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

Elements of a Triangular Relationship

PCC congregations. By 1959, there was little that appeared in the PCC press which touched on Hungarian matters, either in Europe or in Canada. The “noise” of 1956 had abated. And although, for the next several years, the paths of the three communities of our study did not intersect in any notable way, the events in Hungary of 1956 not only left lasting marks on the world but also on the PCC, even if this would bear fruit only many years later in the future.

The first subsequent stirrings of the ethnic Hungarian congregations of the PCC came in the late sixties when their representatives successfully forwarded a motion to the General Assembly that the Heidelburg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession be recognized as parallel secondary standards of the PCC. These were the historic standards of the RCH and their adoption by the PCC was interpreted by the Hungarian congregations as a recognition of their presence and contribution to the PCC. In this the PCC had taken another important step to welcome the communities which still suffered from the knowledge of the persecution of their brothers and sisters within the RCH. In order to address this latter question in some form and gain certain special dispensation to strengthen themselves for this task, an overture concerning “co-operation with ethnic groups” issuing from the Presbytery of Paris was forwarded to the 96th General Assembly in 1970.23 The response of the Assembly was: “Recommendation: That the prayer of this Overture, be granted. — Adopted.” In the wake of the recommendation above, on the surface, there seemed to be little movement within this in-Canada relationship during the next few years but behind the scenes there was a vision for the taking of a bold step and somehow extending a hand across the ocean. The tireless and compelling representation of the Hungarian lobby in this matter finally came to fruition when it was decided by the PCC committee to advise the moderator that the Reverend Dr. Hugh Davidson, acting moderator of the 100th General Assembly, would travel to Europe in the company of a PCC Hungarian minister in order to pay an official visit to the RCH in September 1974. Historically this marked a very important event in that it was the first visit ever of a PCC moderator to Eastern Europe and it was also the first attempt of the PCC to establish any contact with a church locked behind the Iron Curtain. Although, in the wake of this visit, hope of establishing some type of relationship between the two churches was sparked, this was only realized more than three decades later. The Presbyterian Record published a short account24 of the official visit to which the moderator soon received a dissenting letter25 from a Hungarian minister contesting the impression conveyed by the article that “all is well with the RCH” and in his letter the Hungarian minister went on to outline what was not well. And indeed things were not well, much as the moderator himself noted in his “reminiscences of his perambulations as a moderator”:

23 The Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the PCC, 1970: Overture no. 34.

24 DeCourcy H. Rayner, News, Presbyterian Record, November 1974,20.

25 The Reverend Dr. Hugh Davidson's correspondence 1975, Archives of the PCC.

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