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 “The Reformed Church in Hungary, for example, is wrestling with the age-old problem of Church and State in a context which we in Canada know nothing about. [...] Over a hundred years ago our ancestors had a taste of it [...] but in those early days the contest was not so much church versus state, as between Church versus church contesting for support from the state. Perhaps we are so cosy in our relations with the State of Canada as to render ourselves weak if not powerless to minister to the State.”26 Communication between the two church bodies had in short order returned to the non-existent status of pre-visit times.27 It is not known if the RCH was disappointed in there not being any follow-up on its part to the opening overture of the PCC, but for the clergy and elders of the Hungarian PCC congregations, the lack of any response from the RCH was a source of grave frustration, given that they had been instrumental in helping the PCC leadership to its decision of approving such a visit. Having perceived their own PCC as the church not overly interested in taking initiative in establishing a relationship with the seemingly embattled RCH, the Hungarian PCC congregations, for the most part, hereafter abandoned their vision of outreach via the official channels of the PCC towards the RCH and concentrated on their service closer to home, most often within their own ethnic community. The PCC itself took the lack of response in stride and carried on as before. For close to the next fifteen years nothing much in the progress of events in Eastern Europe caught the attention of the PCC. The Hungarian PCC congregations, however, had been voicing great consternation — since the early eighties — at the extensive persecution being methodically administered to Hungarian minorities in Rumania and in Czechoslovakia. Because these minorities identified strongly with their churches, the majority population state authorities did not hesitate in harassing churches and their 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. Except for the very occasional exchange of personal letters between Rev. Dr. Hugh Davidson and Rev. Dr. József Pungur, there was no further official communication. Having freshly returned from studies in Edinburgh and therefore competent in English, Rev. Pungur was given the task by the host RCH of being the principal local escort of the moderator's party in September 1974. Subsequent to the moderator's visit, Rev. Pungur was eventually officially entrusted with a teaching position at a seminary in Kenya. After serving a term and facing an unexplained recall to Hungary full of multiple uncertainties in 1983, he decided to accept a call to the Hungarian PCC congregation in Edmonton, Alberta. For this move the RCH decided to defrock him and strip him of his doctoral degree (he was reinstated in 1990 by the RCH after the collapse of the Communist government). It was Rev. Dr. László Pándy-Szekeres, Rev. Davidson's travelling companion in 1974, who provided the inspiration to Rev. Pungur to accept the call to Edmonton. When asked about the reason for the RCH's not responding to the PCC's overtures for partnership in 1974, Rev. Dr. Pungur was uncertain, citing even favourable articles reporting the moderator's visit in the RCH's national church weekly at the time. Without having consulted the archives of neither the RCH nor of the Hungarian state, the best guess would be crediting the disruption to the persuasive intervention of the Hungarian state authorities. 174 Sárospataki Füzetek 21, 2017-2
