Hungarian Church Press, 1957 (9. évfolyam, 14-15. szám)

1957-11-30 / 14. szám

HCHP XI.30,1957, Vol.IX/14- 19 -/

175

good unde rat sliding o Now, many things have had happened since that time. However,

I should like to express my hope that our personal contacts have remained unchanged.

I would greatly welcome an opportunity to have extended talks with one another such as we had in the last spring at Geneva, Yöu certainly would put many questions to me, and I, too,would have many questions to ask. As such a meeting is out of question in the near future, I‘should like at least send these lines to you in order to reestablish our contacts. All in all, there is but one thing which is of importance for both of us, namely, that the Church of Christ walk in the path of obedience to her Lord. Therefore I have always had the feeling that we can still understand one another, even if there were and will be differences between us.

Please accept my good wishes as to your 3tate of health.

With fraternal greetings,.,."

Unfortunately, there have been further attempts from abroad to give les~ sons to our church as to what sort of leaders it needs and what sort it does not.

As much as we are grateful for and highly appreciate every word of our brethren abroad prompted by the fellowship of sympathy in the Church of Christ, coming either from the East or the 'Vest, we just as resolutely state that our aim is not to select reliable men suitable to Western Christianity or the World Council of Churches, as leading servants of our church, but we must select those who, in the sacred communion of the one Christian Church, live and serve for our congregations and our Hungarian Reformed Church. It is only in this way that our church can serve the Hungarian people, in the midst of which we are put by God, and it is in this way that any church can serve, in inward and outward freedom, in it3 a'.m time and place, and it is only in this way that we con serve, with the common prayer and all the activities of our churches, for the good of mankind and, in our time especially for the peace of the peoples.

It is with this hope that we should like to maintain and develop our eoumenical fellowship with the World Council of Churches.

My Resignation

Right Reverend Convocation ! All of you can notice that this report considerably differs from all my previous reports. All my previous reports dealt with the life, joys, concerns, development or decline of the church and of the congregations, with the manifold indications of an upward or downward trend in the life of our church, and, on the whole, very few words ’were said about nyself and ministrations. When I was preparing the present report, the meetings of the presbyteries were still in progress and so most of the seniors’ reports were unavailable. Besides, this report is far more subjective than the previous ones were.

The reason is obvious. The time has come that I, having given an account to our synod’s convocation of my intentions and ministrations, the fruits and deficiencies of my work and of my hope, tender my resignation and ask to be relieved of ny duties as bishop, respectively, to be put on the retired list.

I have plenty of reasons for making this request i The first, and I believe, decisive reason is my illness. Thankful as I am to God for His grace of having opened the way of recovery from ny serious illness which, at first, seemed fatal, and also for having preserved my mental health, I must nevertheless realize that the debilitated strength which I can command is no longer sufficient to master the tasks awaiting me. Let it be sufficient to refer to my right hand which, at present, is out of action. But I must also refer to ny weakened nervous system and