Magyar Egyház, 1965 (44. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1965-08-01 / 8-9. szám
12 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ SERVICE: We give thanks that each and all of us alike are called of the Lord into His service. We give thanks that we are given the manifold gifts of His Spirit to fulfill our diverse callings without distinction in importance or value. Those called and ordained to special ministries we recall, need the ministry of the other members; and for example, the ministry of intercession and warning. The humblest service may often be of greater significance than that which receives widespread attention. (I Cor. 12:24; II Cor. 1-24) FREEDOM: We rejoice that our Lord enables us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free; therefore, we are not subject to any ‘power’ (Romaans 8:38) nor to any unalterable system of ministries. The government required in Church and in congregation must be so ordered that we seek the Lord’s will by brotherly counsel together, letting ourselves be led by Him. Our Lord has said: “You have one teacher and you are all brethren,” and, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Mt. 23.8; 18:20) EVANGEL: We give thanks that by entrusting us with this service in love, our Lord delivers us from any ecclesiastical self-sufficiency, and directs us to look unto Him so as to be united more and more with Him, be renewed, and to witness to Him among the nations to His praise and glory. “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head. Into Christ.” (Eph. 4:15) “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt. 5:16) Standing fast in thest great truths, which are given to the Church of Jesus Christ, we believe that the Reformed Churches around the world have at this moment a great and positive contribution to make to the renewal of the Christian world family. Therefore, we send you this word of greeting and encouragement. “Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the name of the Executive Committee. Wilhelm Niesel Marcel Pradervand President General Secretary World Alliance of Reformed Churches names Observers for Vatican Council 4th Session The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has named its three official observers for the 4th Session of the Second Vatican Council which opens in Rome mid-September. They are: The Rev. Dr. R.H.N. Davidson, of he United Church of Canada, The Rev. Professor J.K.S. Reid, of the Church of Scotland, The Rev. Professor Vittorio Subilia, of the Waldensian Evangelical Church, Italy. A NUMBER OF PASTOR’S CONFERENCES have been held in the Transdanubian District of the Reformed Church of Hungary, to discuss Roman Catholicism and the Second Vatican Council. The aim of the conferences is to assist pastors to inform their congregations on the problems of the new situation in relation to Roman Catholicism and also to provide opportunities for pastors to bring their experiences in the parishes to bear on these problems. HUNGARIAN REFORMATION WORKS DISCOVERED IN GENEVA ARCHIVES During a recent stay in Geneva in connection with his final work on the unpublished Calvin sermons on Ezekiel, the Hungarian scholar, Professor Barnabas Nagy of Budapest, has discovered three important works (two printed and one manuscript) relating to the Reformation in Hungar. One is a short, hitherto unknown, polemical work written by Peter Meliusz, printed at Debrecen in 1571, and directed against the antitrinitarians of Transylvania. The copy, discovered by Professor Nagy in the Library of the Reformation Museum Society in Geneva, though not in very good condition bears a personal dedication to Theodore de Beze. In the Tronchin archives, Professor Nagy discovered two works by John Bocatius, who served as ambassador to °rince Stephen Bocskay, the leader of the revolt against the ittempted re-catholicising of Hungary in 1604, and who later wrote the history of Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylania. The first is a copy of a short historical introduction printed in 1620. The second is a 140 page manuscript dated 1611, of a work of which the only known copy is a printed one in a mutilated condition in the possession of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It will now be possible to complete this from the manuscript copy. The work includes the diary kept by Bocatius during his five year imprisonment under the Habsburgs. (RPPS) REFORMED PASTORS IN HUNGARY STUDY FRANKFURT DOCUMENTS (RPPS.) — The 19th General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches held last August, is still echoing in Hungary and the meetings of pastors in December were devoted to the study of the documents produced by the Council. In a radio talk early in December, Bishop István Szamosközi, one of the Hungarian delegates to the General Council, referred to the most important resolutions of the Frankfurt Council and gave his personal impressions of the meeting. He made special mention of the opportunity the meeting had given to meet in brotherly encounter the leading pastors and churchmen of Hungarian Reformed Churches present in Frankfurt from many other countries. ★ Special courses in theology for pastors and church workers were held in the two theological academies of the Reformed Church of Hungary at Budappest and Debrecen in March this year. The courses were inaugurated a few years ago and have already had promising results. ★ A congregation of the Reformed Church of Hungary and a United Evangelical congregation in the German Democratic Republic have resolved to regard each other as sister churches and to strengthen contacts between them. The minister of the Budapest-Csepel congregation in Hungary and the minister of the Bernburg congregation in Germany, who initiated the contacts between the congregations, were students together at the Martin Luther University at Halle-Wittenberg. AN EMERGENCY AIRLIFT of medicines arrived in Dacca, East Pakistan on June 7, to aid the thousands of suffering survivors of the recent cyclone. The shipment, sent by Church World Service, included 200.000 typhoid and 14,000 cholera immunizations and a half-million water purification tablets valued at $228,900.
