Hungarian Church Press, 1958 (10. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)

1958-01-15 / 1-2. szám

HCHP 1.15,-11.1,1958, Vol.X/l-2- 6 -6- At our first talks - he said — for the sake of enforcing the principle of Synod-Presbyterial system at any respect completely, the Presidential Council began to prepare the draft of the new Missionary Statute instead of the old one established in 1952, requesting the contributions of the congregations; Boards of Elders, Seniorates, Church Districts and Theological Academies to the draft by November the 20th 1956 in order to put into farce the new Mission Stature, farmed on common talks in the General Convert, for a year's tract of time, then after a year's experience the Presidential Council should submit the next synodal, session a proposal for framing the definitive Synodal Statute, It is a pity that we arrived but at announcing it. In the course of the month of February of this year I expressed my opinion that the order of the mission in the church had to be regulated further lest similar situation may supervene - which might have already happened - in our church to those in the time of judges: "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes."(judges 17:6) and they were bound to fall into the sin of idolatry.- The Session of the Presidential Council held on October the 19th and 20eth 1956 was very significant. Dr. László Pap rendered account of his talks in Switzerland, having been invited by the HEKS, The leader of the Chief-Department of the Central Fund in the General Convent dealt with the econony of the Coitral Fund, further with the critics and suggestions uttered on the summer postgraduate training conferences about the financial management of the churchJ the Presidential Council talked over the situation of the retired people and contemplated all the urgent cases of diakonia in their turn. It found necessary the earliest publishing of a Catechism of Confirmation keeping in mind the churchgoers' children living especially in the rural congregations and in the dia spore. It deoided that the material of the Kálvin Kalendárium to be published for the year 1957 ought to contain first of all the question of the spiritual renewal of the church. The Presidential Council adopted a resolution on the petition on missionary work addressed to the Presidium of the General Convent by 160 pastors according to which first they would have a talk with the bearers of the petition on October the 27th 1957.

But its realization could not take its turn.- The course of the renewal was stopped by the events which took place in the Reformed Theological Academy on November the11st Ü956. It rumours and some people maintain that 5-6 or at most 25-50 pastors gathered together and among a great public (where there were also not Reformed people) they established the socalled "National Executive Committee of the Reformed Church in Hungary" which took the lead both of the Danubian Church District and the whole church either.. In the evening of that very day Dr. László Pap read into the microphone of the radio the well-known declaration of the National Executive Committee. And the circular issued on November the 13th by the Executive Committee caused confusion among the pastors and laymen in the church setting them against the legal leadership.- On account of traffic difficulties László Búza, co-president and I could go to Budapest on December the 4th only. The other day wo had a talk with the leadership of the National Executive Committee and the Movement of Renewal respectively, I have put into my report only those data of my notes which refer to the valuation of the Movement,

1. ) The establishment of the National Executive Committee is without any legal fundation therefore it cannot have ary legal dispositions, I especially disapprove of the treating of Bishop Albert Bereczky unkindly, having been so ill-2. ) I cannot agree with the urgent making use of the authorisation, of the Synod(passed on during World War II.) which does not refer to this saturation.