Magyar Egyház, 1964 (43. évfolyam, 3-9. szám)
1964-11-01 / 9. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 17 Hungarian heritage? While we refer most often to the last of these, are not the others equally important? And secondly, in our further development and growth of self, and of our Church, is it not a prerequisite to “know thyself”? We should know ourselves and find our identity. Are we a carbon copy of our forefathers’ Church in Hungary? What period of their history do we copy? Is it the turn of the century or the first decade of the twentieth, when most of our old people came to America; is it the time our denomination was formed or is it a more recent period? As the Reformed Church of Hungary went through many changes, so much more did our Church change in America — a free Church in a free society. As we cannot live in the past, in a fixed period, so to speak, neither can we live in a spiritual mirage apart from our daily living. We are transplanted here as spiritual offsprings but with an identity of our own, unique and not a copy of any other. We have long determined that our future existence is not a question of nationality but that of faith. It is not “foreign” in any sense, it is as American as any manifestation of our life here — a piece, with its own color, in the mosaic of American church life. We cannot oversimplify it and say, we are like the Reformed Church of Hungary. What we mean most likely is that the two confessional books are the same (which we borrowed from Western Europe) or that the form of church government is similar. There may be some similarities in liturgy and customs, which may vary from time to time and by locations, here as well as in Hungary. Even the centuries old Reformed Church of Hungary did not have a unified liturgy forty years ago, at the time of our birth as a denomination. Tradition and heritage are important and they are dear to us, but we should observe two important things from a closer look. One, they are not purely Hungarian and two, they are not absolute and unchangeable. Of course, by this they do not become less valuable or less important, but they do stand in need of re-examination and re-evaluation. If we are afraid of this, we would be afraid of reformation —- and of the truth. And yet, let us not forget, the truth will make us free, free even from the bounds of former chains of outmoded phrases, opinions and attitudes. Re-examination of the so-called tradition is needed to find the real treasure that is ours. There is danger in introducing a new word, a new conception, especially in the place of an old accepted one— for fear of misunderstanding. Sincerely believing, however, that the old one is overplayed and misused, it is becoming less valuable and its meaning muddled. Surely every race and nationality has a heritage of their own and so do we. But when we consider the purely religious heritage, especially as we, followers of the Calvinistic Reformation understand it and practice it and we deduct from the Hungarian heritage all that is commonly enjoyed by the other Reformed Christians, there is not much left which is purely Hungarian and unique. What is left may well he our treasure, but to be of real value, as in case of our common Christian heritage, it must be opened, its contents displayed and given away. In communicating the Gospel, in channeling the saving knowledge and grace of our Lord to the third and fourth generation Americans of Hungarian descent, and to future generations to come as well as to non-Hungarians even now, we must carefully differentiate between the treasure received from God and the tradition received from man. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” It will be the duty of our leaders, of this journal and of any educational media that we possess, to do this — if we want to remain faithful to our calling and to our fathers’ faith. Our educated younger generations hold in reverence everything which is of real spiritual value, which is meaningful in our tradition, but they do not accept everything without questioning. Let us not deceive ourselves and our children by misusing time-honored expressions without opening our treasures and showing them what they contain. We have the treasure and we have a future. How much of our heritage is real treasure we must tell the world or at least convey it to our own household. We commemorate our fortieth anniversary as a denomination, but we are seventy-five years old as organized congregations here in America. We are not newcomers by any measure, but we seldom show our maturity: sometimes we speak as if we have not arrived on this continent, sometimes we act as if we have not shed our toddler shoes. Shall we be mature enough at our centennial? The next twenty-five years will be tremendously important, the shaping of the future will depend on us and not on our children. We have a treasure to open, we have a mission to fulfill. God will hold the leadership of our Church responsible for it. PASTORS ADORJÁN AND DR. NYARY INSTALLED Two of our congregations had recently installed their new pastors. On October 11th, the Rev. Kálmán Adorján was installed over the congregation of Youngstown, Ohio by Dean Tibor Toth. He succeeded the Rev. Alexander Marton who retired. The Rev. Stephen Szőke and the Rev. Louis Nagy preached the sermons in English and Hungarian, respectively. The new pastor was presented with a pulpit robe and an individual communion set. It was a moving scene when retiring pastor Marton placed the new robe on the shoulders of his successor. Following the installation service the Rev. and Mrs. Adorján were honored with a banquet at the Calvin Center. The Staten Island Church called the Rev. Dr. Nicholas Nyáry to fill the vacancy caused by the moving of the Rev. Adorján to Youngstown. Dr. Nyáry was installed by Dean Gábor Csordás on November 15. Dr. Andrew Harsányi preached in English, the new pastor in Hungarian while Bishop Dr. Zoltán Béky gave a special charge to Dr. Nyáry. A well attended banquet followed the service in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Nyáry.
