Bethlen Almanac 2001 (Ligonier)
Tóparti Egyházmegye - Lakeside Classis
who will attend the 2002 classes. We have been very blessed to have such an active Sunday School. Although small in number, their enthusiasm to learn, interact and bond with one another is obvious. As in years past, the spiritual education of our children has been a combined effort on the part of very loving and gifted people. The First Hungarian Reformed Church is committed to furthering the World of God through outreach and charitable mission projects. We look for causes and opportunities that we feel allow us to demonstrate the love and teachings of Jesus Christ. Throughout the year, we have been able to make contributions to 7 home missions and 4 overseas missions, a total of 12,944 USD. We have a number of ongoing programs in the life of our church family. Each month, our adult fellowship group plans outings for interested members in an effort to strengthen our Christian bonds outside of the church setting. 2001 was the first season for our church softball team, “The First Hungarians,” who finished their eleven-game season at 2-9. The team was made up of church members, friends, and family. As a revenue generator, we rent out our Bethlen Hall for weddings. On average, we host two weddings a month and are booked through most of 2002. We had a new newsletter staff and have redesigned our newsletter, both graphically and editorially. This summer, with the encouragement of our pastor, several of our church members launched a nursing home visitation program. This endeavor has been such a blessing for the residents and spiritually enriching experience for the members of the ministry that we have expanded the program. One of our goals as a church has been to open the lines of communication and work in an ecumenical manner with other Christian denominations — to reach out in friendship and love to our Hungarian brothers and sisters in Christ. In January, the First Hungarian Reformed Church hosted an ecumenical worship service among Northeast Ohio’s Hungarian Churches. When the Partium Hungarian Christian Choir from Transylvania planned a concert at Cleveland’s St. Elizabeth’s Church in April, members of our congregation were involved in fund-raising, promotional materials, and publicity. Our pastor was the Local Coordinator of the Cleveland Concert Committee for the choir, which was comprised of Hungarian clergy and church members from six different denominations. Rev. Géczy has also been involved in the inception and continuation of monthly group meetings for ministers from 122
