Calvin Synod Herald, 1986 (86. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1986-06-01 / 3. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 2 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA completed work and ordination plans of three new pastors in our midst, Peter Bo­dor, Zsolt Takacs and András Czecze. We all congratulate them and wish and pray for the spirit and the power of God Al­mighty in their lives and in their ministry to our people. We also salute licentiate Daniel J. Borsay, the elected student pastor of the Springdale, Pennsylvania Church and the Reverends Steven G. P. Strickler, Lajos Medgyesi, Raymond Raiser, Stephen Szi­lagyi and Dr. Ferenc Vitéz, at their instal­lations at the Magyar Reformed Church of Manville, New Jersey, the Fairport Har­bor, Ohio, Hungarian Reformed Church, the Dayton Hungarian Reformed Church, The First Hungarian Reformed Church of Cleveland and the Rossville, New York, Hungarian Reformed Church. We greet with felicitation The Rev. Bela Poznan on his ordination at The First Hungarian Reformed Church of New York and The Rev. Eugene Z. Szabó, newly elected Dean of the Eastern Classis as he is making his installation plans at the South Norwalk Hungarian Reformed Church. Our lay ministry program is also grow­ing. The Church and Ministry Committee interviewed and enrolled in the Lay Min­istry Program Mr. John Csuti and Mr. Ernest Petrovich from the First Hungar­ian Reformed Church of Cleveland and Mr. Zoltán Sutto and Mr. Tibor Nagy from the Flint Hungarian Reformed Church. They all were assigned a min­isterial advisor to help them in their work. At the Tuesday night banquet we joy­fully celebrated the Golden Anniversary of The Rev. Victor Orth’s Ordination. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Desmond Parragh, as Master of Ceremony, unfolded before us the enchanting variety, richness and accomp­lishments of 50 years’ fruitful ministry. There is a very healthy sign in the United Church of Christ of the pendelum swing­ing back toward spirituality. Our General Secretary, Dr. Szucs, recommended to the Synodical Council in their September 1985 meeting the implementation of pastoral retreats to build up trust level and spiri­tuality amongst our pastors, presbyters and church leaders. Now the Rev. Dr. Paul Westcoat reported “spiritual renewal” as one of the four priorities of our denomi­nation. Our United Evangelism and Church Extension Committee recom­mended to make this a priority of our congregations in The Calvin Synod. It was approved. Dean Aaron Elek in his presen­tation on Priorities, that was first presen­ted on the Church Workers’ Conference, in Allen Park, Michigan, on September 29, 1985, listed as his first priority the Scrip­tural, that is the spiritual foundations of our churches. The Rt. Rev. Dr. John Butosi as Chairman of the Committee on Reports of the Bishop and Conference Council, also picked up the ball and made a recommendation for a “life style in ac­cordance with the scriptural insight of the Reformation”, pointing our Synod toward spiritual revival of prayer, Bible study and retreats. It was readily accepted. It is apparent, that our concerned church leaders and pastors all recognize the absolute necessity of a “spiritual revival” in our membership. The major theme of our yearly meeting was “Dealing With Church-Related Stress”. Dr. Erwin Betts succinctly pointed out that pastors are “resident holy men”, whose life must reflect peace, serenity and hap­piness. For only their life style of handling stress can give validity to their works. Jesus Christ was not a person of stress and we all have to give room for grace and the power of God to take over in our lives. There were five pertinent presentations which resulted concrete recommendations passed by The Annual Meeting. Dean Aaron Elek spoke on “Present Day Prior­ities In Our Churches”, as we mentioned previously. Dr. Laslo Medyesy projected the picture of “The Hungarian Reformed Ecumene”. This presentation prescribed the necessity of a recommendation passed, that our Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Zoltán Ki­rály and Auxiliary Bishop Rev. Dr. Laslo Medyesy visit our sister churches in Austra­lia, to strengthen the ties within the world­wide Hungarian Reformed fellowship; and that the Synod provide for them a $2000 travel expense, which would be approxi­mately half of their expenses. The Rev. Dr. Lorant Hegedűs, speaking on the topic of “Religious Life in Hungary” emphasized that religious life and practice is possible only in the perspective of realistic theology and realistic politics. This is the “motto” of the church in Hungary, on the grounds of the Scriptures, for Jesus also dealt with the necessity of things belonging to Ceasar and the imperative of giving to God what belongs to God. In Hungary the state still uses an approach for hegemony and not a totalistic monopoly, (like in Albania), to reach its goals. None of us can have an effective ministry, if we use our wounds for the starting point. He concluded that the only absolute is God’s love and the church in Hungary is granted a period of grace as yet. The Rt. Rev. Dr. John Butosi expoun­ded upon the Religious Situation in Tran­­sylvania and the Rev. Bela Poznan, in Czechoslovakia. Both emphasized the great oppression of our Hungarian Refor­med brethren. We have to make this public in the free world. This is our involvement, to raise our voices for our persecuted brothers and sisters, whose only crime is that they were born Hungarian and raised Christians. We have to be informed, es­tablish meaningful personal contacts, pro­vide Christian literature, defend those in prison, defend their rights to stay in the place of their ancestors or to have the rights to emigrate and pray for them. For this is a biblical command and witness to all of us to defend the weak and to free the captives. In the case of The Calvin Synod it is even more, it is a historical mandate. Tuesday afternoon the time allowed for questions relating to the morning presen­tations turned out to be a very meaningful discussion about the lives, mission and problems of our churches. There were no conclusions but the stand clearly emerged that we do not have to be afraid of change, or ashamed of our heritage, for we have something to say and Christ gave us a mission that makes us not a diaspora but a mission church. Though our mission is unique, but so is our heritage and com­mission. It was a very spontaneous and meaningful “give and take” between our delegates. The Synod approved the proposed budget of $110,200 for 1986 and $112,600 for 1987. Mr. Joseph Poruban was elected as the Lay Delegate to General Synod 16 with Mr. Ed Bihary as alternate. The Class of 87 of the Clergy are Dr. Francis Vitéz and Rev. Aaron Elek; and the alternates Drs. John Butosi and Desmond Parragh. The new representatives to the Board of the Bethlen Home are from the churches of Cleveland West Side, Lynnwood, Homestead, South Norwalk and Co­lumbus. It was also approved that Board Representation will be based on donations. The Annual Meeting also decided that future meetings will start on Tuesday morning and The 49th Annual Meeting will be held at Ligonier on May 19-21, 1987 as it is recommended by the Con­ference Council. The Conference Council was also mandated to revitalize the Pastor’s Retreat in order to promote spiritual renewal and to study and determine a possible yearly grant (for the years), in order to rescue the existing Eastern European religious studies at Yale Univer­sity. The feasibility of an adult camp also will be examined and our striving for an organic unity amongst our Hungarian Reformed Churches on the grounds of a continued pragmatic approach to coopera­tion and witness and joint meetings, pub­lications, camps, student aids, mission and liturgy book were reaffirmed and empha­sized. All in all, it was a successful and uplift­ing meeting, providing a good balance between spiritual food and legislative work for the benefit of all and to God’s glory. Zoltán D. Szucs General Secretary

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