Fraternity-Testvériség, 1989 (67. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
1989-04-01 / 2. szám
PAGE 10 TESTVÉRISÉG Hope College Students busy themselves sending clothing, money, and school supplies to Sárospatak. New leadership in church and state; new laws legitimizing new organizations and societies; new discussion of alternative ways of doing things; a new acknowledgement of past mistakes, and an openness to new ideas are all harbingers, we believe, of better days ahead. There is also a new ferment and desire for improvement, and a determination on the part of many to keep things moving in the same direction. Inasmuch as all this is common knowledge to readers of this magazine, substantiation is unnecessary. Proof in the educational field is the admission of government officials that the takeover of "Reformed colleges with a great tradition" may have been a mistake. Hence the willingness to give those schools back to the church if there is a desire for their return and the church is able to maintain them. The opening of a Lutheran school in Budapest is scheduled for this autumn, and the former Baar-Madas school of the Reformed Church in Budapest will soon be reopened under the control of a board of trustees representing the four regional synods of the church. Those of us who have had an association with the former Sárospatak Reformed Academy hope that it too may soon function as a school of the church. Founded in 1531, during the early years of the Reformation as Hungary's first evangelical school, Sárospatak has had an inspiring history as a bastion of learning and faith. Its return to the church would signalize more than anything the fundamental significance of the changes that have already occurred and the expectation of further improvement in the relationships between the nation, the Reformed Church, and education. My own association with Sárospatak goes back to the days immediately following the Second World War. The students at Hope College, a school of the Reformed Church in America, wanted to "adopt" a sister institution that had been ravaged during the war. Sárospatak was chosen and, as college chaplain, I had the privilege of advising the students and carrying on the correspondence. As the project grew and substantial sums of money were needed for food On the banks of the Kiver Bodrog
