Magyar Egyház, 1969 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1969-10-01 / 10. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

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church permanently. The departure of the Rev. Korocz in 1928 brought about a tragic event in the life of the church. The congregation was split. Another congregation was organized in Trenton. The memory of this tragic event is overshadowed with our joy that today there is again only one Hungarian Reformed Church in Trenton.

After the Rev. Korocz, a talented young man, the Rev. Zoltán Béky, became the minister. His first achievement was the erection of the church school. The monumental colonial edifice is well equipped for the educational and social activities of the church. Indeed, the building of the school was a remarkable achievement, when we consider that it was built in the time of the depression, in 1930-1931. The Rev. Béky was also a great spiritual leader. The various organizations of the church, the ladies’ societies, the Sunday School, the youth clubs, the Men’s Club, the choir were very active and they faithfully helped the church financially as well.

In 1951 a great beautification project was commenced on the buildings. Stained-glass windows for the church and a very expensive chandelier in the sanctuary were installed. An artist decorated the church and the walls of the huge auditorium in the school. The Rev. Béky was not only a good pastor but through his participation in Hungarian and American public life, he became a well known and distinguished personality. Soon he became the dean of the Eastern Classis of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, then its archdean and its first Bishop. Through his remarkably long pastorate of 37 years in the Trenton church he raised a whole new generation in the congregation. In 1964 the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, a fraternal organization (which was also founded in Trenton in 1896,) elected him its president.

The next and current pastor of the church became the Rev. Stephen Kovács after 26 years of service in the Hungarian Reformed Church of Akron, Ohio. The first four years of his Trenton pastorate can be characterized by the great enthusiasm of the congregation to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the church in a way which properly expresses the gratefulness of the church to God and the appreciation toward our forefathers. During the past four years all our properties were renovated and beautified. The length of this article does not allow us to mention all parts of this great project. That will be done in the anniversary album. The main purpose of the present minister is to strengthen the spiritual life of the congregation and to make our church in Trenton an exemplary congregation of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America.

UNTO THE ELEVENTH HOUR

AWAKENED out of my sleep at midnight by my telephone, I was asked to come at once and pray with a dying man. It was a stormy night and I had been suffering from a severe cold. It would have been easy to frame up an excuse for not going out under such conditions and at such an hour. But the man was dying. I was a preacher. Duty demanded that I answer the call, the voice in my soul I could not still. Quickly I dressed and started out in the darkness on my visit. It was quite a long distance, but walking briskly I forgot all about the cold, thinking about the dying man, hoping that I might be with him before it was too late.

“We are very sorry to have troubled you at this late hour, but Pastor, we needed you so badly and knew if we called you would come.” These words greeted me as I entered the home that night. Ushered quickly to the bedside of the husband and father of the family, I sat near the bed, leaning forward quietly speaking to him words of counsel and comfort as best I knew how. He seemed so weak that all he could do was to clasp my hand tenderly as I held his.

Then, gently leaning forward a bit more so that he could hear me without my speaking too loud, I prayed as best I knew how for the salvation of a soul that was soon to leave a mortal body. It seemed almost as if angels were singing in the silence of the midnight, and I prayed that the Holy Spirit might be speaking in the silent chambers of the dying man’s heart.

Not that prayer necessarily causes God to do for us that which w e may want, but it changes us and places us in a relationship with God which enables Him to do in us and for us what is best for us and what is well pleasing in His sight.

It would be well if more of us tuned in our ears to hear the commands of God.

When my prayer was concluded, the man’s lips began to move. We all listened, as we drew nearer to his lips. Then faintly we heard him pray the prayer of his boyhood days: “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” And we all hoped that He who heareth in secret would reward openly the man who had died with a prayer upon his lips.

Bertram J. Sathmary