invited to participate in this communion service. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Zoltán Beky, Bishop of our Hungarian Reformed Church in America joined Dr. Scott and the following other clergymen: Dr. Bernard Brunsting, president of the Reformed Church of America; Dr. John W- Melton, minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Baton Rouge, La., who represented the moderator of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.; Dr. Virgil E. Lowder, executive director of the Council of Churches National Capital Area; Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church; and Dr. Edward L. R. Elsőn, minister of the National Presbyterian Church. We look upon the invitation of our Bishop to participate in this service as a sign of the close fellowship of our Church to the great presbyterian and reformed denominations of our country as well as a personal appreciation of the dedicated services of Dr. Beky. Dr. Blake and Bishop Beky before the Service of Intercession in Washington. The Cold War and Individual Liberties Statement of the North American Area Council of the Reformed and Presbyterian Alliance. Eighty-four delegates to the North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches at their recent meeting in Lancaster, Pa., issued an important statement on civil and religious liberty. In accepting the report of their Commission on Civil and Religious Liberty, chaired by the Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, State Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Council delegates, representing nearly 8 million communicants in Canada, the U.S., and the West Indies, said, “It has long been recognized that modem wars cannot be waged without some curtailment of individual liberties.” Yet cold war restrictions are of “such long duration that some of them are almost bound to be translated into permanent habits,” and although such “restrictions may have been imposed and accepted with the best of intentions by lovers of liberty, but they are no less damaging on that account.” The report also found that the “most obvious dangers to freedom in North America today arise out of the necessity of holding society together, especially in the face of a common challenge from without.” “The preservation of national security in a coldwar situation calls for an amount of intelligence and police surveillance that makes healthy public debate difficult to maintain,” the document states in warning that the increasing necessity of security checks in a widening range of employment categories makes it too easy to accept as normal and desirable the current extent of the investigation of political actions and opinions on the part of private individuals. Even when such investigations are carried out in the most moderate and correct manner an individual will fear that the expression of unpopular opinions might become a permanent part of police or employers’ files, and ’’would jeopardize his chances of promotion.” “A great many people fail to speak out (on public issues),” the statement continues, “not because they fear persecution for themselves but because they fear that they wlil lose orders for their companies, bargaining strength for their unions or members for their churches.”
