Magyar Egyház, 1972 (51. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1972-12-01 / 12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 THE CHURCH IN RUDABANYA Many people left the small village of Rudabanya, Hungary for America, before the War, with nothing in their pockets and only the Word that was taught in the small Gothic church on the hill. It was these same people that founded many of the Hungarian Reformed churches in America and gave them their leaders. From Rudabanaya came John Varga, the first chief-elder of the Hungarian Reformed church in Fairfield, Conn, and his sons and daughters became leaders in the same church. The bishop of the Calvin Synod, Rev. Arpad Beretz, also lived in Rudabanya awhile. My father was one of these people. He left Rudabanya with only the teachings of the church and its feeling of community. He came to America and worked very hard to make a life in this new country. He, like many others, made the church the center of his life and along with his wife and family became respected and faithful members of the church in Fairfield. It was with great pride and anticipation then that my father brought his wife and two sons home to Rudabanya last summer after thirty-three years to meet his family and to see the church where tlio Spirit had been so strong. Rudabanya is a small mining town in the northeast corner of Hungary. The land is very hilly and farming is not done easily. There is also a factory in Rudabanya but the main occupations of the people are mining and farming. There are two churches in Rudabanya. The Catholic church is close to the center of the town and is in fair condition. The people still attend the Masses and the bell is ringing all day long. The Protestant church is on top of the hill outside the center of town. From this hill one can almost see all of Rudabanya. This is the church my father attended with his family before he left Hungary before be war. It is a very historic church having been founded by the followers of John Huss who preceeded Martin Luther in Reformation history. To say that the church is in poor condition would be saying too little. It almost doesn’t exist at all. All that was of historical or artistic significance was removed from the church by the government two years ago to a museum in Budapest. It is very hard to even see the church anymore because of the overgrown bushes and vines. The steep walk leading up to the church and past the bell tower is completely overgrown and a path had to be cut away to get through. The bell tower to the right of the walk is seperate from the church and is crumbling away. Great pieces of plaster stucco have fallen off the outside of the tower and I never heard the two bells ring all the time I was in Rudabanya. The sanctuary itself is in similar decay, only worse. In some places where the plaster has faRen off only the base stones remain. The flying buttresses, which held the walls erect are gone and the stained glass windows are either missing or broken. Once inside the church it is very hard to tell that once it was a church at all. The mosaic tile floor is gone along with the pews and only the dirt floor is left. The walls of the church were stripped of the frescoes leaving the bare plaster and timber. The ceiling which was once covered with frescoes of church history was also taken away and the naked beams that were left made the ceiling look like that of a barn. The pulpit was left but it was damaged. The white plaster is chipped, scratched and dirty. The pump organ is still in the choir loft which was stripped of its pews along with the others below, and in the corner of the church amid the straw and timber a chicken had left an offering of three eggs. The minister who showed us where everything used to be said there were no services being held anymore and the congregation had made no plans to restore the church. John Vincze Fairfield, Conn.
