Magyar Egyház, 1964 (43. évfolyam, 3-9. szám)

1964-10-01 / 8. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

7

MAGYAR

CHURCH

ALADÁR KOMJÁTHY:

REFLECTING ON FRANKFURT

My original intention was to describe the works and proceedings of the nineteenth General Council of the Reformed Alliance in a second article and to make a few critical comments in a third installment. In the last issue of our magazine, however, a splendid article by Mr. James Andrews saved me the work for the second part and now I can limit myself to some criticism.

Summarizing the achievements of the General Council we can say that whatever is being undertaken and carried out by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches is (and has always been) a real contribution to the entire Church. It was reassuring to see that the Reformed World Alliance is really a world organization — as we have pointed out in the previous article.

We regret, however, that this ecumenical-international character of the Frankfurt meeting was not visible (or audible) in the daily worship services. The order of worship for each morning was prepared. I heard many critical remarks about the similar and almost same kind of liturgical forms. We should not forget that within the liturgical tradition of the Reformed Churches there are other than American. It would be commendable not to leave the planning of these morning worship services to the liturgical preferences of one person. Why not have a member church representing a typical Reformed tradition assigned to each morning? This way we should get to know better the devotional life of the different families of the Reformed Church. It must be said, that the benediction was given by each leader of worship in his own language during the Frankfurt meeting. It was for instance very gratifying to hear Bishop István Csete of Yugoslavia as he gave the benediction in the Hungarian language. But it was rather strange that liturgy for that day was taken from the Mercersburg liturgy, which is the liturgical heritage of the Reformed Church in the United States, and the Hungarian speaking bishop had to read it in French. It would probably be better if everyone could serve according to his own liturgical tradition and possibly in his own language. This way the richness of Reformed liturgy could become more visible than having very similar sounding litanies and responsive readings all the time.

We cannot help but feel that the suggestion of the Frankfurt study guide on the “Worshipping Community” was not taken seriously when the morning devotional services for the Frankfurt meeting were planned. In this study guide we read the following:

Worship is not likely to become a daily

expression of celebration, confession and concern before God where Sunday morning brings nothing but a preaching service doctored up with liturgical bandages and splints, or a formal ceremony variable only by filling up preordained slots with punch-out prayers and sound-alike hymns. The needs and membership of a congregation are too varied always to be met by the same means, especially if they are restricted to Elizabethan language or to the talk-talk monologue of an ‘officiant.’ Not all the blame can be placed on our ministers, not by a long shot! It is extremely difficult for one man to fill in a deeply rutted road all alone, and, happily, ministers today are not equipped with ploughs. Paving the way to renewal is a corporate task, and therefore a layman’s and not only a pastor’s responsibility.

It would be quite a rewarding experience to see and hear on such a meeting how the young Reformed Churches of Asia and Africa have their forms of worship, which is definitely not the same as having Africans and Asians to read from the Mercersburg litany. It would be an enriching spiritual event to everyone to share in their liturgical contributions instead of arbitrarily limiting ourselves to four or five definitely West European and North American books of liturgy.

The General Council received with gratitude the reports on the publication of Calvin’s unpublished sermons. Dr. James I. McCord, of Princeton theological Seminary, is the chairman of this Committee. Different volumes have been published and are available to the interested scholars. For us Hungarian Reformed people it is important to note that Dr. Barnabas Nagy, one of the best Calvin scholars today, did a magnificent job in this work. (Dr. Nagy has been the professor of systematic theology of the Theological Seminary in Budapest, before that in Sárospatak, closed in 1951. This great scholar had been removed from his chair in 1957 by the conformist church leadership and has not yet been rehabilitated!)

As we express our gratitude and appreciation for the many good things we have heard and experienced in Frankfurt, we must also say that we are afraid that there is a trend current in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches which seems to be quite apologizing for anything specifically Reformed. I am not in agreement with this trend which aims to keep the Reformed World Alliance more or less a kind of Little League in the shadow of the World Council of Churches. How often we have heard since 1948 that the Alliance does not wish to be a selfish, confessionalist body, and wishes to serve through the World Council of Churches. Because of ths policy, there is no Reformed Inter-Church Aid, like the Lutheran World Federation has one. I heard