Fraternity-Testvériség, 1993 (71. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1993-07-01 / 3. szám
FRATERNITY Page 7 It was a very successful meeting. The Classis was organized as the Board of Home Missions suggested and an appeal was made to the respective synods to release their Hungarian congregations into the newly formed Hungarian classis. It was greeted with great enthusiasm. Another myth: The officers were not elected at this meeting, but in accordance with Hungarian church law, the local consistories were asked to vote for the dean- ministerial president, lay president, secretary and treasurer. It was decided that the secretary had to be a minister and the treasurer had to be a layman. The Trenton meeting nominated and recommended the election of the following persons: Rev. Ferenczy dean, Emil Nyitray lay president, Rev. Kalassay secretary, Pál Szabó treasurer. These people were duly elected by the local consistories in the months following the Trenton meeting. And the concept of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America was unanimously approved at this meeting. I quote the formulation of Rev. Ferenczy in his own hand-writing: “to strengthen the cause of the Hungarian mission, to unite the members of our denomination in one fraternal body; to serve the interests of our fellow believers, and to secure the future of their families... ” It was decided not to launch the operations of the Federation until there are at least 500 applicants. The hope was expressed that it will be achieved by the end of the year. The founding fathers looked at the future of the Federation as an “agency” of the church to use the terminology of our century. Or to use more classic Calvinistic expressions: The Classis is the church as an institution, the Federation is the church as an organism. But the Classis never became a reality, but the Federation is still alive today! If the minutes of this historic meeting will be found, we shall be able to clarify more details. Both Rev. Ferenczy and Rev. Kalassay started to work for the set goal: 500 applicants in six months. Unfortunately, there were some disturbing factors: Rev. Demeter left New York soon for Cleveland. Rev. Harsányi left Cleveland for Chicago and Rev. Jurányi left for good and returned to Hungary. Rev. Ferenczy’s contribution was again the greatest. He made sure that the Pittsburgh and Vicinity Hungarian Reformed Sick Benefit Society applied corporately for membership in the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. This sizeable group was the backbone of the fledgling Federation. Due to the aforementioned local problems by the end of the year, the goal of 500 was not reached. Nevertheless, Rev. Ferenczy, Mr. Nyitray and Rev. Kalassay signed the letter of invitation for the second meeting of the Classis and “convention” of the Federation to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, for February 15, 1897. We read in the minutes of the consistory in Pittsburgh that the church treasury donated twenty dollars for the printing of the proposed by-laws of the Federation. At Cleveland, the delegates decided that the official operation of the Hungarian Reformed Federation will commence at 12 o’clock noon, February 15, 1897. They started out with 320 members. Next time, we shall look at this membership. (To be continued) Aladar Komjáthy In the first year and a half, the Classis functioned very well, but it was not legalized by the Reformed Church in the United States. The Board of Home Missions accepted it and utilized it, but there were other unforeseen factors. But nobody in Trenton thought that the Church and the Federation are two separate entities. The oneness of Hungarian Reformed community was emphasized.
