Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-06-01 / 6-7. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 15 What Happened in Miami? In the March issue of Magyar Church we reported that our Hungarian Reformed brethren in Miami, Fla. joined our denomination, the Hungarian Reformed Church in America. On the 22nd of February Bishop Zoltán Beky officially received the congregation into our fellowship with 500 jubilant people looking on. Also, our report contained the news that the Rev. John Paul Nagy of Detroit was elected as their new pastor. The news was joyfully received by our people everywhere and some of our congregations sent gifts to our new sister-congregation. You will be amazed, however, as were all who heard the news, that the Evangelical and Reformed Church and its Magyar Synod started court procedures against the leaders of our congregation in Miami. At the same time they use the action of the congregation as a cause for their impious purposes of creating ill feeling and distrust among the Hungarian Reformed groups belonging to the different denominations. They refer to it as the “Miami incident”, the cause of an ever widening gap between us. What happened in Miami? On the first day of February of this year the congregation declared itself in a unanimous action to be free of any affiliation which, in name only, may have existed heretofore and requested membership in the Hungarian Reformed Church in America. Their request was granted by our Bishop’s Council. his senses will admit the princple which the Papists take for granted, that what is here granted to Peter was intended to be transmitted by him to posterity by hereditary right; for he does not receive permission to give anything to his successors. So then the Papists make him bountiful with what is not his own. Finally, though the uniterrupted succession were fully established, still the Pope, will gain nothing by it till he has proved himself to be Peter’s lawful successor. And how does he prove it? Because Peter died at Rome; as if Rome, by the detestable murder of the apostle, had procured for herself the primacy.” Dubious allegations “But they allege that he was also bishop there. How frivolous, that allegation is, I have made abundantly evident in my INSTITUTES, (Book 4: chapter 6) to which I would willingly send my reader for a complete discussion of this argument, rather than annoy or weary him, by repeating it in this place. Yet, I would add a few words. Though the bishop of Rome had been the lawful successor of Peter, since by his own treachery he has deprived himself of so high an honor, all that Christ bestowed on the successors of Peter avails him nothing. That the Pope’s court resides at Rome is sufficiently known, but no mark of a church there can be pointed out. As to the pastoral office, his eagerness to shun it is equal to the ardor with which he contends for his own dominion. Certainly, if it were true, that Christ has left nothing undone to exalt the heirs of Peter, still he was not so lavish as to part with his own honor to bestow it on apostates.” D.A. Many articles and open letters appeared in print concerning their action. All tried to convince our brethren in Miami of their “folly”, calling it suicide, even self-crucifixion. We do not intend to answer them here, we only wish to inform you of the facts. In any case, it would be useless to engage in an endless debate with those who are convinced that “the only true road” is the one which leads to the melting pot, or upon which they can drift into the open sea of “ecumenical Christianity,” as they call it, “for some personal and financial reasons”, as they admit it. According to them it is idiotic and idolatrous to cling to traditions and national heritage which may be present in the Hungarian Reformed faith. The Magyar Church will not lower itself to that level of name-calling, nor envy the high type of Christianity they display. We merely present the issue behind the words and slogans. The law suit which has been brought against the leaders of our congregation in Miami in the Circuit Court for Dade County, Fla. by James Wagner and the Evangelical and Reformed Church and Stephen M. Boszormenyi-Bessemer and the Magyar Synod, is for the sole reason of regaining or obtaining all real and personal property of the congregation as the plaintiffs’ legal rights. They maintain that “if a congregation withdraws from the jurisdiction of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the property of said congregation shall revert to the charge and control of the judicatory of the Synod.” There were many articles written and many verbal assertions made that the property of any congregation belongs to the congregation. Likewise, in this case it was pointed out that it is the congregation and not the property which was important. Now this law suit points to the contrary: the property is all important. The people may go but the property must remain. The leaders of the Magyar Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church — who claim they are of the Hungarian Reformed faith — regard it tragic, “stupid suicide”, when a congregation joins the Hungarian Reformed Church in America — regardless of their previous affiliation. We would regard this attitude and not the action of the congregation in Miami, as the real tragedy of our people, the dividing wall which is not of our making. Communist to Head Office for Church Affairs Károly Olt, a member of the Hungarian Presidential Council, has been named director of the State Office for Church Affairs, according to a government announcement. He succeeds János Horváth who held the position for the past seven years and has been “transferred to another post.” Mr. Olt, 55, has been a Communist Party member for 30 years. He was at one time Minister of Social Welfare and later Minister of Finance, an office held until the revolt of October, 1956. He is also former member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. (EPS.)
