Calvin Synod Herald, 1991 (91. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1991-11-01 / 6. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

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REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Hungarians May Offer Shelter to Conservatives

= Excerpts from Christian Observer, Nov. 15 Issue =

Can the Hungarians solve the tensions in the United Church of Christ? The leftwing of the American Reformed community has struggled with conflicting agendas since its formation in 1957. The union between the Evangelical and Reformed Church (formerly the German Reformed Church) and the Congregational Christian Churches brought with it a substantial Hungarian community. From the start, the Hungarians kept to themselves in a distinct church court. The Hungarian body is known as the Calvin Synod and unlike other regional groupings in the United Church, it has a presiding bishop.

Far more than simple cultural differences have set the Hungarians apart from the main stream in the United Church. At each stage over the last three decades, the Calvin Synod has taken a more traditional Reformed position than the General Synod. Recent Calvin Synod meetings have been marked by serious concern over leftwing morality and political drift in the national body. The 1991 Calvin meeting produced a stem warning to the general court.

Dr. László M. Medyesy, chairman of the Hungarian group’s Committee of Ecumenism and Social Action, argued in a position paper prepared for the 1991 Synod, “Our normative confession, the Second Helvetic, in its 28th Chapter deals with the qualifications for ordination and ministerial lifestyle that must be intentionally upheld as a role model before a congregation.”

Then in blunt propositions with detailed Scripture references, Medyesy argued “the incompatibility of homosexuality and the Christian ministry.”

The contrast with the 1991 sexuality reports at the UCC General Synod and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) was lost on no one.

Other conservatives in the United Church have begun to rally behind the Hungarians and to look to them for leadership. Significantly, those gathered around the Magyar banner have tended to identify with classical Reformed theology.

The 44-member Executive Council of the United Church of Christ, meeting in the Cleveland, OH, suburb of Beachwood from Oct. 17 to 20, took actions on three recent initiatives by theologically conservative members and congregations within the United Church. The matters range from a formal dialogue with the conservative Biblical Witness Fellowship, to a widely circulated letter accusing national church leaders of apostasy, to an attempt to form a new body of congregations within the church.

One Executive Council action was on a formal dialogue its representatives held in May 1991 with the Biblical Witness Fellowship. Since 1977, the Biblical Witness group has considered itself a renewal movement acting against a drift from the historic Christian faith on the part of the denomination.

A Biblical Witness Fellowship spokesman indicated he felt the Executive Council had taken the group’s concerns seriously“We think a frank exchange of understanding took place”, said the Rev. David Runnion-Barteford, pastor of the Congregational Church (UCC), Candia, NH, who helped represent the Biblical Witness Fellowship at the executive Council meeting. “We look forward to continued dialogue with the Executive Council, and we are hopeful that specific issues can be resolved.”

A second Executive Council action was a response to charges of apostasy apparently flowing from a meeting of 149 United Church members, representing 85 congregations, held in Dayton, OH, Sept. 10 and 11.

In its Oct. 20 response, the Executive Council voted to send a letter to congregations involved in the September meeting hosted by a UCC congregation in the Beaver Creek area of Dayton. The executive Council letter, which went out Oct. 22, called the charges growing from the meeting “divisive and destructive not only to the persons who are falsely charged, but also to the unity of the church.”

“Resolution of conflict in the church must reflect our shared conviction that while we are free to disagree, condemning those who are kindred in Christ of unfounded charges of apostasy is an irresponsible fracturing of our oneness in Christ,” the Executive Council letter said.

At the Executive Council’s request, the Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, president of the United Church, also wrote to the same churches. His Oct. 22 letter, calling for “mutual care and concern” among members, included these words: „...All of us are God’s beloved seeking to find God’s way for us in holy scripture, in the faith of

the historic church, and in God’s call to us through the Holy Spirit in our time.”

The Dayton meeting that was the apparent source of the apostasy charges had been organized by Richard Germaine, pastor of the First Congregational Church (UCC), Hopkinton, MA. In a July letter to 180 UCC congregations, Germaine, citing the constant flouting of Scriptural teaching by national leaders, invited dissatisfied churches to come to Dayton to consider their options.

The meeting yielded a four-point consensus statement, “The Beaver Creek Bottom Line,” outlining dissatisfaction with denominational leadership.

In addition, on Oct. 11, Germaine mailed out the “Dayton Declaration” and asked United Church congregations and members to sign it and publicize it in the denomination.

Though Biblical Witness leaders were involved in the Beaver Creek meeting, they have said it was not an official Biblical Witness meeting and the “Dayton Declaration” is not a position statement of the Biblical Witness Fellowship.

A denominational spokesman suggested that the 66 percent of those present who voted to endorse the declaration and act on it represent only the tip of the iceberg. Other knowledgeable observers of the larger continuing church movement suggest that as many as 200 more congregations may declare support for the document over the next six months.

In early 1991, Biblical Witness officials raised the idea with the Calvin Synod Acting Conference, one of the UCC’s 39 conferences. Unlike the 38 other conferences, which are regional particular synods, the Calvin Synod is a non-geographical body of 46 historically Hungarian congregations. In May 1991, delegates to the Calvin Synod’s annual meeting acted on the query by voting to declare themselves open to membership requests from “congregations of non-Hungarian background but with a commitment to a Biblical and confessional faith similar to our Calvin Synod”.

The Hungarian delegates further indicated Calvin Synod would consider creating a fifth classis within itself to accommodate these new members. The four existing classes are geographical. The proposed non-Hungarian one would be nongeographical.

In its October vote on the matter, the