Magyar Egyház, 1969 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1969-01-01 / 1. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH Bishop Dezső Abraham: On the Threshold of 1969 Looking back into the past year and taking into account all the blessings of Almighty God we indeed ought to give thanks to our Lord, for He has showed His grace and mercy upon us, our churches, and our nation. We have heard of troubles in the public schools, colleges, and cities of our country, tragedies on other continents where warfare goes on while our churches in America live in peace and advance in the work of our Savior. Let me ask you not to take the blessings of God for granted, not to take your Christian responsibilities lightly, rather in this land of the free where God’s blessing is visible in many ways, let us all unite in our Christian tasks and perform our duties in this coming year faith fully. Let the Christian education and the youth work in the congregations be carried out more devoutely by dedicated teachers and advisers. Let the other organizations in our churches elect unselfish leaders who will carry on the work entrusted to them to the greater glory of our Lord. Members should take their Christian obligations more seriously by attending services regularly and bearing the burdens of the cause of Christ more generously. Let everyone search the ways and means to serve God better in 1969, and, behold, in the new year new opportunities will be opened to you! Come, therefore, Brethren, young and old, men and women, and help to build and serve the kingdom of our Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and might! PRAYER OF THE ASTRONAUTS The following prayer was offered by Col. Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8 from the lunar orbit on Christmas Eve: “Give us, O God, the vision which can see Thy love in the world in spite of human failure. “Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. “Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.” Reformed Churches of North America Hold Annual Meeting The North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (World Presbyterian Alliance) held its annual meeting January 6-9 in Ocean City, N. J. Out of 116 accredited delegates 98 were present representing 7,948,221 church members from the 14 member denominations. Delegates came from snowy Canada and the sunny Caribbean islands; some of them saw snow for the first time in their lives. The moving spirit of the meeting was Dr. James I. McCord, President of Princeton Seminary who is secretary of the North American Area Council. Major addresses at the meeting were given by the Rev. Dr. Marcel Pradervand, General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, from Geneva, Switzerland and Prof. Dietrich Ritschl from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Dr. Pradervand, occupying the chief executive job of the Alliance since 1948, spoke on “The Alliance After Twenty Years.” Dr. Ritschl based his presentation, “The Reformed Churches of Eastern Europe”, on his personal experiences and extended travels in that area. Prof. Dirk H. Odendaal, of the Transkei in South Africa, a fraternal delegate, in a brief address, asked to look at the whole picture of the situation in his country. Mrs. Béla Vassady, wife of Prof. Dr. Béla Vassady, Lancaster Seminary, was a delegate of the United Presbyterian Church in the USA, who with her charming personality endeared herself into the favor of all delegates and when she spoke, all knew her as “the Hungarian lady”. A special committee prepared a statement on the tragic conditions in Nigeria-Biafra, which called all churches to aid the victims of war and work through government agencies to effect a cease-fire. It was a heartwarming experience to hear first hand reports from Mrs. Howard Black, Dr. Eugene Osterhaven and other delegates about their visits to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Czechoslovakia, where we have sister churches. Our denomination, the Hungarian Reformed Church in America, is one of the member churches of the North American Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. At the Ocean City meeting
