Calvin Synod Herald, 1980 (80. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1980-07-01 / 7-8. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD THE CALVIN SYNOD “This article was prepared at the request of the Office for Church Life and Leadership as part of a forthcoming publication, “What Does the Local Church Leader Need to Know about Calvin Synod?” Among the 39 conferences of the United Church of Christ, there is one which is called “Synod” and listed among the 7 regions as “non-geographic.” Of course, its name is “The Calvin Synod”; but why are they different and unique? The Calvin Synod is a conference of the United Church of Christ consisting of churches that have been organized by Hungarian Reformed immigrants since 1891. In order to understand their place and role in our denomination, we have to know a little bit of their history. THE REFORMED CHURCH IN HUNGARY It is a little known fact that the “mother church” of the Calvin Synod people is one of the largest Reformed church bodies in the world: according to the census of 1910 there were 2,603,381 Calvinists in Hungary, about 250,000 in U.S.A., and about 150,000 in other parts of the world. When the Protestant Reformation spread throughout Europe, the Hungarian people eagerly accepted the Gospel as their only comfort in a national tragedy: the forces of Suleiman II crushed the Hungarian army in 1526 at Mohács and a great part of Hungary was occupied by the Turks for more than 150 years. In their distress they turned to God and their faith-disciplined by the II. Helvetic Confession and the Heidelberg Cathechism — produced martyrs, galley slaves, missionaries, national heroes, statesmen and artists during the 450 years of their existence. They have been Psalm-singing people, emphasizing religious education, doctrinal faithfulness, and administrative accountability. The basic unit was the local congregation, but several congregations bound themselves in a classic, and several classes formed a Synod. The classis was headed by a dean, and the Synod by a bishop who was elected by the congregation to a life-long term of office. There were 5 synods before World War I. IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA The first influx from Hungary toward America started after the collapse of Hungary’s War of Independence: now the Austrian-Russian forces crushed them in 1849. It was soon followed by the masses of the rural-agrarian, landless proletariats who regained freedom from 350 year old serfdom, but was unable to eke out a living in Austria-Hungary. The total number of emigrants who left Hungary for America before World War I is variously estimated as between 2,200,000 to 2,600,000. Most of them settled where hard work in steel mills and mines was available: in the Chicago area, around Cleveland, Ohio, in Pennsylvania, and on the North-East seaboard. CHURCH REGINNINGS The first Hungarian Reformed church services in the United States were conducted in 1852 when Louis Kossuth, the champion of Hungarian liberty visited this country. Soon after his visit, however, this work was discontinued. In 1881 the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. started Hungarian Reformed church services also in New York City, but this undertaking, too, gradually diminished. Lasting church life among Hungarian Reformed people started only when the peasant masses reached these shores. Unlike other immigrated groups, the Hungarian Reformed people had no ministers of their own and, therefore, they had to turn to American clergymen when baptismal, wedding, funeral services were needed. Thus, through the effort of Dr. Heller, a minister of the Reformed Church in the U.S. at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, the Westmoreland Classis asked the General Synod of the Reformed Church in the U.S. ‘‘to take action toward supplying the Hungarians ... with the Gospel.” As a result, the Rev. Gustav Jurányi was secured in 1890 as the first “missionary” to the Hungarian immigrants. Soon the Rev. John Kovács arrived and churches were organized in Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1891. In two years, 20 congregations were organized often by persons who had “a different piety from the established mind of the Hungarian peasants.” In 1896, a Hungarian Classis was organized under the pain of double loyalty: the crouo considered itself as part of the mother church in Hungary, but did not want to break relationship with its suoporter, the Reformed Church in the U.S. either. (To be continued) Dr. John Butosi WHERP ART THOU, LORD? The parish priest, of austerity, Climbed to a high church steeple To be nearer to God, that he might hand down His word upon the people. So in sermon script he daily wrote What he thought was sent from heaven. And dropped it down on the people’s heads Two times one day in seven. In his age. God said: “Come down and die.” And he cried out from his steeple: “Where art thou, Lord?” And the Lord replied: “Down here among my people.” Borrowed from CONVERSATION Wilmington, Mass. United Methodist Church
