Itt-Ott, 1995 (28. évfolyam, 1/124-2/125. szám)
1995 / 1. (124.) szám
R: The Magyar Community of Friends1 In August, 1974, a sizable group of editors, contributors and some of the readers of the Hungarianlanguage American monthly Itt-Ott (“Here and There”), held a conference at Point Chautauqua, N.Y. The week-long program ended by the discussion of the statements below. Not all those present agreed with all of them, however. The men and women who prepared these statements were lay persons, none of them had any formal theological education. This writer participated in the final phrasing, but the statements themselves were prepared beforehand. None of the participants were Unitarians (except myself). More than a dozen of the participants teach in various colleges and universities in the United States; all of them happen to be professional people; most of them are under 40, some of them under 30. What prompted the hard chore of undertaking such a controversial project? First of all, the alienation of these people from the traditional churches. This is, of course, a world-wide symptom. Churches in various countries reacted to this problem in different ways. Churches in Marxist countries developed a “conserving impulse.” This is a natural reaction to the radical changes that took place in these countries after World War II. The Magyar Community of Friends, (MCF), the organization responsi-L A Közösség hivatalosan „Magyar Baráti Közösség” néven van bejegyezve. Angolra „Hungarian Communion of Friends”-nek fordítjuk. ble for these statements, does not intend to form a new church. While remaining in whatever religious affiliation one has, in the ideas of the MCF, one can find out how much these ideas can be applied to one’s own religion. The official creed or theology of the traditional churches makes it difficult, if not impossible, to introduce new ideas. The ideas and practices of the MCF may help. This is the statement of purposes of the MCF: The Magyar Community of Friends, while holding to Magyar traditions in both the internal and the external manifestations of religious life, does not seek to promote any particular, fixed set of doctrines, nor does it prescribe any dogma that its members must accept as a condition of their membership. Rather, it makes the finest of Magyar traditions, those of freedom, reason and tolerance in matters religious, the fundamental teaching of the MCF, inwardly as well as outwardly. It seems proper, nevertheless, to state the general principles upon which the establishment of the MCF is based. We believe in God, and hold that the elemental definition of religion lies in the affirmation and love of God. We behave that the worth of individual and collective human life is to be found in the perfecting of the individual and of the community; that man is God’s worker and co-worker, upon whom He places an ever greater responsibility; that God reveals His will to man, to individuals and to communities; that this revelation is constantly in progress, it arrives through experience in time and in space; that the history of a community has a revelatory value for that community; that God is One, but His revelation is particular, for individuals as well as for communities conscious of possessing a common experience or history; that God thus has particular revelation and commandments for us, in addition to that valid for all men and all communities; that this particular revelation obliges us to nurture, improve and perfect our Magyar community; that the perfecting of our community is not an end in itself, but part of the divine and human work of perfection-in-progress in the entire human world; and we believe that we, therefore, face, in addition to the general ethical problems, particular Magyar ethical problems in matters for which we, Magyars, bear sole responsibility. In referring to the Magyar tradition, the MCF includes all religious and religio-cultural Magyar tradition and does not limit itself to that of any single, organized, historical Magyar denomination, received, accepted or tolerated, nor to the traditions of all such denominations taken collectively. However, it recognizes its special indebtedness to the teachings of the martyr Ferenc Dávid and of his followers, who, organized in the Magyar Unitarian Churches of Hungary and Transylvania, have for over four hundred years constantly striven, in the face of great adversity and often bitter persecution, for essentially the same lofty principles that the MCF espouses.2 —Alexander St.-lvanyi The Unitarian Universalist Christian, Spring/Summer 1975, Vol. 30 Nos. 1-2, 55-56. 2- A szöveg a Chautauqua-i, 1974-es magyar verzió fordítása. ITT-OTT 28. évf. (1995), 1. (124.) szám 29
