Fraternity-Testvériség, 1956 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1956-04-01 / 4-5. szám

32

FRATERNITY

whose vibrant personality, pulsating energy and Prussian General-like demeanor left an ineradicable impression on my mind, then in its formative stage. For years afterwards when someone mentioned the Federation, I instinctively thought of Mr. Molnár. (A couple of years ago I spent a very pleasant afternoon, one wintry Saturday, in Chicago with his son, Paul, who used to be quite active, along with a few of us, in our National Young People’s Conference — just reminiscing.) Oh, the result of the contest? Must have been “fixed”, for it was I who won it — both the 50 dollars and the honor! To this very day the name of Stephen Molnár and the Hungarian Reformed Federation are synonymous.

The most picturesque way I know of describing the common origin of our churches and our Federation is to say that both had their beginnings in the same fountainhead — the faith our fathers brought with them. The organization of the church preceded that of the Federation by a few years, and that was as it should be. What is of more significance: the people, the churchmen — both clergy and laity — who founded the church and the Federation — were the self-same people! And it wasn’t merely a coincidence. That would be over-simplifying it. Destiny or, shall I say, GOD had a hand in it somewhere. Our fathers felt that they definitely needed both — the Church and the Federation. That feeling is still alive. While man may not live by bread alone, he still needs bread to keep his body wedded to his soul. In this term of reference, “bread” is the symbol of everything the Federation gives, the tangible and the intangible alike.

I am wondering whether you are fully aware of what the Federation does in the broad field of compassionate service; the thousands of dollars it gives annually to the Orphan’s and Old People’s Home in Ligonier; the displaced and dispossessed men, women and children it has saved from misery and even death; the churches it has helped to build by making substantial loans to them; the scholarships and contest prizes it has established . . . Having been on the Board of Managers of the Bethlen Home for several years now, I have first-hand and personal knowledge of at least a part of the work of charity the Federation is doing.

Then, too, there are the intangibles, those values which you cannot measure in dollars and cents. Here stands a fraternal organization — like a moral force, as it were — that spells brotherhood, that underwrites decency, that engenders patriotism. And, Brother, you are a part of it!

While the men at the top, whose professional know-how has charted many a safe course on the rough economic seas, deserve much praise — we must not forget the hundreds of local branch managers and officers who have become the veritable underpinnings for the whole expanding structure of the Federation. These are the unsung heroes! These are the men and women who keep personal contact with the rank and file of the membership; men and women who must — and do — embody the spirit of the Federation. The dues-paying members see them and them only, and what they see must reflect in every phase and detail the total picture of the Federation. Our strength, I submit, lies here — at the very grass-roots of fraternal life. They deserve not only