Amerikai Magyar Reformátusok Lapja, 1920 (21. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)

1920-01-17 / 3. szám

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. _ MEGJELENIK MINDEN SZOMBATON.

VOLUME XXL ÉVFOLYAM, 1920 Jan. 17. No. 3. Szám.

Publication office: 1001 Manufacturers’ bldg. FiUsburgh, Pa.

Editors residence address: REV. ALEX HAR SANYI, 1008—10th Ave. Homestead, Pa.

REFORMATION DAY.

Sunday, January 18, 1920.

A Day of Prayer for our Reformed Brethren on the Continent of Europe

Dear Brother:

Reformation Sunday, January 18, 1920, has been designated by four of the District Synods of our Reformed Church at their meetings in 1919 (Eastern, Potomac, Pittsburgh and Ohio) as a Day of Prayer anr Intercession for our suf- ering Reformed brethren on the continent of Europe. Doubtless the other Synods would have taken the same action had the matter been brought to their attention. For Europe is today the great suffering continent (except the near East of Asia), and among the sufferers of Europe are many Reformed Churches, ministers and members.

Reformed Church of Hungary in Grave Danger.

No Church has suffered more severely than the Reformed Church of Hungary. This Church was one of the largest of the Calvinistic family, numbering about three millions of adherents. That great Church has been first torn to pieces and then torn inside out. First Rumania and Serbia took away large districts from Hungary. Rumania took Transylvania in which are over 600 Reformed parishes and 700 Reformed ministers. Now neither Rumania nor Serbia grant religious liberty. Their state Church is the Greek and other congregations as the Reformed can worship only with difficulty. Rumania has forbidden the Classes of the Reformed Church to meet.

Here is an important cause for prayer. Our prayers should go up that God will so incline the League of Nations to adopt a clause compelling all nations belonging to it to grant religious liberty. The Reformed Churches of Transylvania have cast themselves on the Reformed

and Presbyterian Alliance for help. Our Churches should therefore rise up to their aid. Then in addition to this dismemberment of the Hungarian Reformed Church came an explosion from within. The Bolsheviki have torn apart the internal structure of the Reformed Church. The Conventus, which was the governing body of that Church, has been dissolved. The Reformed pastors who had never in their lives been ordinary workmen were deposed and thrown out of work. Some of them even became gardeners. We have had a postcard from one of the leading pastors sayings, “I am sick and am at the end of my resources. Cannot the American brethren do something for me and the Hungarians?” His condition is a type of scores of ministers and of thousands of members of our Church there. These people are now as sheep without a shepherd, and if our Saviour could pity such, so ought we from the bottom of our hearts. Our prayers should be that the Reformed Church of Hungary, which has had such a splendid history, might be preserved and come out of her trials purified and blessed.

Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in the U. S. Philadelphia, Pa.

CSELEKEDJÜNK.

Az amerikai magyar reformátusság áldozatkészségét soha senki nem vonhatta kétségbe akkor, a mikor ősi hitünk, magyar fajunk érdekében tettre szólítottak a körülmények.

A kételkedőnek csak azt a sok szép templomot kell megnéznie, a mit az amerikai magyar reformátusság saját erejéből felemelt és fenntart és már az is elég volna bárkit is meggyőzni arról, hogy Amerika magyar reformátusságában hatalmas erő van.

Az amerikai magyar reformátusság legnagyobb intézménye, az Amerikai Magyar Református Egyesület legutóbbi közgyűlésén is oly szép jelét adta áldozatkészségének, a mikor vagyonának egyheted részét