Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1962-12-01 / 12. szám

F RATERN I TY

OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA Edited by the Officers of the Federation

Published monthly. — Subscription for non-members in the U. S. A. and Canada $2.00, elsewhere $3.00 a year.

Office of Publication: Expert Printing Co., 4627 Irvine St., Pittsburgh 7, Pa.

Editorial Office:

Suite 1201, Dupont Circle Bldg., 1346 Connecticut Ave., Washington 6, D. C. Volume XL DECEMBER 1963 Number 12

TOWARDS ONE CHURCH

For nearly 2,000 years the Christian Church has been bitterly divided against itself. Only in the last decade have the leaders finally come together to discuss their common faith rather than their rigid differences.

Over 200 years ago Emanuel Swedenborg was deeply disturbed at the sectarian feuding of his own day, when, in his belief, the warring Christian sects could share a common, fundamental credo in the three essentials of the Church: “the acknowledgment of the Divinity of the Lord, the acknowledgment of the holiness of the Word and the life which is called Charity. ” His clear understanding of the oneness of Christian aims foreshadowed the same general purpose as the leaders of the current ecumenical movement.

Son of the King’s chaplain, he was in the bosom of the Lutheran Church. But in his bosom was a bigger church, one which encompassed the world — that is, the world as it was known in the 18th century. Although he remained a Lutheran, he eventually found himself unable to accept the full doctrine of the Church, and at the age of 59 declined the post of Councilor of Mines in order to devote all of his thoughts and energies to being “The Servant of Christ”.

He wrote of his vision of renewed Christianity, and believed that in it lay the salvation of the world. He felt that man is as much a part of the spiritual world as he is of the physical. His good standing in court and his obvious disinclination to act the part of demagogue or prophet, enabled him to work undisturbed. Like other men in advance of their time, his work was often ridiculed. The comment of contemporaries does not always convey the true significance of a man, and today his