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 Western world but were also affected by the negative demographics of their own ethnic group. Looking back on these one hundred ten years, it would have seemed reasonable and possible for the PCC and the RCH to have entered into some type of partnership at an earlier date. That it only happened recently is a result of missed opportunities fueled most likely by the inability of the PCC to look beyond its own cultural framework, this being dominantly rooted in the Scottish or even British tradition. There were, of course, many other factors and circumstances interspersed throughout this period which did not always favour such an undertaking, such as the First World War, the events leading up to the Union of 1925 and its aftermath, the Depression, the Second World War and then the Cold War. The number of Hungarian PCC congregations was never very great and might not have merited any more special attention than other new and struggling congregations. But beyond all these, there was, first of all, a persistent blind spot in the vision of the PCC, something which it shared with many other North American churches having their roots in Western Europe, especially of the Anglo-Saxon tradition. This resulted in a failure to recognize the fact that there existed a world to the east of Western Europe, that there existed an Eastern Europe, where the RCH —which looked back on a history dating from the time of the Reformation — was the last bastion of the Reformed tradition in the eastern reaches of this continent. To this blind spot was added another over-riding and lingering factor which hobbled the vision of the PCC until most recently. For despite its best intentions in its experiments of engaging other cultures, the bottom line in determining mission policy, at home or abroad, was the perception that to be Christian was to have the same cultural values as the PCC. It was this perception which determined how — for many decades — it engaged the native North American culture, and it was this same perception — albeit at a slightly different level — which determined how it engaged its own Hungarian PCC congregations,52 and this, naturally enough, limited its interest in the RCH. The number and extent of opportunities missed in this question over a period of time encompassing more than one hundred years is surely to be regretted, but the fact that the partnership has now been established is something which is to be celebrated. 52 J. A. Johnston (ed), No Small Jewel, Toronto, Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1995,176. Found in a report prepared by Dr. Rev. László Pándy-Szekeres for the Presbytery of Paris: "Canadian Presbyterians can conceive of integration if and when the members of other ethnic groups join them individually, relinquishing completely their ethnic background." 180 Sárospataki Füzetek 21, 2017 - 2
