Magyar Egyház, 1973 (52. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1973-06-01 / 6-7. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

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Church, which was unahle to maintain its own minister during the difficult years of the depression and World War II. For more than fifteen years he served the church in Roebling and guided it into self-support.

Following the untimely death of Dr. Charles Vincze, head of the Free Magyar Reformed denomination, Dr. Béky was elected arch-dean in 1954. His office’s dignity was elevated into bishop by the denomination in 1958. Bishop Béky’s service as head of the only Diocese of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the free world was characterized by a tremendous internal and spiritual growth of denomination and even more so by his great international and ecumenical ministry representing the Hungarian Reformed Church in America in all parts of the world.

During his ecumenical ministry Bishop Béky visited the Holy Land, the Middle East, Latin America, Western Europe and Great Britain as an official delegate of his church and lecturer at church conferences. He was instrumental in leading his denomination into the great ecumenical organizations: the National Council of Churches in the U.S.A. in 1957, the World Council of Churches, by being the first delegate representing his denomination at the Third General Assembly in New Delhi, India in 1961, where the entire world learnt his passionate speech delivered in the plenary session on November 21, 1961.

Bishop Béky also represented his denomination for eleven years in the North America Area Council of the Reformed and Presbyterian World Alliances, serving on its executive board for about a decade and in the year 1961 as its Vice Chairman, a distinction which has never been held before by a Hungarian Reformed minister in this country. During the summer of 1964 Bishop Béky represented his denomination at the 19th General Council of the World Presbyterian Alliance in Frankfurt, Germany, where he acted as host to all the Hungarian Reformed Church dignitaries, among them nine bishops present from all parts of the world.

Bishop Béky was invited to participate in the Holy Communion Service for the U.S. Congress which is an annual event of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D. C. for two occasions. In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey and more than one hundred Congressmen participated in the Communion Service also conducted by Bishop Béky.

Midwestern Bible Graduate College conferred the doctor of divinity degree on Bishop Béky in the fall of 1960.

Bishop Béky delivering his historical speech in New Delhi, India.

For his entire ministry he also served as a Branch Manager of Branch No. 266 of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, a large fraternal organization with headquarters in Washington, D. C. The National Convention of this organization elected him a member of its Supreme Council in 1952, first vice-president in 1956 in which capacity he served until the Convention of 1964, which elected Bishop Béky president of this 17 million dollar fraternal organization, with branches in all parts of the U.S.A. and Canada.

In 1964 he was elected the Chairman of the Board of the American Hungarian Federation, the largest American-Hungarian organization of the American- Hungarian Churches, charitable and fraternal organizations in America. He still serves in this capacity.

He was invited to open the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives and the Senate in 1966, 1968 and 1973.

He was awarded the “George Washington Award” in 1969 for his “distinctive service as distinguished pastor and churchman, eminent humanitarian and civic leader, lecturer and writer .. .”

In 1970 President Nixon appointed Bishop Béky on his Presidential Advisory Board of the Small Business Administration and in 1971 as presidential advisory member of the White House Conference of the Aged. Still serving in these capacities.

He is the author of the following books: The Immortality of the Soul in the Theology of Paul, Stoics and Plato, 1930; The Theology of Calvin and Barth, 1936; Latest Theological Thinking, in 1937; Faith of Gabor Bethlen of Transylvania, 1958; Contemporary Theological Thinking of Kálvin in the Theology of the Hungarian Reformed Church, 1958; Sermons 1938, in Hungary; Sermons 1958, in U.S.A.; Chief Editor of Magyar Egyház 1954; Chief Editor of Fraternity 1964; contributor of numerous articles on religious, educational and political subject.