Calvin Synod Herald, 2002 (103. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
2002-09-01 / 9-10. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 5 What Really Happened at the Holy Fast? Seven proposals were developed at the Holy Fast held by the Presbyters Association and the Ministers Association on Labor Day. Over the coming year expect to read articles on these topics in the Calvin Synod Herald. These propositions that represent the united testimony that the Hungarian Reformed Churches in North America have a powerful missionary vision for our own church, but also for the new immigrants coming in search of the pure Reformed Faith and heritage preserved in our Hungarian community. We know what to do with immigrants and refugees; we just have to figure out which ones the Lord is sending to us today. Each generation of American Hungarians opens the doors to refugees. In the past those needing help were fleeing Austrians, economic devastation, or Communists. The new refugees are people from American denominations which have lost sight of historic Trinitarian Christianity. The treasures, we enjoy as part of the only remaining Reformation era historic church which remains undivided and theologically faithful, hold a peculiar charm for those who do not have them. Historic Christianity is sweeping the globe outside the decadent Atlantic states. Of 750 Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, over 700 are growing rapidly. At Ligonier, the leadership of the American Hungarian Reformed family committed itself to the emerging resurgence of the Reformed faith. In the dozen years I have paid dues to the Ministerial Association I have never been as exhilarated as I am now. God took our fears and replaced them with hope and new vision. We propose to take the growth trend from Chicago and Vancouver to Atlanta and Boston. And when the refugees come to us from dying American denominations to find people who actually know the Reformed Faith, we are going to be ready for them this time. Here is the plan: 1. Preach the Word and teach Reformed doctrine and heritage with particular attention to the Heidelberg Catechism and Second Helvetic Confession and the doctrine of grace through Christ. 2. Cultivate spirituality and personal holiness through discipleship and church discipline. 3. Develop educational resources focused on polity and sacraments. Explore the possibility of developing Hungarian Reformed schools. 4. Establish ways to acclimate non-Hungarians into the Hungarian Reformed Church without compromising our historic mission to the Hungarian speaking communities. 5. Create an expanding missionary vision. 6. Guard against seeking quantity at the expense of quality. 7. Compile and distribute a statistical report on the Hungarian Reformed congregations in America. Stepping out of our Hungarian cultural context, a quick look at the American religious scene reveals startling realities. The Episcopal Church which chose to adopt contemporary morality and theological modernism is evaporating. At the same time, 350 new congregations have emerged as the Charismatic Episcopal Church. Another 45,000 people have moved from the old denomination to smaller Anglican groups. This latter constituency which began as refugee transfer growth increasingly represents new converts. Each time the international Anglican community meets at Lambeth palace the radically conservative African, Asian, and Latin American wings of the church become more assertive and less tolerant of the American moral meltdown. The leaders of the largest Anglican jurisdictions have declared American open mission territory and in some cases withdrawn recognition of the Episcopal Church (USA). Americans are organizing congregations under the jurisdiction of Singapore and Uganda. Observers of the Presbyterian Church in America which now numbers over 300,000 note that most of these members are converts. The original body which derived from the Southers Presbyterian Church numbered under 40,000 members. These 40,000 were refugees from Modernism but sociologically they do not compose a substantial part of the current membership. Even the Roman Catholic Church is experiencing the increasing influence of the Southern and Asian jurisdictions which are far more conservative than North America. The changing demographics which appear in the increasing number of African and Asian cardinals present the prospect that the next Pope may not only not-be-Italian but may not even be European. Just as in the Book of Acts, the refugees have become missionaries and the faithful church is growing. My analysis, as the editor of the Christian Observer and the publisher of the Directory of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches, may be too close to home to be convincing now that my name appears in the Bethlen Almanac. If it is, then examine the October issue of Atlantic Monthly which makes the case for me in a totally secular forum. What passed among us as Modernism, cannot sustain itself. Historic Christian communities and vibrant new forms of Biblical Christianity, not Islam or Secularism, is the rising force in the Third World. Endowments left from previous generations are more important than Sunday collections in denominations stuck in the Modernist backwater. Those deposits evaporate over time and they offer no hope to sin-weary people. The growing church does not even grasp that these things exist. The times are changing. The facts take us back to the Seven Ligonier Proposals. We need to give attention to what we already have because that is what the world wants. We must be very cautious as we do so, but we cannot remake the Hungarian nature. The Hungarian Reformed Church has been the guardian of Western Civilization since it (continued on page 6)
