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Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Calvin Synod 73rd Annual Synod Convenes

The 73rd Annual Synod of the Calvin Synod convened in Ligonier, PA today on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011.

Synod began with a Service of the Word and Holy Communion at 9AM in the chapel at Bethlen Communities.

At 2PM on the same day the Synod entered its normal deliberations.

Studies in the 2nd Helvetic Confession

From ChristianObserver.org:

Reformed Pastor Robert C. Davis writes:

“If you use the 2nd Helvetic Confession, the English translations condemn the “Novatians” in Chapter Three. This translation is in error. The translation of this section should be “Noaetus” not “Novatians”. The original Latin is “Noetiani” in Chapter Three, where as in Chapter Fourteen, “Novatians” is spelled “Novatianos”. The Novatians were never known to be heretics in regards to the trinity. Noaetus was a follower of Praxeas which held to the Modalistic Monarchianism view of the trinity. The editio princeps confirms this. Hall, Cochrane, and numerous English translations pass on the misreading, which stems from a late 16th century copy. There is a footnote on this in the E. F. K. Mueller ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der Reformierten Kirche, 5.1, p. 174, a text-criticism problem. Apparently, some later editions of the 2nd Helvetic Confession have “Novatiani” instead of “Noetiani”. I guess that the latter were unfamiliar, and thus someone substituted “Novatiani”.

Robert C. Davis holds the M.Div. degree from Westminster Theological Seminary and serves as an Elder and Sunday school teacher at St. John’s Reformed Church Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Davis additionally served in the RCUS as a Pastor of the Odessa Charge for five years, which included Artas Reformed Church in Artas, South Dakota, and First Reformed Church of Herreid, South Dakota. Mr. Davis also pastored the then-independent and now Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) Bethlehem Reformed Church in Freeman, South Dakota. Mr. Davis is currently employed in Lincoln, Nebraska, at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railwayas a Licensed Telecommunications Tech.

Excerpts From The Hungarian Confessio Catholica 1562 in English

Excerpts From The Hungarian Confessio Catholica 1562 in English

This confession with three names–Debrecen, Catholica, Agrovalliensis –is a lengthy Reformed confession written at the request of the church in Debrecen in 1561 by Peter Mélius Juhász (1536-1572) and Gregory Szegedi (1511-1569). György Ceglédi/Czeglédi, Protestant pastor at Varad/Nagyvarad, is also regarded as a joint author. The Confessio catholica de praecipuis fidei articulis exhibita was then printed with the title Confessio Agrovalliensis (“Confession of the Eger Valley”) in 1562 because the Reformed church in the Eger Valley (Egervölgyi) had asked the Debrecen church to send them a copy of the Mélius-Szegedi document.  Agrivalliensis or the Eger Valley is a region in northeastern Hungary where a small fort manned by about 2,000 citizens had courageously turned back a long siege by the Ottoman Turks a decade earlier (1552). The Protestant faith took hold of these folk with so much power that the Habsburg emperor, Ferdinand I (1503-1564), accused the city of treason, i.e., rejection of the Roman Catholic faith as promulgated by the Counter-Reformation Jesuit Council of Nagyszombat (Trnava, Tyrnau) on April 23, 1560. Having learned of Mélius and Szegedi’s confession, the believers in Eger asked that they be permitted to send a copy of the Debrecen Confession to the king. However, they asked that the cover or title page be altered from its original wording, Confessio catholica orConfessio Debreceniensis, to that listed above. The valiant soldiers, nobles, and common citizens gathered to swear their allegiance via this statement of “true and Catholic faith and doctrine:’ King Ferdinand had threatened to remove their pastor, but based on this confession, the citizens of Eger refused and declared that they would abandon the fort as a defense against the Turks if they were not permitted to retain their pastor and their confession. This action is the first substantive example of a congregation in Hungary swearing the Reformed faith in concert.

A consequence of the adoption of the confession was a formal separation between the Saxon Hungarians who favored the Lutheran Augustan Confession, and the Reformed Hungarians who favored the Reformed theology of Geneva, Zurich, and Strasbourg. Matthias Hebler (11571) was the leader of the Lutheran faction which officially separated in 1564 following the Council of Enyed (modern Aiud in Romania).

On Providence

On The Sacraments

On Election and Reprobation

God’s Saving Will

The Merit of Christ

Sin

Hungary Contemplates Pro-Life, Pro-Family Constitution

Under Communist rule, abortion in Hungary was easily available and decimated the indigenous Hungarian population.
This represents a trend seen in former Communist nations of renouncing past influences and returning to policies more consistent with the nation’s past history of a Christian nation.

From LifeSiteNews.com

BUDAPEST, December 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recently elected government of Hungary has put forward a draft document for a new constitution that would guarantee the right to life from conception, and protect the natural family, the holy crown and the place of Christianity in Hungary’s 1000-year history.

The new constitution would include clauses defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Should these constitutional changes be adopted, they would create a complete about-face for Hungary, which currently has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe.

Read the entire report…

Hungarians of Johnstown PA – Johnstown Tribune Democrat

The Johnstown Pennsylvania Tribune Democrat (TribDem.com) recently ran two articles on the Hungarians of Johnstown PA and their history.

The Editor of the Tribune Democrat has graciously allowed Reformatus.us to embed the PDF of these articles here for you to review.

Hungarians – Johnstown News 11-28-2010

2010. október 24-én, 1956-os Forradalom és Szabadságharc 54-ik évfordulójának megünneplésére, Los Angeles, CA

A MAGYAR SZABADSÁGHARCOS VILÁGSZÖVETSÉG

Los Angeles-i Szervezete

dba. “Remember Hungary 1956”

szeretettel meghívja és várja minden hazáját és h?seinket tisztel? honfitársunkat, rokonait és

barátait

a Dics?séges 1956-os Forradalom és Szabadságharc

54-ik évfordulójának megünneplésére

2010. október 24-én vasárnap d.u. 2:30-kor

A Los Angeles-i szabadságharcos emlékm?nél

Mac Arthur Park – Los Angeles – Cardinal Mindszenty tér, W. Sixth Street at Park View

Ünnepi szónok: Dr. Károly Nagy – Professor Emeritus of sociology, Middlesex County College,

New Jersey

Az ünnepség el?tt és után térzene

Amerikai és magyar himnusz: Kodály Kórus, vezényel Érseki Em?ke

Ima: Nt. Jakabffy Zsolt lelkipásztor, San Fernandó Völgyi Magyar Református Egyház

H?ség fogadalom: Egy magyar cserkész

Köszöntés: Dr. Harsányi Lajos, a Szövetség elnöke

Koszorúzás: Magyar Állam, helyi egyházak, magyar egyesületek

Megnyitó beszéd: Bokor Balázs nagykövet, Los Angeles-i f?konzul

Határozatok, üzenetek felolvasása:

State of California Proclamation; Ms. Kinga Tóth

County of Los Angeles Proclamation; County Commissioner Frank De Balogh

City of Los Angeles Proclamation; City Commissioner Andrew Friedman

Záró ima: Nt. Tóth Viktor lelkipásztor, Hawthorne-i Els? Magyar Református Egyház

M?sorvezet?: Tóth Attila

Az ünnepély után m?sor és fogadás az Egyesült Magyar Házban

1975. W. Washington Blvd, Los Angeles CA. 90018

Egyeztetés-információ: El?d László 310-341-3882 leloed@gmail.com

CELEBRATING 54th ANNIVERSARY OF THE

1956 HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION

OCTOBER 24, SUNDAY 2:30 PM

Mac Arthur Park – Los Angeles – Cardinal Mindszenty tér, W. Sixth Street at Park View

FOLLOWING CELEBRATION AT THE

UNITED HUNGARIAN HOUSE

RECEPTION AND PROGRAM AT APPROXIMATELY 5:00 PM

1975. W. Washington Blvd, Los Angeles CA. 90018

Magyar Reformed Church, New Brunswick, NJ 95th Anniversary Video

Magyar Reformed Church, New Brunswick, NJ 95th Anniversary Video

Hungarian Presidential Visit Photos

Here are photos of the recent Hungarian Presidential Visit to New York and the Calvin Synod church in New York. They were provided by the Synod Presbyter Lehel Deak.

Calvin Synod – The Hidden History

What is the history of the Calvin Synod, how did it emerge on the American scene? Former Bishop of the Synod, the Rt. Rev. John Butosi tells the story.

Calvin Synod – The Hidden History

Exhibition on persecution of churches under communism

Exhibition on persecution of churches under communism

An exhibition of photos and documents depicting persecution of priests and believers in Hungary’s Kadar era (1956-1988) opened in Budapest on Friday.

The display at the cultural centre of the Jesuit Order was organised by the Hungarian Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran churches, member of the organising team Gabor Tabajdi told reporters.The exhibition and its accompanying conference were designed to present the ways and mechanisms the one-time party-state applied to blackmail members of religious communities to spy on their fellow-believers, Tabajdi said.

From Caboodle.hu