Magyar Egyház, 1982 (61. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-09-01 / 9-10. szám
EEB5IEE325Í9 9. oldal voice...” And we sang it forcefully during the Ottawa meeting in at least eighty languages! From Hungarian Reformed viewpoint it was a truly “ecumenical gathering” as well. There were 15 official Hungarian Reformed delegates: representing three continents, and ten different countries. Counting all the visitors we saw more than forty Hungarian Reformed people. For the sake of history, let me provide you with an almost perfect list of our Hungarian Reformed people who were there Bishop and Mrs. Dezső Ábrahám, Bishop Dr. John Butosi, Dr. Andrew Harsányi, Rev. and Mrs. Ernest Miké of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, Rev. and Mrs. Dénes Tamás of our church in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Dr. Aurélia Takács Füle and Rev. Sulyok Jr. from New Jersey. Naturally, the Canadian- Hungarian contingent was the largest, I counted twelve: Rev. Lajos Vietorisz and Dr. Kálmán Tóth of the Ottawa church, also the chief elder of that congregation János Csurgai and another gentleman whose name I could not remember, and the Rev. Ödön Seress, Pál Mező. dr. László Vatai, Géza Kovács all from Toronto, Joseph Vásárhelyi of Delhi, Ontario, Péter Szabó of the Hungarian Presbyterian church of Montreal, and two minister’s sons: Kovács and Pándy-Szekeres. Four delegates came from Hungary proper: Bishop Károly Tóth of Budapest, Bishop László Kürti of Miskolc, Bishop Attila Kovács of Veszprém, and János Pásztor, professor of the Debrecen Theological Seminary. The Transylvania Church was represented by Bishop Dr. gyula Nagy and Rev. Gyula Kovács both of Kolozsvár-Cluj-Napoca of the Romania Socialist Republic. Bishop Gyenge and his daughter Mrs. Judith Gyenge-Schuster represented Austria. The Rev. János Apostol came from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bishop Imre Hódossy from Feketic, Yugoslavia, Rev. Imre Mikó from Pozsony-Bratislava Czechoslovakia, Rev. Imre Szabó from Argentina, and Rev. János Dómján from Caracas, Venezuela. A totally different category I must say were the people who came from the Hungarian United Church of Montreal, I just cannot make myself to classify them as Canadian-Hungarians because it is definitely a question mark, where the Montreal people fit in? Thus a different category, nine lay people from the Montreal church: Mrs. Ilona Komjáthy, Zoltán Kaskó, Mária Kalló, István Kalló, István Maráz, Mihály Maráz, László Gemmel elders of our church, (The truth is that more than forty of our church people had been involved in the Ottawa project under the leadership of our chief elder Bert Fabian.) and my good former student Ernie Gemmel and myself. There were two Hungarian meetings during the Ottawa 1982 days. A friendly supper was organized by the local Hungarian church on August 24th, in one of the rooms of the University of Ottawa. Twenty-eight people were in attendance. Another occasion was the dinner given by Bishop Tóth of Hungary in the Hungarian Village, a very fashionable restaurant not very far from the University campus for the fourteen delegates still in attendance at that time. There had been naturally, less official get-togethers during the Ottawa meeting. The largest of such a fellowship was given by two elders of our church Mr. István Maráz and Zoltán Kasko on Sunday August 22nd also in the Hungarian Village: ten people were entertained. But the Ottawa meeting meant really hard work for the delegates. They were summoned to spend at least ten hours daily in Bible study, plenary, section and committee meetings. The theme of the Ottawa meeting was the well-know doxology in the Lord’s Prayer: “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” So it went on for ten days in English, German, French and Spanish simultaneuosly translated by those dedicated translators one of whom was the daughter of Bishop Gyenge of Austria, whom I saw the last time as a little baby, when the Russians still occupied their village in Austria, and I was foolish enough to sneak in illegally just to see the newly arrived pastors family in that ancient Hungarian village, Felsőőr-Oberwart, Burgenland. All the documents produced for, and during the Ottawa meeting would fill a medium-sized suitcase. Since several smart European delegates (not only Hyngarians) asked me to mail it for them, I know that to mail all the Ottawa documents air mail to Europe cost thirty-nine dollars, and even with surface mail it cost seventeen dollars, you can imagine that in an article like this we cannot enter into the serious theological matters. Let me say that our mother church, the Reformed Church of Hungary produced a very useful booklet in Hungarian, and Dr. Andrew Harsányi wrote a scholarly contribution to the volume published by the North American Theological Committee. I must also confess that in my experience the chance to meet friends whom I did not see since my student days thirty years ago, to hear news from the churches of Indonesia, Korea, China and Cuba from Indonesian, Korean, Chinese and Cuban fellow students from seminary days, was far more meaningful and relevant than some of the very scholarly lectures (very boringly delivered), which you could receive in printed from anyway, and could read leisurely at your convenience. (I did indeed try to read a very important one in the bethtub after driving home from Ottawa at 2.00 A.M., and fell asleep soundlly.) There were a few exceptions. President McCord’s presidential message was truly Reformed, relevant and dynamic. One feels greatly saddened that this giant of our Calvinist tradition will go into retirement soon. There is just no other man of his stature on the horizon. He is the towering pillar of sound Reformed theology always relevant, always scholarly and always compassionate. More than that he indeed had a Reformed witness whatever capacity he served. The other one was our own Bishop Károly Tóth of Hungary. Let me tell you why? During the first day, a Lutheran guest minister from the Soviet Union spoke in behalf of the Lithuanian Reformed Church. He told the plenary session that there is a small Reformed Church in Soviet Lithuania, which was very near extinction. Its twenty congregations were all vacant since there was only one minister left and he is ninety-two years old! Humanly speaking the days of that church were numbered. Then, Bishop Tóth of Hungary appeared on the scene. He found ways and means to overcome hundreds of obstacles and real difficulties, he flew over from Moscow, and ordained two young men into the Reformed ministry and paved the way of the
