Magyar Egyház, 1972 (51. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1972-11-01 / 11. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ BETHLEN YOUTH FEDERATION “Some More Reminiscing...” It would be a hard job, if not entirely impossible to write an objective report on any BYF camp, national conference. This is good, because it means that at least those who write the reports are personally interested in these undertakings. In the last issue of the Magyar Egyház we were privileged to read an excellent review on most of the significant concerences by “Mrs. D”. I wish we would have the space to go into details about every one of those meetings, analyze and evaluate their effects upon the young mind, our church’s “future”. I will, however, have to be content to make a very few observations from the viewpoint of the clergy. Camp Shawnee (I will refer to this year’s conference by this name) was a well organized camp, considering that two persons did most of the work and had to make the decisions almost exclusively. Now we tried every form of camp management, and we would have to do a complete study to decide, which is of them would be the best . . . enthusiastic, even if often in experienced amateur job, professional, adult, or a cooperative job by many enthusiastic young amateurs under the guidance of adult, professional leadership. I have seen the Calvin Synod’s management of their camp, run byprinciples of the third choice, and the other two in our camps. Of course, the management of a camp assures us only of smooth operation, not the spirit necessarily. We have the latter one abundantly in our camp! However, we have to decide what this spirit should be. This reminds me of the minister who never prepared his sermons, but ascended the pulpit waiting for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When he confessed this attitude to one of his learned superiors, the superior replied: “True, we cannot even begin to preach without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but when the Holy Spirit acts as the prompter to an unprepared mind, He is liable to inspire him to make feeble, unintelligible utterances per chance.” According to another version, when this man waited for the inspiration, it came to him in a clear voice from above: “Brother Smith, you are a lazy man.” We are the descendants of many proud, noble generations of Hungarian Reformed Christians. We have a clear The presentation of the $1,000.- gift from the Hung. Ref. Federation to the Bethlen Youth Federation. Discussion of the topic. path to follow, the Hungarian Reformed Tradition. The only problem is that many of us, adults, and most of the younger generation don’t even know, if they care any, about this tradition. The situation changed, and today we, the Free (független) group have less to do with this very specific tradition than the Annexed (csatlakozott) youth. There are three very clearly defined groups and attitudes in our group concerning the purpose of the BYF and the conferences. One is the old-fashioned type, who would like to see more of the above mentioned tradition. The second is primarily interested in a general Christian attitude, without any mentioning of Hungarian Reformed tradition (such as the case of this last camp was) and would like to steer our youth to the current American way, whatever that may be. The third doesn’t know, or doesn’t even care. They come to have a good time, period. In the first case, we could slowly disappear, or by joining forces with the Calvin Synod’s group, we could establish a strong Hungarian Reformed youth with keen interest in current forces in world Christianity, realizing its unique position, task, and mission in America. The second group could cause the BYF to become a mere river dissolving and completely losing its specific flavor in the sea of Christianity. We would only contribute water, and some more salt to this sea, and would disappear without a trace. The third group is perhaps even more dangerous. Camp Shawnee taught us a lesson again. First of all, our youth is a group of excellent, exceptional talents, and willingness under an able leadership. This leadership must be a union of ministers, adult advisors and the youth itself. At the last two occasions the representatives of the youth did not show up to discuss these problems with the ministers, and representatives of the other youth group. . . but don’t blame the youth entirely! How many of our ministers and church councils are interested in the youth beyond the feeble effort of blaming each other for eventual failure? How many of the mentioned organizations knew about the voting that went on in the youth fellowships concerning cooperation between Hungarian Reformed Youth groups in America? Howmany would have cared enough to give advise, encouragement? Come to think of it, don’t blame the youth at all! Yes, Camp Shawnee was beautiful, and many of us felt a “resence” that we had not experienced so personally before, perhaps because we didn’t listen before. The telephone can
