Magyar Egyház, 1954 (33. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1954-11-01 / 11. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ The Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Evanston, Illinois, during the month of August. Approximately 1,300 delegates representing 179 denominations from 54 countries attended the Assembly which may undoubtedly be regarded as the greatest gathering of Christians ever held on the American continent. The Reformed Church of Hungary was also represented. The Free Magyar Reformed Church in America which withdrew from the International Council of Christian Churches last July and applied for membership in the World Council of Churches also sent representatives to Evanston. The Reverend Stephen Szőke of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, and the writer of this report attended the Assembly. The Reverend Dezső Abraham represented our denominational paper, the Magyar Church. We are glad to report that our application for membership in the World Council was favourably received. After the required documents will be presented to the headquarters of the World Council of Churches, our denomination has a very good chance to be accepted in the great family of Christians. The main theme of the Evanston assembly was “Christ — the Hope of the World.” There was a certain division of understanding concerning the Christian hope between delegates including a large part of the American contingent who wanted to speak of hope for man and society in this world, and others — (mostly from Europe) — who held that the only hope is in the coming of Christ at the end of the world. However, the problem did not divide the participants. Fundamentally everyone agreed that the Bible must be determinative for all the statements on Christian hope. They also agreed that Christian hope is not based on human expectations but is based on God’s promise in the Scriptures and on the impact of Christ’s active presence. Almost everyone agreed that, in the eschatological message of Christianity, the coming of Christ in History belongs inseparably to His second Coming. Finally, it has been the unanimous conviction of the delegates that the true hope of Christians can be recognized already in the many signs which God works, namely, in the proclamation of the Gospel and its effects in the world. Because Christ is the living Christ, He is able to meet us in every circumstance of life and every mood of our hearts. He is our hope both for this life and for the life to come. Oneness in Christ. The definition of Christian hope was applied in six sections to six important problems of our daily life. The reports of these sections as adapted by the Assembly contain interesting and important resolutions. We shall try to summarize these reports. The theme of the first section was our oneness in Christ and our disunity as churches. There is only one church, it was stated, and it is the one living body of Christ. Christ’s body is one and indivisible. Yet we the members of His body stand divided. The plain fact that we call our various denominations, “churches” is signigficant evidence of this scandal in the Church on earth. The very term “churches” implies a denial of the unity of the Church. We must confess that our disunity belongs to our guilt. The divisions existing between those who are in Christ must be put to death, because the Church, like individual Christians has been crucified and raised with Christ, and has a new life of unity which is hid with Christ in God. Christ is both the source from Whom, and the goal towards Whom, the oneness of the Church is derived and directed. Evangelism. In the second section the outreach of the Church particularly evangelism, was discussed. Evangelism is no specialized or separable or periodic activity, but is rather a dimension of the total activity of the Church. Everything the Church does is of evangelising significance. Evangelism is the place where the Church discovers itself in its true depth and outreach. But this witness of the Church is weakened by our faithlessness — not least by our divisions. Therefore will the Church deal with these divisions with holy impatience and passionately strive for unity. Unity is destroyed where there are confessional antagonisms, nor will unity of faith and life among Christians be achieved except as churches increasingly work together to bring the gospel to the whole world.. Although no strategy of communication is itself a guarantee of success, communication with those outside the life of the Church makes the following demands: Firstly, the Church must break out of its isolation and introversion, meeting the individual where he is. Secondly, we must let every man know that he is of inestimable worth in the sight of God. Thirdly we must live in such identification with man, with his sin, his hopes and fears, his misery and needs, that we become his brother and can witness from his place and condition to God’s love for him. Finally, the Church must nurture its life on the Bible. In spite of all that we are doing, evangelism is not our work. It is God’s work in which we are His agents. Therefore we must wait upon Him in prayer and in meditation upon His holy Word that we may learn what He would have us do. Reasonable Society The third section dealt with the question of a reasonable society. From Christ men receive the direction for their service, the obligation to share heartily in the world’s work and daily tasks, and the responsibility to seek a better social and political life. The churches have come to realize that they have a duty to society as a part of their mission in the world. Their duty is the creation of a responsible society, a society “where freedom is the freedom of men who acknowledge responsibility to justice and public order and where those who hold political authority or economic power are responsible for its exercise to God and to the people whose welfare is affected by it.” Responsible society is not an alternative social or political system but a criterion by which we judge all existing social orders. — In connection with the problem of the communistic society references were made to the resolution of the earlier ecumenical conferences. The churches at Oxford and Amsterdam indicated the various points of conflict between the Christian faith and Marxist ideology and totalitarian practice. Evanston reaffirmed these statements about the basic conflicts and stressed that the growth of communism is a judgment upon our modern societies Report on Cvanlton .. .
