Magyar Egyház, 1969 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1969-01-01 / 1. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

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Bishop Dezső Ábrahám and General Secretary Stephen Kovács were the official delegates. Dr. Andrew Harsanyi attended as a member of the Theological Committee of the North American Council.

Dezső Ábrahám

HIGHLIGHTS FROM DR. PRADERVAND’S ADDRESS

Presbyterians and Lutherans must get together ii Christian unity is to be gained. “I do not believe Christian unity can be achieved unless the churches of the Reformation — Lutheran and Calvinist — can get together,” said Dr. Pradervand. He spoke on “The Alliance After Twenty Years”. His chief criticism of the two decades of Alliance history was that the world body, oldest of the confessional alliances or families, had gone too far in deliberately limiting its growth.

“Confessional families have a role to play in the ecumenical movement,” Pradervand said. “If the Alliance does not act as a body, the larger churches become world churches, and replace world strategy with their own policies. This establishes a pattern of paternalism.” Pradervand said that the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, in devoting itself to the support of the World Council of Churches, had lost the missionary unity of former years when an Alliance committee on missions had helped avoid denominational duplication in areas where missionary work was being done.

REPEAL OF THE DRAFT IN THE UNITED STATES

At this meeting in Ocean City the North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches (composed of representatives of fourteen denominations in the U. S., Canada, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad) also adopted a resolution of its Commission on Civil and Religious Liberty calling for:

1. “support for all constitutional efforts to bring about the repeal of the Military Selective Service Act of 1967.”

2. an extensive study of the “real nature” of the Act and its effect upon young people and the world stance of the U. S.

3. active efforts by the member churches to achieve repeal of the draft.

4. efforts to achieve reconciliation of American citizens who have fled the U. S. because of opposition to the draft.

The North American Area Council is composed of delegates from churches that claim nearly 8,000,000 communicants, the great majority of them U. S. citizens. In voting the resolution the delegates made it clear that they voted as individuals.

The draft resolution, introduced by the Rev. Dr. James R. Hine of Tucson, Ariz., was extensively debated. Some Canadian delegates were hesitant to take such a strong stand on an issue they considered to be a U. S. problem. Other delegates, including many Americans, stated that the resolution stated the viewpoint of Christians concerned for the growth of militarism, and urged their fellow Presbyterians in Canada to act with them.

The paragraph dealing with U. S. youth who have taken up residence in Canada and other countries in protest against the draft was introduced from the floor by the Rev. Robert Andrews of Newark, Del., a delegate of The United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. It called upon the North American Area Council to:

“Encourage all of our constituent bodies (member churches) to work for the reconciliation with their homeland of U. S. citizens who have left their country on

grounds of conscientious opposition to participation in the Selective Service system.”

DR. MILLER, NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL

The Rev. Dr. Allen O. Miller, professor of theology at Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., was named to a two-year term as chairman of the North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed and Presbyterian Churches here today.

The annual election of officers took place in the closing session of the annual meeting. Elected vice chairman of the Area was the Rev. Dr. R. K. Cameron of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Cameron is the minister of York Memorial Presbyterian Church in Toronto.

LOOKING FORWARD TO GENERAL COUNCIL MEETING IN 1970

The Ocean City meeting is the last full meeting of the North American Area prior to the 1970 meeting of the entire World Alliance of Reformed Churches, scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya.

“God Reconciles and Makes Free” will be the theme of the 1970 General Council of the World Alliance, and much of the discussion in Ocean City relates to that emphasis. Meetings of permanent committees dealing with religious and civil liberty, theology, and church cultivation have given preliminary consideration to the theme.

Andrew Harsanyi

THE SECOND HELVETIC CONFESSION

In Questions and Answers

Section XIX.

The sacraments of the Church of Christ.

1. What are the sacraments?

The sacraments are those sacred signs, that is, ceremonies, which God himself instituted and joined to the preaching of his Word, from the beginning.

2. What constitutes a sacrament?

The Word of God, the signs and the spiritual things, symbolized by the signs, constitute a sacrament.

3. Why did God institute the sacraments?

God instituted the sacraments in order to set before us, to keep in our remembrance and strengthen for us his great merciful deeds.

4. What were the sacraments of the Old Testament Jewish people?

The circumcision and the paschal lamb.

3. What are the sacraments of the people of the New Testament, the Christians?

The baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

6. Who makes the sacraments effective for us?

God, who instituted and consecrated the sacraments, makes them effective for us. The min-