Calvin Synod Herald, 1980 (80. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1980-01-01 / 1-2. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 5 GABOR BETHLEN - 400TH ANNIVERSARY -Gabor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, one of the greatest men in the history of the Reformed Church in Hungary, was born in 1580 in Marosillye. He was bom into a noble family. His father died when he was still very young. According to the customs of those days, he was raised in the prince’s court, and this is where he received his education. When he was a young man, he was sent on a mission to Turkey by Gabor Báthory, Prince of Transylvania. Here he became well acquainted with the Turkish Court. Due to the war, the Turkish Sultan deposed Prince Báthory, and on May 1, 1613, named Gabor Bethlen in his stead as Prince of Transylvania. The National Assembly meeting in Kolozsvár on October 23, 1613, elected Bethlen Prince of Transylvania and he ruled until his death in Gyulafehervar on November 15, 1629. Between the Austrian and Turkish Empire, Bethlen secured a semi-independent principality for the Hungarian Transylvania. He took part in the 30 Years War, invaded upper Hungary and was elected King of Hungary in 1620 in Besztercebánya. He initiated four military campaigns against Ferdinand II, and in Nikolsburg, secured a peace treaty in favor of religious and political liberty. During his 16 year rule, he never lost a battle, and with his army and personal diplomacy, he made a haven for his people, and for his country, secured peace and honor. He attained fame, industrial, financial and educational progress for his homeland. He established a college in the capital city of Gyulafehervar, and supported the education of the students. He was of the Reformed faith, but he did not discriminate against other religions. He accorded nobility to the ministers of his faith in a decree on July 13, 1629. His motto “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31) appears in the coat-or-arms of our Church and Synod. Gabor Bethlen is remembered by the Hungarian nation and especially by the Reformed Church as one of the greatest rulers, and a faithful member and patron of his Church. Dr. Francis Vitéz LETTER TO ALUMNI OF HUNGARIAN REFORMED ORIGIN Dear Fellow Alumni, You may well remember the educational system of our Hungarian Reformed Church in Hungary; the elementary, middle and highest levels. The Church instituted schools in order to give the very best religious and secular education to her members. Here in the United States, our churches also tried to establish a similar educational system, but because of our small numbers, only the elementary level was reached. The majority of our membership lived close to our organized churches in the early years, and after World War I, some churches were resettled. While the major portion of our members still remained close to the church, our young people, especially the college youth, became dispersed all over the land and joined the American Protestant congregations. Through this letter we are appealing to all alumni, asking them to support the Calvin Synod Herald, to become readers of our 80 year old paper. Some are readers, but far too many are not. We ask all our readers to extend an invitation to your friends, to your fellow alumni to subscribe to our paper. Send your alumni friends addresses to the editor along with the $5.00 subscription fee and also send your personal data which may be used for a survey. A previous attempt was made to survey alumni of Hungarian Reformed origin, but only a handful of responses were received. Many papers would be needed to cover every field of interest, but we have only this one paper. In our Calvin Synod Herald we are trying to reach both English and Hungarian readers, those who join in our congregations, and those who are too far from any Hungarian Reformed church, we reach to our brethren in Hungary and to our sisters and brothers in diaspora all over the world. We ask everyone to support the paper so that we may extend our subscriptions even further. In the hope that you will make every effort to subscribe to the paper and will be an eager agent to gather more subscriptions, in the name of our editorial board, I remain In His Service Dr. Francis Vitéz
