Magyar Egyház, 1975 (54. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1975-04-01 / 4. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

5

MAGYAR

CHURCH

THE FIRST HALF CENTURY

Rt. Rev. Lajos Nagy Arpad F. Banda, Ph. D.

Fifty years ago, a self-governing, self-supporting, independent Hungarian Reformed Church was established in America. A half century has passed since five ministers, seven laymen, representing six congregations, gathered on December 9, 1924 in Duquesne, Pennsylvania under divine guidance to found

THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. The ministers who took part in this historical meeting have all gone on to their just reward. Of the laymen, there is still one living witness to recall these memorable days in the Church’s history —- István Bodnar, who served as chief elder of the original Church District and has continued to serve in various Church offices since that time. After fifty years, it is a good time to stop to recall our Church’s origin, founding, development and current status. At the same time, we should inscribe the names of the individuals who have served and guided our Church at its highest levels during this period. We should note also the role that the Church and its leaders have played in the preservation and advancement of the Hungarian community and the current state of cooperation with our separated brethren.

THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA traces its distinct roots back over 400 years to days of the Reformation and the period of Martin Luther and John Calvin, the latter of whom has been the dominant theological influence during the Church’s continued existence. The Hungarian Reformed Church, established in the 16th century, waged a long struggle for its existence against the Ottoman Turks and the Austrian Empire. It was only in the decade after the Ausgleich, the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Monorchy, in 1867, that the Hungarian Reformed Church in Hungary regained for itself freedom of action and association. In 1881, for the first time in the Hungarian Reformed Church’s history, the four Church Districts along with the Transylvanian Church held a united Synod meeting in the city of Debrecen. As part of the major

reorganization of the Church’s structure, the Synod established the General Konventus that carried on the day-to-day activities of the Church in all matters as directed by the Synod. This Synod established a central fund, to carry on many activities both old and new. It placed a renewed emphasis on mission activity both home and abroad. As a result, in 1892, a Home Missionary Association was formed, bearing the name of Susan Lorantffy, famous wife of famous Prince George Rakoczy I and a great benefactress of the 17th century Reformed Church, by means of which laymen and laywomen were encouraged to undertake personal evangelistic and social work, and to train as Sunday School teachers. In 1904, as part of its foreign mission program, it provided ministers and financial assistance for the establishment and maintenance of Hungarian Reformed Churches in America.

The new churches in America continued to thrive and increase in number rapidly in the next decade. World War I and the Treaty of Trianon brought about a fundamental change in the relationship between the mother Church and its churches in America. Hungary was dismembered and the threemillion-member Hungarian Reformed Church lost nearly one million of its members to foreign rule. The Hungarian Reformed Church was no longer in a position, politically or financially, to continue its foreign mission activities. The ministers of the Hungarian Reformed Churches in America at the end of World War I were owed $27,000 in salaries by the General Konventus. In turn, the Hungarian Reformed Churches in America owed the General Konventus $25,000. Neither party had the financial resources to pay these debts. The situation reached the point of a financial crisis.

One solution proposed by Zoltán Kuthy, who was serving as a minister of a church in New York City and as Dean of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, was to have the mother Church allow its mission churches in America form a self-governing, self-supporting, independent Hungarian Reformed Church in America. The mother Church having just lost many of its members to alien rule was in no mood to give away its favorite and only group of