Magyar Református Egyház

Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Here are several photos from the visit of the Debrecen Great Church Choir to our Hungarian Reformed Church in New York City. They were provided by Synod Presbyter Lehel Deak.

Today as the world mourns the victims of the Mumbai, India terror attacks,this essay by Rev. Dr. F.N. Lee should remind us that this is an age old suffering well known to Christians in general and especially Hungarian Christians. Out of the suffering, a profound confession in the Triune God emerged that must never be forgotten:

Islam and the Hungarian Confession of Faith

Submission Date: August 25, 2008

Dear Friends,
This past Sunday afternoon I had the privilege to participate in the official 70th Anniversary & Rededication Ceremony of the Cleveland Hungarian Cultural Garden with a bilingual Opening Prayer. It has been really tough to find a parking place! Hungarians from various Organizations, Churches and Associations joined forces to renovate our National garden which is a jewel in the chain of Cultural gardens in East Cleveland. Approximately 200 attended the actual event. Prior to the Ceremony the crowd was entertained by the dances of the Csárdás Dance Company and the Reg?s Hungarian Scout Folk Ensemble – you may discover Zsófi Szélpál and Matyi Tábor on one of the pics -, as well as the live “cimbalom” music of Endre Cseh. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this project and participated in the fundraising activities!

See you next Sunday, August 31, either in Church or at the 53rd Annual Hungarian Scout Festival in the German Central park at 12 noon where I will be conducting the Protestant Worship Service!

In Christ`s Service
Zoltán S. Kelemen

1463 Waterbury Road
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
Cellular: 216. 403-1031

………………….
Kedves Barátaink
Az elmúlt vasárnap abban a megtiszteltetésben volt részem, hogy résztvehettem a clevelandi Magyar Kultúrkert 70. jubileumi és Újjáavatási Ünnepségén. Városunk magyar Egyesületei, Egyházai és Szervezetei fogtak össze azért, hogy megújulhasson a kelet Cleveland szivében, a különféle nemzeti kultúrkertek sorában található nemzeti kertünk, aminek igy igyekeznek visszaállitani régi fényét. Csatolva küldök néhány fényképet az eseményr?l.

Látjuk egymást jöv? vasárnap, augusztus 31-én (Édesapám születésnapja!) a templomban vagy az 53. Cserkésznapon, ahol déli 12 órakor tartunk protestáns istentiszteletet!

A page devoted to the Hungarian Reformed Liturgy has been added. The Hungarian Reformed communion service is especially noteworthy and will, Lord willing, be added at a later date.

The Hungarian Reformed Liturgy page.

Thirty Hungarian Reformed ministers were ransomed from slavery in Neopolitan ships on 11 February 1676, by Dutch admiral Michael de Ruyter, for a huge sum raised by Protestants in western Europe. Their story is reflected in a plaintive hymn, “Lift thy head, O Zion, weeping.” The historian Reformed bishop Imre Ravasz tells about it.

The Bloody Court of Pozsony

The years 1671 to 1681 have become known by Hungarian Protestants as the ten years of mourning, so terrible was the opposition made to the people’s exercise of their Reformed faith. During those years, moreover, Protestant ministers and teachers were summoned to a special law court which sat a Pozsony (Bratislava or Pressburg) to answer for the political view that non-Roman Catholics were supposed to hold. And the court was under the presidency of the Prince Primate of Hungary! They were accused of disloyalty, treason and the defamation of the Roman Church.

No account was taken of their humble defense. They were first threatened with torture and death, but finally were given the choice of becoming Roman Catholics, or resigning their charges or fleeing the country. Of the first batch of 33 to be accused, one minister turned Roman Catholic, the others either resigned or went abroad. After that every minister in the country was summoned. . . . All who turned up were the 400 ministers of western and northern Hungary. Of this number , all were first condemned to death, then some were put in irons and thrown in prison for seven weeks on end. The death sentence had only been a threat, but it frightened 200 of the ministers to such a degree that they succumbed and signed a statement that they would cease their activities, and many of that number then left the country.

Condemnation to the Galleys

But 89 of this 400 refused under every threat to give way to the show of force, and all of these 89 were im-prisoned and then put to heavy labor under the lash. Every means was tried to break their obstinacy. Three died under their treatment, 18 turned Catholic, one agreed to resign from his charge, and one escaped from prison. The others languished for another year in jail, and then in March 1765, 41 of them were impelled by forced marches through Austria to Trieste, whence they were taken by ship to Naples and sold as slaves to be used in the galleys. Some of the 41 died on the road to the sea and never reached Naples, and three managed to escape. But the 30 remaining were sold and chained to their oars in May of 1675.

One of the condemned slaves managed to send a message back to Hungary, in which he gave a heart-rending account of the horrors he and his fellows were going through at the hands of the merciless task-drivers, and he described how day and daily their whole physical frame was racked by pain and torture under the lash of their beastly masters.

The Rescue

The terrible fate of these 41 Hungarian ministers reached eventually to the ears of foreign Protestant powers, and it was they alone who were instrumental in having the ministers released; . . . to collect the huge sum the huge sum necessary to buy the galley slaves back.

“February 11, 1676, is a date that will never be for-gotten in the Reformed Church of Hungary. On that day the galley slaves regained their freedom. The Dutch admiral, de Ruyter, who was then at anchor in the bay of Naples, was bidden (to) take them on board his own ship. When his eyes fell on the poor emaciated bodies of those suffering men, re is reported to have said, ‘I have many battles to my credit against all kinds of enemies, but this is my finest victory, in that I have been permit-ted to set free Christ’s innocent servants from an unbear-able burden.’ One of the ministers sought to express the thanks of all to de Ruyter, but the latter stopped, and said that it was not he who should be thanked, for it was God who had wrought their freedom But the ministers replied. ‘Yes, but we ought also to give thanks to the instruments that God uses.”

(History of the Hungarian Reformed Church – trans-lated George A. F. Wright)

This article was reprinted from Calvin Synod Herald, March/April 2001, page 6. Provided by Rev. Al Kovacs

See more abouth the Hungarian Galley Slaves in this back issue of LEBEN