Magyar Egyház, 1973 (52. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1973-12-01 / 12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 STATEMENT A number of ministers of the Hungarian Reformed churches in North America have a heartfelt desire to establish sincere brotherly ties with the Reformed people of Hungary, but at the same time are considering with justifiable concern certain unfortunate developments in this respect. In order to clarify their relationship with the “old country”, they are making their points of view as follows: 1. We would be delighted to see the realization of a new kind of relationship between the Hungarian Reformed people of the Free World and that of Hungary in which every possible ideological propaganda would fall silent, and theological and ecclesiastical matters would be placed in the foreground, for the benefit of our people both here and there. 2. We are convinced that the establishment of a proper relationship could be guaranteed through the free flow of ideas only. In the life of our churches there should be no place for secret diplomacy. This means that on the one hand no one has the right to speak individually in the name of the Hungarian Reformed people of America. If representatives of our various church-bodies wish to carry on discussions with the church-leaders of Hungary, they should be under no obligation to give an account of their contacts to the Hungarian Reformed churches in America and to their membership. On the other hand we expect that church-leaders of the “old country”, seeking contacts with the Hungarian Reformed churches in America, should not establish this through certain individuals selected by them, but through the elected leaders of our various church-bodies. 3. Just like the cultural exchange programs, church-contacts should also be based on the principle of complete reciprocity, be they in the field of theology, church-art, preaching in congregations or granting theological scholarships. 4. As we seek to normalize our relationship, our attitude should be cordial but reserved polite but well-principled. For the time being, we have no reason to celebrate any of the Hungarian churchleaders who are visiting our country. Under no circumstances can it be our task to lend them our moral support, either in their ministry in Hungary, or in their ecumenical relationship, and certainly not in such a way that we place our pulpit at their disposal. The Hungarian Reformed pulpit, because of the Word preached in it, is a holy place and not some kind of a platform which we could offer for guestperformance. 5. We would be delighted to see that the churchlife in Hungary is gradually becoming liberalized with more and more inner freedom. The churchleaders in the “old country” could easily demonstrate their good faith and that they are working toward this effect. Many Hungarian public personalities have been rehabilitated during the past twenty-five years, after they had suffered persecution. Why is the Reformed Church in Hungary the only exception? In the past decades hundreds of Hungarian Reformed ministers have been ousted from their posts, forced into other fields of work or into early retirement by church-courts or individual church-leaders. All these atrocities occured in spite of the fact that the churchleaders at home have supposedly discovered “a new type of Christian love”, as the presiding bishop of Hungary informed us recently at a meeting in Ligonier, Pa. It is hard for us to believe in the existence of this “new love”. However, we might easily be convinced by a few facts. For example, if the Church — by means of a secret ballot of the local congregations — would for the purpose of rehabilitation establish a new church-court, in order to review the cruel and lawless church-decrees of the past three decades, giving moral and financial compensation to the victims and their families. 6. One might say that we should clean our own house first. There is plenty to be dusted there. The credibility and valadity of the prophetic role of the Hungarian Reformed churches in the Free World is endangered not so much by outside, but rather by inward forces. There is an inner split that has been created by outside factors. We are thinking of those colleagues of ours who, without seriously realizing the consequences of their action, accepted the hospitality and other material contributions of the Hungarian government during a recent “Conference for preserving and promoting the Hungarian language abroad”, held in Hungary last summer. The organizers of that conference (a “front-organization”) have admitted themselves that this conference has proved to be the best propaganda-channel towards Hungarians living outside of the Iron Curtain. This might be a great temptation even in the future. The material gains and matters of prestige offered by the Hungarian government could easily become a “pottage of lentils” that may undermine our credibility, our traditional patriotism, both here and there and can also compromise the authority of our brotherly and prophetic warnings. — In order to make our position crystal-clear, we hereby express our sincere apologies to our fellow-ministers and to the Reformed people in Hungary for those colleagues of ours who thoughtlessly, but perhaps without bad intention,
