Sárospataki Füzetek 21. (2017)

2017 / 2. szám - RESEARCH PAPERS-FORSCHUNGSMATERIALIEN - Pándy-Szekeres Dávid: Elements of a triangular relationship: the presbyterian church in canada, ethnic Hungarian congregations of the presbyterian curch in canada and the reformed church of hungary

Dávid Pándy-Szekeres

them are unrecognized. They include the men and women who worked tirelessly to serve their churches and their people. They have given hope to the disappointed, eased the pain of the homesick and the lonely, and encouraged many to persevere in the struggle of a new existence. Although the Hungarian-Canadian churches can be faulted for fostering ethnic disunity, there can be little doubt that without them Hungarian community life would have been poorer and the loneliness of the individual Hungarian immigrant more painful.”2

The overall denominational demographics of the Hungarian population in Europe indicate that, since the counter-Reformation, the proportion of Roman Catholics to Reformed Church members is approximately three to one. Given that emigration from Hungarian areas in Europe was not sparked by religious persecution, it follows that the emigrant Hungarian population in Canada reflects roughly these same denominational proportions. Having already noted the important role attributed to the church community in the lives of Hungarian settlers, it comes as no surprise that these settlers established faith communities in their new environment as soon as they were able to. This paper will attempt to explore the history and characteristics of the relationship which was to evolve among three distinct communities: the Hungarian-Canadians of the Calvinist tradition, the already-established PCC and the Reformed Church of Hungary (RCH). The scope of the study is limited to an analysis based on the principal sources of the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the PCC (selected years between 1895 and 2006) and the Presbyterian Record (years 1956-59, 1974-75, 1989-2007).

The first phase of this discussion will focus on the role and evolution of locally established Calvinist church communities within the Hungarian-Canadian community and the character of the relationship which these local ethnic church communities maintained with the PCC. The discussion will subsequently be expanded to include the RCH and will trace the events whereby the PCC was able to establish the presently-existing partner relationship with this church.

Although the very first Hungarian-Canadian congregation established within the framework of the PCC was the one in Otthon3 (Saskatchewan) in 1895, the most important early settlement of Hungarian Calvinists emerged after 1900 near Kipling (Saskatchewan). The core of the population of this community, which the settlers called Békevár,4 came directly from the Hungarian village of Botrágy5 in northeastern Hungary. The community of Otthon, on the other hand, was established by

2 N. F. Dreisziger - M. L. KovAcs - Paul Bődy - Bennett Kovrig: Struggle and Hope: The Hungarian-Canadian Experience, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1982.

3 Equivalent in English to "Home".

4 Equivalent in English to "Fortress of Peace".

5 The village of Botrágy was within the political boundaries of Hungary, in the northeast, until 1921 and later also in 1939-1945. From the end of the Second World War until 1991, it was within the Soviet Union, and since 1991, it is within Ukraine, near its western border.

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