Magyar Egyház, 1962 (41. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1962-02-01 / 2. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 7 MAGYAR CHURCH Aladar Komjathy’s Report On New Delhi II. UNITY IN A DIVIDED WORLD AND A DIVIDED CHURCH The name World Council of Churches suggests not only the desire for unity but also the reality of our divisions. The Christian congregations recite the Apostle’s Creed in their worship and affirm Sunday after Sunday that “I believe a holy Catholic (Christian) Church”. Christ prayed for the unity of one Church, yet the organization which met in New Delhi is a world council of churches, indicating that our divisions are real and there is no Christian Church which could make a claim of being the only true Church. The divisions of which we have to speak about were, however, not entirely denominational, “intramural” conflicts of Christians inherited from former generations. If we remind ourselves of the world situation of today, world means a continuing crisis between divided and conflicting great powers. The division of the world into two hostile camps has been symbolized by the term “Iron Curtain”, “Bamboo Curtain” or more recently, the “Wall” dividing West Berlin from the Communist ruled East German state and Soviet occupied sections of Berlin. World suggests, further, a variety of races, languages, cultures, realities of everyday life: a division, similarly creating ongoing conflicts in the world of today, just like that of the deadly struggle of opposite political systems of the two world powers. No account of New Delhi would be satisfactory which ignores these realities of division which seperate nations, governments, and people from one another and as Christians live as citizens of all countries in our world of today and are members of their nations and belong to people of different races and opposing political, economical, and social systems, it was to be expected that they carry their divisions with them. Language difficulties were solved by a simultaneous translation system which offered a choice of five languages: English, French, German, Russian and Spansh to all delegates. But would it be possible to solve the problems of Iron Curtains as. easily? Out of the approximately 600 official delegates and another thousand of people who attended the assembly in New Delhi 50 churchmen came from Communist countries. In our next issue of the Magyar Egyház you will read more about the central Iron curtain figure, Archbishop Nikodim, the leader of the Russian delegation. Now we shall mention only some events which have taken place while the Third General Assembly was in session. Hopeful events of Christian unity aimed at reconciliation in our divded world. Much has been said and written about the danger of Communist penetration of our hemisphere by the Cuban dictatorship. There are no diplomatic relations between our country and Cuba. In New Delhi there was a most cordial Christian fellowship between the delegates of churches from the United States and those from Cuba. Another troubled spot in the world of today is New Guinea. Indonesian and Dutch relations were broken long ago, the two nations may get involved in an armed conflict on the problem of this far away territory, as newspapers report it almost everyday. For years, now, no Indonesian church leader could go to Holland as it is printed in every Indonesian passport that it is not valid for the Netherlands. In the corridors of the assembly hall of the Third General Assembly of the World Council of Churches the more than twenty-five member delegation from Indonesia and the delegates of Holland were seen continuously as seeking each other, talking to each other. There were also formal conferences between the two delegations, to find a common Christian witness on the problems dividing the two nations. And we should not think for a moment that these people meeting each other were either traitors to the cause of their nations or unimportant figures seeking publicity on the grounds of being “controversial”, an unfortunate habit of some Protestant churchmen. Both the Dutch and the Indonesian delegations, included important national figures. One of the Indonesian Protestant lay leaders has been the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Armed Forces during the guerilla warfare days against Holland. Three other delegates from Indonesia are members of the provisional peoples congress, the legislative body of that nation. One minister from the same country belongs to the Supreme Advisory Council of President Sukarno. Among the Dutch Reformed delegates one lay representative is a top dignitary in the foreign service of his nation who has been in
