Fraternity-Testvériség, 1966 (44. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-08-01 / 8-9. szám

FRATERNITY

3

JOSEPH KECSKEMETHY:

THE TRADITIONAL MEETINGS IN LIGONIER

Our Ministers, Elders and Federation Workers to Meet Again

The ministers and their steadfast consistories have always been the pillars of strength in the life of the Reformed Church in general, as well as in the life of the individual American Hungarian Reformed churches. Just as the Church of “One Foundation” was built and grew through faith, loyalty and sacrificial service of the elected pastors and presbyters, so today our individual churches, religious and social institutions, including our own Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, are functioning and progressing under the leadership and wise guidance of the “godly men” of our Reformed community.

For decades now the common Hungarian destiny, our common faith, our interests, plans, dreams and problems have brought together our distinguished clergy, many of our laymen, church leaders, as well as the officers of our Federation, for our annual meetings and conferences. Year after year God gathers His children of the common faith, the past, present and future stewards of our common cause, in the Bethlen Home, where faith, combined with the love of God and our fellowman, but especially the sacrificial love expressed toward the servants of our faith, have worked miracles for the past forty-five years. He brings us together at Ligonier in the cherished home and treasury of our spiritual wealth, which through the years has drawn us, the scattered children of “One Mother”, closer together than the much discussed, but ever-disappearing mirage of the so-called “organic union”.

That which is spiritual had the power to draw us closer together. That which is temporal, the mirage of organic union, has been ever disappearing. Why? Because THUS FAR THE SPIRIT THAT FOUNDED OUR CONGREGATIONS, BUILT OUR CHURCHES TO THE GLORY OF GOD, PERFORMED MIRACLES ON MOUNT MORIAH IN LIGONIER, AND FOUNDED THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA AND PRESERVED IT FOR THESE PAST SEVENTY YEARS AS OUR COMMON TREASURE . . .