Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-10-01 / 10. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 MAGYAR CHURCH 'Dean Louis Nagy Honored Rev. Louis Nagy, pastor of the McKeesport Church and Dean of the Western Classis of our denomination, was honored on September 27 by the congregation, the denomination, his many friends and prominent civic leaders of the community. The celebration was a tokán of recognition of his 25 years in the service of the Kingdom of God. While no preacher of the Kingdom of God seeks and expects public recognition for his service still the faithful servant ought to have his “well-done”, when it is due and not when he can’t hear it. One little posy during activity is better than a score of “At Rests” after death. Too often our spiritual leaders are taken for granted. Do his elders pat him on the back or his people applaud always? Certainly not, and nobody expects them to: but he is human too, and he will do you better service if you commend him once in a while. The celebration in McKeesport was one of thanksgiving to God and an appreciation of a record of 25 years’ faithful service. Rev. Nagy in recalling the past, had this to say: “If I had to do it all over again, I would want to relive every moment of those 25 years.” Knowing the trials, tribulations and hardships that Rev. Nagy encountered in those 25 years, this is what he meant: “I recall the 25 years of toil; give me back all of its experience; give me its shipwrecks; give me its standings in the face of persecution — give it me back and I will still be the preacher and prophet of God.” And so cry those of Christ who have been crucified for His name’s sake; so cry those who set the torches burning on the highways of life. “Give it all back, with all its sufferings, with all its disappointments and all of its heartaches, its treachery and its Judas and I will still be Your servant. Keep me ever close to Christ and His comradeship — the comradeship of those whom he bade: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach.’ ” TIBOR TOTH THE CAUSE OF OUR HUNGARIAN REFORMED UNITY IN AMERICA BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF HISTORY Two very significant papers on Hungarian Reformed unity in America were presented to the meeting of the Hungarian Reformed Elders’ Association at their September meeting in Ligonier, Pa. In our last issue we printed the one delivered by Bishop Zoltán Béky, its full text in the Hungarian section, and a digest in English. In this issue we present the address of Dr. Stephen Szabó, President of the Magyar Synod of the Evangelical & Reformed Church. The reader may find the full text, as received from Dr. Szabó, in the Hungarian section. The following is a digest of it in English: I speak today of a subject that is the most critical item of our church life. The time isn’t opportune either, for we have never been further from unity than at the present time. Neither have there ever been as many spiritual obstacles as right now. Even the place we meet isn’t the proper forum for the effecting of union, for it is not an eccleciastical body that has the authority to bring about decisions. But this is the only place and forum where we do meet and can speak of our most delicate and burning problem. If we were not to continue our discussion of even the possibility of it, then we could finally bury the mirage of our union. At the very center of our religious tenets and the whole of our lives as believers there is one eternal and immovable tenet: that we must all at one time appear before the judgment seat of God and account for not only the deeds we have committed but also for those serious omissions, the opportunities we wasted. We must appear not only as individuals but as fellowships, congregations, denominations, peoples and nations, before the judgment of history first, and then before God. According to rhetorical standards a period of 50 years must pass before one can make an objective historical judgment. We have not yet spent this much time in attempting to attain unity, but if we wait for the 50 years to elapse we may lose every possibility of it in that time. It is my sincere conviction that we have come to the very last possibility of attaining union. We are but a few moments before the twelfth hour. Either now, or never! Our present historical situation in one in which we can either unite through a fast decision or find ourselves cast into the melting pot. At this juncture union would be impossible apart from our examining the mistakes of the past, repenting of them, and making amends for them. Let us therefore see the great historical errors of our recent past! 1. OUR HISTORIC ERRORS BEFORE TIFFIN During the bloody time of the First World War ecclesiastical and spiritual relations between the mother Church in Hungary and its congregations in America were broken. The unfortunate result was due to hurried actions taken on both sides of the ocean. There was no united or
