Calvin Synod Herald, 1991 (91. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1991-11-01 / 6. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 8 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA A Memorable Event in Cleveland Rt. Rev. Dr. László Tőkés, Hungarian Reformed Bishop of Transylvania, international Hero of our age, has been on the Marble Pulpit of Cleveland’s First Hungarian Reformed Church on November 9, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Banquet at 5:00 p.m. at Bethlen Hall. His appearance here has been in the frame of a great Ecumenical Worship Service with Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy participation. A banquet followed in Bethlen Hall at 5:00 p.m. at which Bishop Tőkés did speak again. This event at the church was organized by the Bocskai István Cultural Society and all profit went to support the Transylvania Fund to encourage people not to immigrate from Transylvania. Bishop Tőkés is well-known all over the world as the “Father Romania’s Revolution”. Received with honor by leaders of all Free Nations, including our White House at Washington. He is the one, whose brave stand as Eastern Europe’s latest hero, with his sermons on the pulpit of his church at Temesvár served as sparks to set a whole nation afire just before Christmas of 1989. For years, this solitary clergyman spoke his mind when almost all others kept quiet. He lashed out against persecution of his fellow 1.7 million ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania. When police deported him to this small village from his home in Timisoara, a peaceful vigil outside his church erupted into an anti-regime riot. The demonstrations soon spread throughout the country, finally toppling dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Tőkés’s story mixes three crucial ingredients: a powerful personality, religious freedom, and national identity. He is a large man with a booming voice and strong handshake. But a sense of inner calm and outer gentleness surrounds him. More than anything else, what aroused Tőkés’s anger was this discrimination against his fellow ethnic Hungarians. With its mixed population, Transylvania long has been a center of turbulence. In 1918, following World War 1, the region passed from Hungary to Romania and the Hungarians faced persecution. Over the past two decades, Tőkés and other ethnic Hungarian leaders charged Bucharest with attempting “cultural genocide”, shutting Hungarian language schools, seizing Hungarian historical archives, and forcing Hungarians to move away from Transylvania to obtain jobs. Temporarily, against a hated despot members of both groups, Hungarians and Romanians, stood firm in the vigil outside of his church in Timisoara. But he has a unique position as a representative of the minority, and also as a person of great respect, as an eminence who is consulted by the Romanian government at the present. /ÜC Béke és Szeretet legyen mindannyiunkkal az Ünnepek alatt és végig az Üj Évben. May Love and Peace be with you during this Holiday Season and throughout the New Year. WILLIAM PENN ASSOCIATION Fraternal Life Insurance and Annuities 709 Brighton Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15233 Telephone: (412)231-2979 NATIONAL OFFICERS: E. E. Vargo, National President • George S. Charles, Jr., National Vice President-Secretary • Frances A. Furedy, National Vice President-Treasurer • Emil W. Herman, Esq., Legal Counsel • Dr. Julius Kcsseru, Medical Director. BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Joseph P. Arvay, Chairman • Michael J. Hrabar, Vice Chairman • Roger G. Nagy, Vice Chairman • Anthony C. Beke • Charles S. Fabian . Louis A. Fodor • Elmer A. Furedy » Michael R. Kara • William J. Kovach » Michael F. Tomcsak • Elmer W. Toth • Frank J. Wukovits, Jr. • Frank J. Radvany, Secretary of the Board Emeritus. AUDITING COMMITTEE: Charles J. Furedy, Co-Chairman • Robert A. Ivancso, Co-Chairman • Margaret H. Boso, Secretary • Dennis A. Chobody »Joseph Hamari • Ernest J. Mozer, Sr.
