Bethlen Almanac 1997 (Ligonier)
Amerikai Magyar Református Egyház
CARTERET, NJ Pastor: Rev. Peter L. Toth Chief Elder: Lenny Sendelsky Hungarian Reformed Church of Carteret, NJ Carteret, New Jersey Miracles still happen in an age when ethnic churches have hard time to envision their future. We accomplished a lot, proving that we have hoped not for the past only, but we want to enter the 21 st century as the community of believers settling in Carteret, New Jersey. My almost eight years in town can be characterized as a period of renovations, at least as far as our buildings are concerned. But the last 12 months we really did something. Our parsonage was gutted, and we built a new kitchen and four new bedrooms from what we called the manse before. A lot of our members participated under the supervision of Chief Elder Lenny Sendelsky. Let me mention Vice Chief Elder István Gergely and the following presbyters: Frank Alexái, Joseph Timari, Jr., Viktor Franyo, Ernest Jenei, Alex George, Pearl Hatten, Helen Sheridan, and others. I was glad when some of the younger generation showed up to help with the project. They were: Joseph Kovács, Ralph Denton and Eric Palmer. Many of our supporters backed us up with their donations, and I do not have enough space here to thank them all by mentioning their individual names. It was good to see our church family doing so great things together. When spring came, we started some work in our Bethlen Hall. We needed new entrance doors, ceramic floor tiles, and we had to resurface the whole hall area, besides the other minor repairs. This is just to speak of our buildings challenging our fundraising activities to meet the needs. However, if we had not done a lot in this field, we could not have balanced our budget. Our Lorantffy Guild under the leadership of Pearl Hatten, our Men’s Club with president Timari, and of course our most productive Special Events projects chaired by Judy Sendelsky made outstanding generous efforts to provide the necessary means. By the end of 1996, we had to shrink our money reserves substantially. This fact means a challenge for the coming year when we are going to celebrate the 95th Anniversary of our Congregation and the 90th Anniversary of the dedication of our church building. I am looking forward to some recognition from all our American and Hungarian organizations. Our church life is continuous and stable. We have a fair attendance at the worship services - 30 some for the English and approximately 14 for the Hungarian services. I realize that since we have only 130 voting members we may be more active than some other bigger churches. 125
