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

members. By 1988, the PCC had also become sensitized to the tension in Eastern Europe and the General Assembly in June 1989 issued the following recommendations:

“»In the light of our particular ties of fellowship with the Reformed churches in Hungary and Rumania and the natural concerns of the many Canadian Presbyterians of Hungarian origin, we make the following recommendations:«

Recommendation 17 (adopted)

That the government of Canada be asked to protest in the strongest terms the well-documented repressive policies of the Rumanian government in relation to political expression, religious freedom and discrimination against ethnic minorities. Recommendation 18 (adopted)

That the PWS&D Committee be asked to monitor the needs of the Hungarian churches as they care for the refugees, with a view to drawing their needs to the attention of Canadian congregations as seems necessary.”28

Immediately following the General Assembly, an informative article29 penned by a PCC Hungarian minister etching the same situation appeared in the Presbyterian Record. Things came to head in Rumania just before Christmas 1989 when Reformed Church minister László Tőkés’ defiant stand sparked a series of events which within days toppled the totalitarian regime which had kept the country in its grips since the end of the Second World War. The upheaval came about in the wake of Rev. Tőkés having demonstrated courageous resistance to months of intensive harassment by church authorities and state police for having voiced, in a taped interview by a Canadian television crew, his protestation against —among other things— the discriminative practices of the Rumanian state and its authorities vis-á-vis the Hungarian minority. In the January 1990 and February issues of the Presbyterian Record the editor and one of the columnists focused their remarks on the rapid rate of change in the Eastern Bloc countries, attributing much of it to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s new style of leadership.30,31 This same month Nelson Mandella’s release captured the headlines but by April the Presbyterian Record’s editorial column had something to say:

“But none of these reasons justified our silence and inaction, nor can they remove the appropriate guilt that as Christians we should feel for our neglect over the long history of repression in Rumania. Christians have not been called to back winners... If nothing else, these events should call us to a new awareness of others in our world who suffer in obscurity, without hope. We are called to identify with

28 The Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the PCC, 1989, International Report.

29 Péter Szabó: Darkness in Transylvania, Presbyterian Record, July-August 1989,16-18.

30 John Congram: From the editor: Welcome to the 90s, Presbyterian Record, January 1990,6.

31 Lloyd Robertson: Perspective:The New Revolution, Presbyterian Record, February 1990,6.

202017 - 2 Sárospataki Füzetek 21 175