Bethlen Naptár, 1959 (Ligonier)
Bethlen Almanac
26 BETHLEN ALMANAC Church and Population Today the Church at Fitzroy is very well attended. The average attendance is nearly 200 per Sunday. That is double what it was a year ago. But, proportionally this number of attendance is very poor. (Out of 4,000 only 200?!) We find that the Church attendance was improving year by year since 1949. From 1948-1956 there was a sound proportion in the number of churchattenders and the population. Beginning with 1957 this proportion went out of balance. The population grew suddenly and the churchattendance did not grow proportionally with the new number of population. The disproportion has its dangers; if the Church is not able to influence its population in which is wittnessing some other factors will influence the community. Before 1956, there were no Hungarian “Cases” (or very few of them) before the Courts, in daily papers or news on the air. Now almost everyday the daily papers report on Hungarians. Drunkenness, theft, murder cases, vagrancy, larceny, family disorders, nervous breakdowns etc. Beside the moral dangers there are spiritual dangers too. Regarding their attitude towards the Church, the Hungarians can be classified as follows: Those who live in Australia since many many years (25-35 years) if they are not hostile they are mostly indifferent towards the Hungarians who newly arrived and organized themselves in Churches. Those who arrived between 1948-1950 to Australia, they are “political minded” people mostly. These Hungarians left Hungary in 1944-45 years. They do not have any experiences with the present Hungarian People’s Republic. Many of these people feel that they live in exile, the life in Australia is only temporary, and the Churches mission is: to keep alive in its members the national instinct, educate the children according to the Hungarian traditions, and suggest to the believers that the return to Homeland is very soon. Everything being just temporary there is no need for an established Church in Australia and if there is one, it should be a political “underdog” only. The third group is, the group of those Hungarians who arrived to Australia during the years 1951-52-53. These people lived under the Hungarian People’s Republic’s regime. The majority happily joins the Church-life; takes part in the different activities, enjoys the free life. But a few of them act differently. They are suspicious towards the Church, critical towards the minister and elders and mostly unsatisfied with the Churchlife. They seldom attend the
