Magyar Egyház, 1989 (63. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1989-05-01 / 3. szám

8. oldal

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

CALVIN SYNOD OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST IS 50 YEARS OLD

The Calvin Synod, a Conference of the United Church of Christ celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment as an independent ecclesiastical unit. Dr. Andrew Harsanyi, bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America sent the following words of greeting to the Rt. Rev. Zoltán Király, bishop of the Calvin Synod:

Greetings in the name of our Lord!

Dear Bishop Király:

On the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the formation of the Calvin Synod as an independent ecclesiastical body the Hungarian Reformed Church in America wishes to join you in the celebration of and in the thanksgiving for this memorable event.

We wish to join you in celebrating the perseverance in fighting for this independence which also meant the free preservation of the Hungarian Reformed heritage in your congregations.

Several efforts to establish an organizational union of our two church bodies have been unsuccessful. It seems that such a union remains a dream of many of us. Not so a sincere cooperation of our Synods. We are looking forward to continue the progress in such cooperation.

We pray God to inspire leaders and people of our churches to serve the Church of Jesus Christ with one accord.

Your brother in Christ Andrew Harsanyi

DR. MILAN OPOCENSKY IS THE NEW GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE WORLD ALLIANCE OF REFORMED CHURCHES

Dr. Milan Opocensky, a minister of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and professor of theology at the Comenius theological faculty in Prague has been elected to the post of General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches to succeed Dr. Edmond Perret.

The World Alliance comprises 166 Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregational churches worldwide representing over 70 million church members. Among the member churches are the Reformed Church in Hungary and the several Hungarian Reformed Churches in the succession states (Transylvania, Slovakia, Jugoslavia, Transcarpathia and Austria). Also our Hungarian Reformed Church in America and the Hungarian Reformed Church in Brasil.

In his acceptance speech Dr. Opocensky said: “The task before us is formidable. We are frustrated with overlapping crises and have to deal with the question whether our civilization can survive, whether we can maintain our humaneness... I would like to see the World Alliance help member churches to confront these crises. .. help them to witness to Jesus Christ in their own situations... I hope that the Alliance will foster the growth of congregations, of solidarity and mutual support among themselves ...”

RELIEF SERVICE OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN BUDAPESTRÁKOSSZENTMIHÁLY FOR REFUGEES FROM RUMANIA

The Congregation has 825 members, 200 church-goers in average, and 50 volunteers in this service.

Beginning with this special work: February 1st, 1988.

Since then, we have had 4,900 registration cards with 2-3 persons on each, also total number of refugees registrated here: 12,500.

From individuals, parishes and institutes from inland and abroad we have got so far 13,500,000 forint and distributed 12,500,000 forint, over 60 ton foods and 45 ton secondhand clothes.

We can give the refugees pastoral counselling, advices on working and shelter facilities, money aids, foods and clothes. We are doing this work on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Friday afternoon there is a churchservice with some 500 participants to end the day and the whole week. Till now we have had over 40,000 participants at our meetings. (A participant can be present several times.)

The main causes of flee come to daylight during the pastoral counselling:

— political persecution;

— oppression for Hungarian origin; belonging to a confession ;

— discrimination and practical prohibition of the use of mother language;

— fear for military service (being sent to a mine, or to the Danube Channel building works);

— shortage on food and medical treatment, mostly dangerous for babies and children.

The number of refugees is still far from decreasing. They come mostly without passport. With passport there come mainly broken families, who have to leave family members behind.

With our over one year experiences we can suggest to do the following:

— to organize refugee-camps for checking the arrivals, giving them shelter for a time and managing their settlement in the countryside;

— to help the non-Hungarians to travel further to a third country as they would like to;

— not to help ethnic Hungarians to go abroad, where they would be a burden anyway; instead to ask western countries and UNO to help them at our place in many ways;

— to give priority in helping ethnic Hungarians in Rumania;

— to give realistic informations on flat-shortage in Hungary to the would-be refugees in Rumania, making clear what to calculate with (by the Hungarian, Kossuth-Radio);

— to start a well-organized housing program giving citizenship to the down-settlers on countryside helping them by financial support (e.g., long range loan);

— to do more for the reunification of broken families;

— to start a worldwide solidarity movement on the highest political level to arrange the whole situation in Rumania and^to find a long range solution for ethnic minorities over there.