Fraternity-Testvériség, 1994 (72. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1994-07-01 / 3. szám
± FRATERNITY Page 3 THIRD IN OUR SERIES “ON OUR PAST LEADERS” George Dózsa: “At this time we pay tribute to Sándor Kalassay, one of the great pioneers of his generation, a foremost architect of the American Hungarian Reformed churches and societies, an avid historian, and a lover of the written word. His manifold contributions greatly enriched the formative years of the American Hungarian churches and the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. ” 1869-1950 K alassay was bom in the village of Emod in Borsod county, Hungary. He graduated from the Reformed College of Sárospatak. As a high school student in Sárospatak and also in his later years as a seminary student, he received several awards including the literary prize of the Hungarian Academy of Science - the Kazinczy prize. In 1894 he became an assistant professor at the Theological Seminary, teaching Greek and Hebrew, and working at the same time as an assistant librarian. In 1895, on the advice of his famous professor, Gusztáv P. Nagy, he accepted an invitation of the Missions Board of the Reformed Church in the United States to serve as pastor in Mount Carmel, a small coalmine town in Pennsylvania. In August of that same year, he and his young wife left Hungary and arrived in New York on September 10, 1895. Shortly after his arrival, namely on the 15th of September, he celebrated together with his colleague and friend from Sárospatak, Bertalan Demeter, the first Hungarian church service in New York City. In his book on the early history of the American Hungarian Reformed churches, Kalassay writes, “The worship service in New York, the second largest city in the world, was most impressive - Hungarian hymns filled the air, Hungarian prayers rose from Hungarian souls, and Hungarian words praised the Lord.” However interesting his sojourn in New York, he nonetheless felt very disturbed by the fact that the editors of local Hungarian newspapers had no knowledge of Mount Carmel. Kalassay felt that they should have known about the small mining community which had a church that was already chartered on June 9, 1894, and jointly shared by the Hungarian and Slovak population. It was on his way to Mount Carmel that Kalassay found out that he had to preach every Sunday in Slovak language, too. He recalls in his memories, “If I did not have the strong determination to serve the small Protestant community, I would have immediately turned back. However, I decided to stay on and start learning Slovak.” Instead of helping Kalassay learn the Slovak language, the Slovak Lutheran minister turned the people against him and even interrupted the Hungarian services. Finally, Kalassay and his Hungarian-speaking congregation, were obliged to leave the church that they had jointly shared with the Slovaks. Kalassay played an important role in the organization of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. In 1895 he wrote an article in which he called for the creation of a fraternal society that was
