Magyar Egyház, 1990 (69. évfolyam, 3-6. szám)
1990-05-01 / 3. szám
10. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ END OF STATE INTERVENTION INTO THE AFFAIRS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN HUNGARY On March 19 Prime Minister Miklós Németh and Bishop Dr. Elemér Kocsis, President together with József Somogyi, Chief Curator of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church signed an agreement invalidating the 1948 Agreement between State and the Reformed Church which among other measures took into state ownership the schools of the Reformed Church. The 1948 Agreement also opened the way to state control of church life; the State Office of Church Affairs, soon established after the Agreement, was the state organ which carried out this control until it was put out of existence by July 1, 1989. In the new Agreement the government pledged to further the process of restoration of the Reformed high schools and Colleges to function again. As a result of this agreement the Reformed College of Sárospatak was repossessed by the Church; a document, signed on March 21, the leaders of the Cistibiscan Church District and of the City of Sárospatak returned the state high school, operating in the College building, with all its equipment into church ownership (Bishop László Kürti, Professor Dr. Kálmán Újszászy and City Council President Gyula Takách were the signing officials). It is expected that the Reformed High School of Sárospatak will begin operation this coming Fall. The Reformed High School of Budapest is preparing to operation in the Fall of 1990 in the former Baár-Madas building now housing a state high school. The College of Pápa, founded in 1531, another of the famous Reformed schools and also a victim of the take-over by the State, is the next to be restored. There is a “curatorium,” named after a former famous professor István Mándi Márton, is busy raising funds to reopen the College. NEWS FROM ABROAD LATIN AMERICA. Federico Pagura, a Methodist bishop from Argentina and president of the Latin American Council of Churches said that at least 900 million people — a sixth of the world’s population — suffer chronic poverty in the Third World. POLAND. The Polish government has dissolved the State Office for Religious Affairs, set up in 1950. CUBA. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Cuba recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. It has a well equipped although moderately furnished theological seminary in Matanzas, some 90 kilometers West of Havana, situated in a beautiful campus. BRASIL — LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION. The Lutheran World Federation — LWF — at its Eighth Assembly held in Curitiba, Brasil this past January-February elected Presiding Pastor Gottfried Brakemeier of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession as its new president for the next six years with a narrow margin against Presiding Bishop Donald Sjoberg of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Gunnar Stalsett was re-elected General Secretary of the LWF. — Bishop Brakemeier succeeded Dr. Joannes Hanselmann of Munich, West Germany elected in 1987 to replace the Hungarian Bishop Dr. Zoltán Káldy who died in 1986. Bishop Káldy became the president of LWF at its Assembly in 1984 in Budapest. Because of his close ties to the Hungarian State Office of Church Affairs Bishop Káldy was widely criticized by international church circles. AUSTRALIA. The Rev. Péter Kemény who served Hungarian Lutheran and Reformed congregations in Southern and Western Australia for 40 years died August 6, 1989; he was 75 years old. Untiringly he flew the thousands of miles cross-country to bring Word and Sacrament to the congregations from Perth to Adelaide and beyond. — By the grace of God a successor was found in the person of the Rev. Attila Balia, pastor of an Australian church (Uniting Church of Kalamunda) who offered his services to the Hungarian congregation in addition to his Australian pastorate. The Rev. Balia comes from a Hungarian Reformed family, was born 1944 in Pápa, fled to Austria in 1957 then emigrated to Australia and graduated from the Presbyterian Ormond College in Melbourne. ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH WOMEN UNITED In the last 31 years, women from the area congregations gathered for Christian Fellowship Annually to grow through each other’s faith. This year the Conference of the Church Women United was held on the first Sunday of May, under the sponsorship of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Staten Island. Representatives were present from the following congregations: Carteret, NJ; Linden, NJ; Roebling, NJ; Trenton, NJ; Poughkeepsie, NY; New Brunswick, NJ and the host church Staten Island, NY. The afternoon begin with a registration at 2:30 p.m. By the time the conference began, there were 63 ladies registered from the various congregations. Opening devotions were held according to the customs of the Conference with the representation of the various churches, having scripture reading and prayers on both English and Hungarian languages.
