Magyar Egyház, 1967 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1967-03-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 William P. Thompson: Wider Reformed Heritage In the following we print the “Charge to the Pastor” given by William P. Thompson, stated clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. to the Rev. J. Sándor Farkas at his installation over the Hungarian Presbyterian Church at Youngstown, Ohio on February 19, 1967. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Head of the church, I charge you to fulfill your ministry, each day asking God to grant you the grace of goodness and courage, love and endurance, faithfulness and modesty in every circumstance. You already know how many and varied are the duties and responsibilities to which you are called. You are a bishop. Unlike the Reformed Church in Hungary, our order provides that all ministers of the gospel are bishops. You represent the church in the eyes of the world and your people must be able to discern Christ in you. Preserve the truth of the gospel and, as leader and guide in the church, give no man cause for stumbling. You are a pastor. As Christ shed his blood for the sake of the church, it is given to you to share in his sufferings, as you stand with your people in their extremities. You are a minister. Your office is called the first and highest in the Church for both dignity and usefulness. You shall perform it as a servant of Christ and a servant of his people; a servant of the gospel and a servant of the Church. You will respond to the master’s command, “Feed my sheep — feed my lambs”. It will be your obligation as servant-minister faithfully to proclaim the word of God, to administer the Holy Sacraments instituted by Christ and to uphold the work and worship of the Church, so that he who is the great Head of the church, may be glorified. You are a presbyter. You will be faithful and diligent in your responsibilities in the Presbytery, so that your example may remind your people of their membership in Christ’s Universal Church and lead them to commit themselves to the work of the gospel beyond teh bounds of this parish. You have a singular responsibility for the welfare of your brother ministers and their churches, as they do for yours. You are an ambassador of Christ to a world God loves. As his personal representative, he has entrusted to you the message and ministry of reconciliation. You will remember as you appeal to man to be reconciled to God that he no longer holds their misdeeds against them, nor should you. As a minister of this particular congregation, still closely related in love and language with the Reformed Church in Hungary, I ask you for a particular service to the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Even now, while we in the United Presbyterian Church here are considering the addition to our doctrinal standards of the Second Helvetic Confession, the preparations are well advanced for the celebration this May at Debrecen of the 400th anniversary of the acceptance of that same confession by the Reformed Church in Hungary. Help us all in the days and years ahead to appreciate and draw on the depth of faith confessed in the wider Reformed heritage which we have hitherto far too often neglected. Be ready always to confirm in our life the ecumenical spirit of the Lutheran and Reformed scholars in Hungary who have, through their joint labors given to all those whose native tongue is the Hungarian language, the new translation of the Bible in that tongue. I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill your ministry in the power of his spirit and wisdom and hope and joy; and may the God of peace make you holy in every part and keep you sound in spirit, soul and body, without fault when our Lord Jesus comes. UNITY COMES ONLY BY RENEWAL WCC Leader Visits Sweden to Discuss ’68 Assembly Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, general secretary of the WCC, visited Sweden at the beginning of March to make preparations for the Fourth Assembly at Uppsala in July 1968. At a press conference Dr. Blake said that a new atmosphere of cooperation between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church came into being after the Second Vatican Council. But, contrary to some press reports, the Pope will not be coming to the Uppsala Assembly. No invitation had been discussed by the Joint Working Group, the committee charged with discussions between the WCC and Rome, Dr. Blake noted. “I hope the Pope will pay a visit to Sweden on some other occasion”, he said. According to the WCC leader, the Roman Catholic Church will be represented at Uppsala by “observer consultants” rather than by observers, as was the case at New Delhi in 1961. “Unity is a key word in the ecumenical vocabulary”, Dr. Blake stated, “but it is not unity as an end in itself. This unity must be reflected in mission, in service. It comes only by renewal. This thought is borne out in the theme of the Assembly: ‘Behold, I Make All Things New’. “Everywhere in the world the church will henceforth be in a minority position, he predicted. Its old privileged status is finished, and it is a happier role for the church to be a servant. “The essential theme for the assembly is renewal”, Dr. Blake underlined. “At the least this means a new engagement of the Church in the economic and social problems in the world. Some people may think we commit ourselves too much outside our real ‘spiritual’ domain. But Christianity is, in a way, the most ‘materialistic’ religion. We may not forget that His Kingdom is here and now, when we discuss the obligations that rich countries have in the world today. “To ask how much we shall give to the developing countries is to ask the wrong question. We are all living in one world and the question is how to survive.” Board Backs "Truth-In-Lending'' Legislation Legislation now pending in Congress which would require lenders to inform borrowers of the total dollar cost of loans and annual percentage interest rates was strongly endorsed by the General Board of the National Council of Churches. The resolution declared that “many Americans, and most particularly persons of limited educational attainment and low income” are regularly victimized by excessive interest rates, lack of information, and misinformation as to the true cost of their loans.
