Fraternity-Testvériség, 1965 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1965-06-01 / 6-7. szám

F RATERN I TY

A- AX. -A- AK. AV. ^ ^ ^

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

Published monthly, with the exception of the summer months, when the June-July and August-September issues are combined Subscription for non-members in U. S. A. & Canada $2, elsewhere $3 a year

Office of Publication: Expert Printing, 4627 Irvine St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15207 Editorial Office: 3216 New Mexico Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20016

Volume XLIII JUNE-JULY 1965 Number 6-7

“PRAISE THE LORD WITH JOY . .

Looking back in the history of our Federation, deep gratitude fills our hearts I or the loz>ing kindness of Almighty God, who made it possible that from the very small group of charter members — a few ministers and a handful of laymen — strange and uncertain as they were as to their future, in less than seventy years such a great and forward-looking fraternal organization as our Federation emerged.

More or less, our own history arrived at a midway. When our Federation was organized in 1896 in Trenton, N. Y., out of the six ministers, three had been in this country for less than three years. Five laymen were present, and only one of them had been here for a period of ten years.

Th great contemporary historian from Harvard University, Oscar Handlin, wrote a very sympathetic book on the coming of the East European immigrants in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The book is entitled: “THE UPROOTED Indeed, when our Federation was organized, those who conceived the idea, who realized it and who struggled a life-long struggle for it, were “uprooted” people.

They were not certain that they icanted to stay here; they were told often by older immigrants that they were not welcome to stay. Everything was new and strange to them — language, customs, way of life, community structure, employment. All aspects of their life were challenged, by economic, cultural and social pressures and forces. Yet, they did the most Ameri-