Calvin Synod Herald, 1992 (92. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1992-03-01 / 2. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 8 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

Impressions in Transylvania

by Rev. Peter P. Bodor, Flint, MI

I went along with Andy Ryskamp, director of C.R.W.R.C., and Mike Hollander, deacon, to help the Christian Reformed Church with its mission efforts toward Romania, in particular the Reformed Church in Transylvania. Instead of a long itinerary of our late January 1992 trip, let me summarize my impressions.

To have a better strategy to face the Transylvanian challenges, we spent some time in Budapest, Hungary, visiting the seminary, bishop’s office, the editorial of the Reformed Weekly church paper and the city in general. The most outstanding event was the news conference of Lorant Hegedűs, bishop in Budapest, and László Tőkés, bishop in Oradea — Nagyvárad. Among the many subjects like security problems around bishop Tőkés, and prime time radio broadcasting of reformed sermons for people living in-and-outside Hungary, I was impressed by the historical announcement that decisions were made to have a UNIFIED REFORMED SYNOD to include all pre- and post-Trianon Hungarian territories. According to bishop Tőkés the spiritual ties were never broken, but now the time is ripe to renew the physical ones, as well, creating a unified direction for the historical Hungarian Reformed Church body. They hope to achieve this in September of 1992.

What a statement of hope! Yes, it has a strong political flavor, but it is founded on Christ’s love and not on secular and cosmopolitan naivity. We, the Reformed Hungarians in the U.S.A., should learn from this. Instead of becoming more separated as we drift further apart in the sea of U.C.C. liberalism and Hungarian stubbornness, we should strive for a unified front and a re-reformation of our church life.

The striking Romanian vs. Hungarian conflict was eminent in Oradea — Nagyvárad. My American friends were astonished and did not understand it fully. When we heard of the treats against bishop Tőkés, and that his home may be bugged, and that the bishop palace — it is his and his staff’s office space — is being claimed by the county so they can donate the building to a Romanian church-school, our blood started to boil. Bishop Tőkés moved into the building and through the act of civil disobedience still to this day refuses to evacuate their own building. For you see, a local lower court gave the building back to the Reformed Church, but the county court, that is still in the old political hands, nullified the above decision by arguing that the former bishop, László Papp, donated the building to the state. This argument is false and does not hold up since they failed to mention that Papp was the man approved and manipulated by the communist “securitate” and was forced to give the building up to the Communist party headquarters of Oradea, which is abolished since the 1989 revolution. The party and the county were never the same entity, therefore, the county cannot and must not claim to be the Communist party’s heir. Furthermore, the church as a whole never approved of bishop Papp’s actions.

This is mainly political in nature and it was easy to understand. When it came to building an orphanage so the church can “Hungarize” the Hungarian children by taking them out from the Romanian system, Mike and Andy developed reservations. Why not a Romanian Reformed Church, they asked? When I showed them the Farkasutcai church in Cluj — Koloszvár with its half

millennium splendor, they thought the church could become Romanian Reformed and still have on its walls the century old Hungarian historical coat-of-arms. What we do not understand in America, is that here assimilation is much easier and more natural because we chose to come into this relatively greater freedom. But in Transylvania, since the early 1500s, the Reformation saved the nation from the Turkish aggression, Austrian and lately Romanian anhihilation tendency. The goal of the Austrian Habsburg house was to make Hungary Catholic first, and then German. Under this pressure, Reformation had become one with being Hungarian feelings and have learned to live in a balanced symposis ever since saving the church and nation from the harshest inquisition. This is why a Romanian Reformed church is not possible. There is neo-reformation within the Romanian Orthodox Church but almost always to become baptist or charismatic. The international insecurity whether Transylvania is Romanian or Hungarian fuels this conflict.

We were flooded by requests for economic help to build churches and to help establish businesses covering a spectrum from agriculture to industry. They need great help in business management, planning, market strategy, or in simply making an office function efficiently. If they lack these, no money in the world can solve their problem. You have to start small and then grow. Use the seed politics by sowing the one seed, reap the crop, and then sow again. We may not see the whole picture, however. They had been doing just that for the past five centuries and when they had pastures of grain, the in many ways egocentric history shut off the life-giving water; all property accept worship places were confiscated.

(To be continued)

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