Magyar Egyház, 1986 (65. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1986-01-01 / 1. szám

6. oldal

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

CARIBBEAN AND NORTH AMERICAN REFORMED CHURCH REPRESENTATIVES CONDEMN ROMANIAN ATROCITIES AGAINST HUNGARIAN REFORMED PEOPLE IN TRANSYLVANIA

It can be called another breakthrough in the fight for the human rights of the Hungarian Reformed Church people in Transylvania. The Caribbean and North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, at its annual meeting held in Washington, DC, January 22-25, 1986, heard a 90 minutes presentation giving the sordid details of the Romanian governments’ overt and covert suppression of the million strong Hungarian Reformed minority in Transylvania from destroying their historical treasures and stifling their religious life of the abominable sacrilegious act by “recycling” Hungarian Bibles into toilet paper-rolls. The presentation began by Bishop Dr. John Butosi (Calvin Synod of the United Church of Christ) citing his June, 1984 Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, followed by the long letter of Gyula Nagy, bishop of the Reformed Church of Transylvania (Kolozsvar-Cluj), trying to refute Butosi’s Testimony, and closing with Butosi’s reply to Bishop Nagy with 13-pages of documented counter-arguments. Full texts, the two letters in English translation, were distributed among the plenary meeting’s participants.

The presentation was referred to the Council’s Committee of Civil and Religious Liberty which then came back with an exceptionally strongly worded recommendation. Part of the resolution, unanimously accepted, is hereby quoted:

“In accordance with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches Constitution ‘to promote and defend religious and civil liberties whenever threatened throughout the world’ and ‘to support the weak, oppressed or persecuted member churches,’ the . .. Council recommends the following regarding religious liberty in Romania :

... share documents from this meeting, and other

pertinent information focusing on the religious rights for the Hungarian minority in Romania, and the World Alliance office in Geneva, the European Area Council and all Caribbean and North American Area Council member churches for attention and response in appropriate ways.

To request the World Alliance office in Geneva to determine what happened to the 20,000 Bibles provided by the World Alliance and to advise the Caribbean and North American Area Council as to the information obtained.

To request the World Alliance office in Geneva to contact the member churches in the signatory states to the Helsinki Agreement regarding religious liberty in Romania.”

The “breakthrough” is not in airing these grievances. The continuous violation of the human rights, including religious liberty, of its minorities by the Romanian government ignoring treaties, Helsinki agreement and human decency, is widely known. It was just recently the cause of the resignation of the U.S. Ambassador David B. Funderburk. The importance of the resolution of the Caribbean and North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches lies in the fact that by publicizing these documents millions of Reformed and Presbyterian people will be alerted to the plight of their sisters and brothers of a member church. It should also be noted that the World Alliance, to the head office of which in Geneva the requests of the resolution are directed, embrace all the Reformed Churches of the world, thus the Reformed Church in Transylvania, too.

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ will report on further developments.

NEW SCRIPTURE EDITIONS PLANNED FOR HUNGARY

While people all over the world who care for religious liberty are stunned by the revolting sacrilegious act of the Romanian government by pulping 20,000 Hungarian language Bibles and recycling them into toilet paper-rolls (irrefutably documented!) it is encouraging to read from the February, 1986 issue of the American Bible Society Record announcing new Scripture editions planned for Hungary.

The Hungarian Bible Council is plannig to publish two new Scripture editions in 1986, in addition to the Bibles and New Testaments which comprise its normal inventory. The new publications are a book of Bible stories translated for children and a diglot New Testament in Hungarian and English.

The text of the children’s Bible story book will be based on that of the new common language Hungarian Bible translation but in a style more suitable for children. The book is expected to contain 400 pages, with color illustrations by a Hungarian artist. Twenty thousand copies will be published.

The Hungarian/English diglot New Testament will be typeset in Hungary and 10,000 copies will be printed in Budapest.

Other recent Scripture production completed in Hungary has included 10,000 Bibles in the new common language translation, for which the United Bible Societies provided the paper, and 10,000 New Testaments with color illustrations. Paper for 20,000 pocket size Bibles and 20,000 small size family Bibles has also been supplied by the UBS to the Hungarian Bible Council.

The Bible Pavilion of the Hungarian Bible Society in Budapest during National Book Week last summer was such a success that it remained open for three additional weeks. This was the first year that the Bible Pavilion had been in operation for such a long period. The “overtime” resulted in more than twice as many Scriptures reaching the hands of an eager public as in previous years.