Calvin Synod Herald, 1988 (88. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)

1988 / 2-5. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD-10-REFORMATUSOK LAPJA

Victor G. Orth 1912- 1988

The Reverand Victor Gyozo Orth, retired pastor of the Calvin Reformed Church of Lynwood, Illinois, was buried on Saturday, September 10, 1988, Funeral Worship Services were held at Calvin Reformed Church, and he was laid to rest at the Roselawn Cemetery in Roselawn, Indiana.

Born on August 23, 1912 in Transylvania, pre-World War 1 Hungary, to school-teacher parents, Rev. Orth received his theological diploma from the University of Kolozsvár in Transylvania (Romania), and later studied practical theology in Basel, Switzerland under professor E. Thurneyssen. While in Switzerland, on July 11, 1935 he was married to Jolán Langer, his childhood sweetheart, in Zurich.

Ordained in 1936 in Oradea, Romania, by 1937 Rev. Orth was appointed as a "homeland Missionary”, traveling form congregation to congregation for seven years, assisting Sunday schools, youth work, and Women’s Guild’s throughout the synod’s 181 churches; he also organized a church during that time. Also during this time Rev. Orth was editor of a church publication, "Református Jövő” (Reformed Future), and published an anthology, of religious hymns, "Istenes Énekek" (Godly Hymns).

During World War II, in the Fall of 1944, Rev. Orth and his family migrated to the British Zone of Germany, and in 1947 was appointed chaplain for the Protestant Hungarians in the refugee camps in the British Zone. He visited the various refugee centers by bicycle and train.

On December 31, 1948, the Orths arrived in Canada, and Rev. Orth worked in the Lethbridge, Taber, Raymond, Milk River and Picture Butte area under the leadership of Dr. Kalman Toth, who was instrumental in his immigration, with whom he assisted in the “Uj Elet” (New Life) publication.

On November 10, 1951, Rev. Orth accepted a call to serve in the Békevár Presbyterian Church in Kipling, Saskatchewan, where he introduced the use of English for the youth. During the time of his ministry in Canada, he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Canadian Army Reserve by Queen Elizabeth 11.

Rev. Orth came to the United States when he accepted the call to serve the Niles South Side United Presbyterian Church in Niles, Ohio on March 1, 1959. In August of 1961 he bacame pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Columbus, Ohio, and he served at the Hungarian Reformed Church of Fairport Harbor from 1965 to 1968.

Rev. Orth’s final pastorate was begun on November 1, 1968 at the South Side Hungarian Evangelical and Reformed Church of Chicago. During his 19 years there, the congregation moved from an unstable neighborhood on the

south side of Chicago to Lynwood, a southern suburb, where a beautiful new church was built, at which time the new name "Calvin Reformed Church” was adopted. Though its membership was spread throughout the Chicago area, Rev. Orth and the church leaders were able to keep the congregation together. For six years Rev. Orth had a "Church by Radio” program every week, which could be heard in the Chicago area by those too ill or weak to join in the corporate worship services. To stay in touch with those members too far away to even visit, such as students and retirees who lived in some seventy cities throughout the United States, the Orth’s introduced “Church by Mail”, wherein every week volunteers mailed the week’s church bulletins and sermons to its distant friends and members. His ministry was marked by many church-centered social and cultural innovations in the Lynwood congregation, making it reminiscent of the old village church, where the focus of the members lives could be the Church, and through this focus, Christ.

In 1986 his congregation honored Rev. Orth on the 50th Anniversary of his marriage, and also his ordination.

During his ministry Rev. Orth served as Dean of the Western Classis of the Calvin Synod; he was a columnist of the "Calvin Synod herald" for eight years, and was one of the translators of the "Upper Room” for the Hungarian editon, "Csendes Percek", for more than ten years.

But perhaps what marks Rev. Orth’s ministry the most was his love of his Saviour. While some men accomodate their lives to Christ and His message, striving to change their own outlook when it does not coincide with Christ’s, Rev. Orth had at the center of his life a true love for Christ. With this as the foundation, the starting point, everything which radiated from his life was a reflection of his Lord.