Hungarian Church Press, 1957 (9. évfolyam, 14-15. szám)
1957-11-30 / 14. szám
{ RCHP XI. 30,1957, Vol,IX/14 - 18 - 174 , s had they been right, it would have implied that the entire life of our church over eight-years was unlawful, and all resolutions passed under this unlawful chairman-ship or under the leadership of this unlawful bishop were obviously invalid. Ha3, there were some persons who wanted precisely these ccaasequenoes, I cannot explain the whole phenomenon in any other way but by thinking of extra-ecclesiastical causes as the real causes which influenced 'the whole series of events that came to pass. It is also in the interest of future history that I must now point out what it means when, with the treacherous slogan of "political disinterestedness", political demonism and personal ambitionsinvade the life of the church, ind how dangerous it Í3 when this invasion is energetically support ed from abroad ! This latter aspect of the events also call3 for some comment. On the 1st of November the Information Service of the World Council of Churches issued a common iqu® which described the changes then taking place in the Hungarian Churches, (in parenthesis, I pose the difficult question: how could they do this when the aforesaid radio statement was only broadcast in the evening of the 1st of November?) The communique ended with the following sentences: "Dr. ¥• A* Visser *t Hooft, gen, seer, of the WCC. , has been in direct communication with the Hungarian Church Leaders for the past few days." Commenting on the situation, he said; "a new era is opening in the life of the Hungarian Churches". Then he gave expression of his joy over the fact that the meeting of the Central Committee of the ',7orld Council of Churches at G-alyatetö, Hungary, in August that year, "helped greatly to prepare this new day"c Then the General Secretary also sent a message to the Hungarian churches in which it is said: * "At a time, when, by the will of God, a new era opens in the life of your churches, I should like to express cn behalf of the World Counoil, my sincere hope that, on this new day, the abundant blessing of God be on.the work of the church es. We were deeply conscious of that strong spiritual struggles which so many of you had carried on over the past years. We rejoioe over the fact that so many of you have remained faithful in their Christian witness and in their loyalty to the cause of Christ, We are particularly grateful tint the men now taking over the load in your churches are the ones that have demonstrated that they give priority to their Christian loyalty over.all other considerations". I hardly believe tint one could entertain any doubts about this message. It is evident that, if those men eulogised from such high quarters actually remained loyal to the cause of Christ, then the former persons oould not have been but unfaithful, Neither can we doubt that this message greatly exceeds the bounds of laving interest of the World Council of Churches in the affairs of an independent - that is, accountable for its affairs only to God - church, and is very similar to an unauthorised meddling in others* affairs. However,in spite of-all these, thihgä'^let Tv3 suppose that the oonraunication of informations had been bad both ways and those doing it had mutually misled one another. It must have happened in this way for, after the passing of hardly two months*time of 1957, I received the following letter, dated 1st of March, from the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (I quote the letter with his permission): -** "Dear Bishop Bereozky, It was when you became ill in Germany that I wrote my last letter to you. Then I said how glad I was that we were able in the summer to work together- in * Translated from German. ft » a
