Magyar Egyház, 1983 (62. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1983-08-01 / 4. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9. oldal Throughout the next few years images of the saints were removed from the churches, monasteries and convents dissolved, and the Roman Catholic Mass was replaced by a Communion service involving all the people. These measures were opposed by officials of the Roman Catholic church, both in neighboring Swiss cities and in Rome. Rut throughout, Zwingli had the support of the town council in his efforts. The Zurich reform was democratic in the sense that representatives of the people actually considered and accepted Zwingli’s program. In addition, Zwingli wrote throughout this period. His treatises “Of Baptism,” “On the Lord’s Supper,” “On True and False Religion,” and “Of the Clarity and Certainty of the Word of God” are landmarks in the development of Reformed theology. Zwingli consistantly maintained that both the beliefs and the practices of the church were to be judged according to the Bible alone, rather than churchly tradition or the decisions of councils and individual people. Zwingli agreed with Luther in saying that righteousness good works to justify us in the sight of God. He comes from faith alone, and that we cannot rely on fought against beliefs and practices that he regarded as un scriptural: the belief in purgator, intercession of the dead on our behalf, the use of images or statues in worship, celibacy of the clergy. Perhaps the best known feature of Zwingli’s theology is his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. He argued against any understanding of the Lord’s Supper in which the bread and wine are thought to become the actual body and blood of Christ, or in which the body and blood of Christ are consumed along with the bread and wine. In this respect, Zwingli broke both with Lutheranism and with Roman Catholicism. He maintained that the words, “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” spoken during the Lord’s Supper, mean that the bread and wine are symbols of Christ’s body and blood, rather than being the body and blood themselves. When Zwingli met with Luther in 1529 to see if their theologies could be reconciled, this was the only point they could not agree upon, out of 15 items drawn up for discussion. In spite of this disagreement, Zwingli and Martin Bucer, who also attended, offered the hand of fellowship to Luther, but Luther refused. Zwingli persuaded other important Swiss cities to unite with Zurich in the work of reform, notably Basle and Bern. But other cities formed an alliance against them, the so-called “forest cantons” of Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden. War broke out between the two groups in 1529, and again in 1531. During the second battle, Zwingli accompanied the Zurich troops as their chaplain. He was killed on October 11, 1531. A boulder commemorates the spot where he fell. Zwingli was only 47 when he died. He undoubtedly would have accomplish much more had he lived. But the measure of his success is that his own death was not a disaster for the Reformed movement. The Reform was well-established in many cities, although it was opposed in others, and a religiously united Switzerland was never achieved. Zurich itself elected Heinrich Buliinger as Zwingli’s successor. Buliinger was to make his own contribution to the Reformed churches by writing the Second Helvetic Confession, among other works. Along with Zurich, the cities of Basle, Berne, Biel, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, and Chur remained in the Reformed camp. John Calvin arrived in Geneva in 1536, five years after Zwingli’s death. He worked closely with many of Zwingli’s friends and asociates: Buliinger and Bucer especially. In many ways, Calvin not only completed but transcended Zwingli’s work. But Zwingli was the pioneer, and he lived and died to establish a truly Reformed Christianity. From the city of Zurich, the faith of the Reformed churches spread throughout the world. We who have inherited his work must not forget the achievements of the Other Reformer. David Johnson Roebling, N.J. The Roebling Ladies at work in 1983. NEW PASTOR IN ROEBLING At a special Congregational Meeting in July after the resignation of the Rev. Debrah Johnson the Roebling, Magyar Reformed Church elected Rev. Lisa Van Pier as its new pastor. Rt. Rev. Dezső Ábrahám, who was on vacation at that time conducted the special Congregational Meeting. Rev. Van Pier has graduated from the Princeton, Theological Seminary this June. She has been speaker at the Annual Women’s Conference this past May, and three years ago in Roebling. The Congregation had known Rev. Van Pier for some time. Her ministerial Examination will take place on November 5th at a special meeting of the General Assembly and will be ordained on November 6th together with 2 other young ministers during an ordination service in Perth Amboy. We extend our heartfelt welcome to the new pastor and pray to God for her guidance in her ministry.
