The Eighth Tribe, 1976 (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1976-02-01 / 2. szám

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

Page 5

LET’S SALUTE

BISHOP LAJOS ORDASS!

Of the 2.2 million Lutherans there were only half a million left in Hungary after the dismemberment of her historical territory in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. But this minority has gained international fame and respect beyond its proportions.

In our own times the Rt. Rev. Dr. Lajos Ordasa, Lutheran bishop, has greatly contributed to this recognition. He is rightly counted among the outstanding church leaders in Hungary who have chosen the ways of martyrs.

Dr Ordass was born on February 6, 1901—hence we celebrate his 75th birthday—in the village of Torzsa where his father was a teacher in the Lutheran day school.

At the time of the Treaty of Trianon young Lajos Ordass was studying theology and philosophy in Sopron, and so he became cut off from his parents, to fend for himself, as Torzsa had to be ceded to Yugoslavia. Following graduation he continued with advanced studies at Halle, Germany. During this time his scholarship lost its value because of postwar inflation; thus he worked as a miner to maintain himself and his studies.

In 1927 he went to Sweden and eventually established an intimate relationship with Archbishop Nathan Söderblom, who was the leader of the budding ecumenical movement. His Scandinavian contacts and his linguistic ability served him advantageously in church diplomacy. A significant portion of his literary activity showed itself in translations of religious and secular works from Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic into Hungarian.

After almost two decades in fruitful parish ministry, the Montana Diocese of the Lutheran Church in Hungary (now annexed into the Southern Diocese) had elected him to the bishopric, to succede Bishop Sándor Raffay.

He assumed his office in turbulent times. With the end of World War II Europe was in ruins ... and perhaps Hungary suffered the most in this tremendous upheaval. The future of the Lutheran Church, just as that of the other churches, was rather uncertain. However from many a church in the West came relief, encouragement, and support.

It was in 1947 that Bishop Ordass was sent to Lund (Sweden) to represent his church at the formation of the Lutheran World Federation. World Lutheranism paid a high tribute to the suffering

February, 1976

Hungarian church through him when he was elected as a vice-president of the new Federation.

Just before Lund he was able to spend some months in the United States, having visited the Hungarian Lutheran congregations here. He conferred with many a Lutheran church leader of this country and witnessed faithfully to the surging faith of Hungary’s suffering Christians. The bishop had gained a lot of friends for the Hungarian cause. All of them regarded him as one of the giants of faith.

There were plans that the American Lutherans would collect ten million dollars for the churches all over Europe and that the Hungarian church would share in such benefits. Out of these plans did the communist regime fabricate certain allegations which led to Bishop Ordass’ arrest and incarceration.

By the time he returned home from the U.S.A. and Sweden, the situation of the church had grown extremely bad. He, too, tried heroically to defend the rights and freedoms of the church, opposing in particular the confiscation and closing of the great Lutheran schools. Among these was, e.g., the “Fasori Gimnázium” (= the Lutheran High School in Budapest) which had a unique reputation worldwide: out of its alumni three have gained eventually the Nobel Prize!

In 1948 Bishop Ordass was effectively silenced by the regime. He was accused of currency manipulations and of withholding information about the antici-