Fraternity-Testvériség, 1968 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1968-06-01 / 6. szám
Dr. Zoltán Beky, President: Greetings To The Convention! In behalf of the entire membership of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America we convey the heartfelt greetings to the delegates of the twenty-eighth Convention, which has been called together in our Bethlen Home, Ligonier, Pennsylvania. This meeting will be a Convention of historic significance. We hope that the entire American Hungarian Reformed community is with us and will be with us in prayers and in the spirit of brotherly love. The delegates of this Convention were elected by the membership of our branches, but in fact, they represent our entire American Hungarian Reformed community. There are among them delegates who have carried the burden of the work and responsibility for our Federation through many decades, not only as leaders in their individual branches, but also as delegates in many previous Conventions. They have indeed contributed their best to the great progress of our Federation. Without their love, dedication and commitment our Federaion could not have become such a great fraternal organization as it is today. We greet them with fervent prayers that their presence and participation in this Convention may be a blessing for the best of our Federation. We greet also those who have been elected to be delegates for the first time. They are not new in the life of our fraternal organization. They deserved this confidence and their election by their branches through their promising and faithful performance in the field. They have already shown the loyalty of their hearts and the best of their talents to our beloved Federation and they are the good promise for the future of our Federation. We have to emphasize that this is the Convention at which our Canadian brethren will be represented by their elected delegate for the first time. The Canadian work of our Federation was started during the past four years. To use a Biblical expression: God has opened to us a new door. This new door opened for us new perspectives and new opportunities. The presence of the delegate from the Canadian branches is another sign and assurance of God’s mercy and continuing blessing upon our work as a Christian community and as a fraternal organization, the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. It is with thanksgiving that we can say, we have never had such a representative Convention, which is now the fullest representation of the entire North American Hungarian Reformed community as this year’s Convention is. As we speak about the impressive representative feature of our Convention, we do not use this word only in the geographic sense. It is also true in another meaning: We believe that we have arrived to that important stage of our history that our delegates are not only here because they were elected by the branches, but because they are the very best of our membership and all of them are really experts, professionals in this field, which requires now more understanding and more skills than ever before. We cannot ignore the fact, that our Convention is also a true and realistic representation of our entire American Reformed life. Ministers, elders, leaders in our churches are among our delegates, people, who have demonstrated their loyalty and ability also in the leadership of our American Hungarian Churches. We have to add to this observation another one: all strata of the many different groups within our community are truly represented at our Convention: First generation immigrants, their sons—representing our second and third generations—, former displaced persons who came to our country after the apocalyptic events of the Second World War and the refugees of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. All these groups are parts of our community and their presence at this Convention demonstrates again that the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America has a meaningful purpose and service to all our community. We have good hope that this truly representative Convention will do a magnificent work and the results achieved in our deliberations will bring good fruits in the future life and service of our Federation. For this we should pray fervently and without ceasing. This is what we ask from all our brethren who personally cannot be present—we ask our entire Hungarian Reformed community to pray to Almighty God for this Convention. It was God’s mercy that our Federation came into being and was blessed abundantly and it is through His mercy that we may abide in the future. Every Convention has as its primary task to measure the achievements of the past four years. What have we done and what are the tasks that remain to be done? We can point our many great and splendid achievements and we do so with joy and thanksgiving. We have to admit, however, that there are many tasks which have to be accomplished in the future. To solve our problems—to find the best solutions: it will be the major task of this Convention and we need the wholehearted cooperation of all the delegates. At such a Convention, there is always a meeting of the past, the pres10