Bethlen Naptár, 1958 (Ligonier)
Highlights in Hungarian Life…
BETHLEN NAPTÁR 237 THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN ENGLAND The Hungarian Reformed Church in England started its work among the refugees in 1948. After some years of devoted pastoral work by Rev. L. Nagy, Rev. L. Vatai and Rev. Kovács, the Elders have invited the Rev. S. Varga to take over the ministry of the Church in 1951. Up to 1956 there existed several smaller Churchcommunities throughout the country but owing to various difficulties they have never been able to become selfsupporting congregations, except for the London congregation. The Church in London held regular services every Sunday, the others have met from time to time all depending on hired or loaned premises. The services were taken in turn by Rev. S. Varga, Rev. F. Kovács and guest speakers from other English Churches. Several Elders and deacons, first and foremost among them Mr. I. Jeney and Mr. L. Füsti-Molnár from Bradford have been active in promoting the work of the Church. The Elders in London have organised meetings in their homes, or visited families and showed themselves willing in helping personal problems like finding accommodation or work for those who were in difficulty owing to lack of language or insufficient knowledge of circumstances in the new country. Leaders of the three Christian Churches, the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran and the Reformed have combined forces in organizing meetings to celebrate national festivities. The Reformed Church in London held an annual Christmas Fair, to which articles of artistic value were contributed by many women members of the Church. The members of the Church in 1951 numbered about 1500, many of them living in great distances from one another in various parts of England. This number has constantly diminished owing to a continuous flow of emigration, in spite of that, however, there was a steady growth in the number of those who were willing to take an active part in the work of the Church. In 1955-56 the number of active members on roll was 235, to which one had to add about 400-700 who were interested in the work of the Church but were unable attend regularly. In London there appeared about 25-70, in the country about 12-25 people at every service. In November and in the following months in 1956, about 23,000 refugees arrived in the United Kingdom. 5,000 of these have already left for Canada, several hundred have gone or are waiting for emigration to various other parts of the Commonwealth. While this report is being drawn up, most of the remaining refugees have obtained work, many have found permanent homes but there are a few hundred who are still without work or proper accommodation. In the latter group we must mention first of all the miners and those with families. The case of students, both younger and at University-age, present a difficult problem. Owing to lack of funds and
