Bethlen Almanac 1997 (Ligonier)

The Hungarian Reformed Federation of America

of the new church. From the very beginning, the newly organized church faced financial difficulties. Therefore, Rev. Jurányi recommended that the church and the Sick Benefit Society merge and operate under the same charter. The idea was good; however, in practice it created friction between church and society members, because the charter “required that both church and society members pay the same monthly dues.” Therefore, the merger was dissolved shortly after it was formed.

The preliminary meeting to create a united society and an organization to establish a unified church body for the Hungarian Reformed people in America was held in Pittsburgh in January 1896. Present were Ferenczy Ferenc from Pittsburgh; Sándor Harsanyi from Cleveland; Bertalan Demeter from New York; Gusztáv Jurányi from Trenton; and Sándor Kalassay from Mt. Carmel. To consecrate the plan, a second meeting was scheduled for July 4, 1896 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, according to the chronicles, the minister from Trenton, Rev. Jurányi, could not travel due to illness; therefore, the place of the meeting was shifted to Trenton, and so it was that on July 4, 1896, a small group of ministers and laymen gathered in Trenton, New Jersey, to organize the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America.

The group, though small, was fired with missionary zeal and strong faith in the institution they had set up for the common good. They felt that the society, closely allied with the churches, offered a means to practice Christian faith and love. Therefore, by February 1898, the membership of the Federation had jumped from 320 to 936. Most of the members came from the northern region of Hungary, namely Abauj, Zemplen, Ung and Bereg counties. There were 816 of the Reformed faith; 31 Lutheran, 86 Catholic and 3 of the Jewish faith.

The Trenton example shows that those who played a leading role in building the Hungarian churches in the various settlements also had a leading role in laying the foundation of our Federation. These were the Hungarian Reformed ministers together with Hungarian Calvinist laymen.

The first ten-year jubilee of the Federation was observed with a Convention in 1906, here in Trenton, where the Federation was founded. The Federation branches sent 29 representatives to this meeting. It was presided by István Molnár who proudly announced that the Federation at its first ten-year jubilee had paid out $100,000 to the beneficiaries of its deceased members. As we read from the records, after the opening address of the president, Rev. Sándor Kalassay read the ten-year history of the Federation. At the conclusion of his presentation, he made a motion asking the Federation to donate a substantial fund to the existing Orphans’

4