From: Darrell128@aol.com Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 19:37:58 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Media Alert: Transylvanian Reformed Bishop to Speak in GR October 9, 1996 * Media Alert For Immediate Release Reformed Bishop of Transylvania, President of Worldwide Consultative Synod of Hungarian Reformed Churches to Speak Oct. 10 at Calvin S eminary, Seventh Reformed Church 10 am, Calvin Seminary: The Place of the Creeds and the Scriptures Over Against the Mentality of Communism 7:30 pm, 7th Reformed: The Reformed Faith Under Persecution: A Personal Witness * Branded as "enemy of the state" under Communism, Bishop's trip to include private meetings with two Christian Reformed Congressmen on continued persecution of Hungarian Reformed Church by Romanian government by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (October 9, 1996) URNS - Most Americans know Transylvania only as the home of the legendary "Count Dracula," associating it with vampires and other Halloween mischief. The real Transylvania is an ethnic Hungarian region of the East European nation of Romania, half of whose Hungarian residents claim affiliation with the Hungarian Reformed Church, one of the oldest Reformed churches of Europe. The Reformed Bishop of Transylvania, Dr. Kalman Csiha, spent 6-1/2 years in Communist prisons for his faith and his parents were evicted from their homes and sent into internal exile while he was in seminary preparing for the ministry. Conditions in Romania under Communism were quite severe. "People who tried to resist were just shot to death or taken to forced labor camps," said Csiha, who spent time in eight different camps himself from 1957 to 1964. "This was a period where families or members of families were forced to move, and the party officers and soldiers let them take only fifty pounds of things from their family home for the whole family." The Romanian revolution against Communist dictator Nicholas Ceausescu was sparked by Rev. Laszlo Tokes, a Reformed pastor in the Transylvanian city of Timisoara whose attempted arrest by the Communist security police provoked a riot in his defense that led to the violent overthrow of Communism in that country shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. After the revolution, Tokes and Csiha were elected bishops of the newly-liberated Hungarian Reformed Church in Transylvania. Since 1995, Csiha has also served as president of the worldwide Consultative Synod of Hungarian Reformed Churches, a communion representing Hungarian churches in 43 countries claiming a total membership of three million, including 100 Hungarian churches in three different denominations in the United States and Canada. Csiha's position in the Hungarian churches is roughly equivalent to that of the Archbishop of Canterbury in worldwide Episcopal and Anglican churches. Csiha will speak in Grand Rapids on October 10 in two locations on two topics: 1) A seminary speech at 10 am at Calvin Theological Seminary, 3201 Burton St. SE, on the topic of "The Place of the Creeds and the Scriptures Over Against the Mentality of Communism" 2) A general speech at 7:30 pm at Seventh Reformed Church, 950 West Leonard St. (corner of Leonard and Tamarack) on the topic of "The Reformed Faith Under Persecution; A Personal Witness." Both speeches are open to the public and to the media. Despite the end of Communism, the ethnic Romanian government of Romania has continued to persecute the Hungarian minority, engaging in a less-violent form of the "ethnic cleansing" made famous by the Bosnian Serbs with the objective of eliminating the minority Hungarian culture from Romania. While the Orthodox Church adhered to by most ethnic Romanians now receives privileges from the post-Communist government, Csiha said the Romanian government is actively trying to force the end to Hungarian religious life, centered on its churches. Despite conditions imposed by the European Parliament for admission to the European Economic Union, said Csiha, the Romanian government refuses to return church property confiscated during Communism, including 500 elementary schools, 16 high schools, and a number of hospitals, retirement homes, and other charitable institutions. One purpose of Csiha's trip to West Michigan is to seek assistance from local Reformed churches in rebuilding these institutions. "The biggest problem of all the problems is we do not have any of our buildings back," said Csiha. "The educational law says churches may establish religious schools on condition that we have a building, but they take away our buildings. It's like taking away a suit, and then saying 'You're welcome to come to our party, but you have to wear a suit.'" "We visited the President of Romania asking him to do something about the issue and all the document we prepared were not answered," said Csiha, who said that pressure from the European Parliament was forcing Romania to discuss return of church property but that five years of discussion had not actually brought about a return of property. Nevertheless, the church has rebuilt 29 church buildings, over a hundred parsonages, six high schools, two colleges for diaconal work, and one college for teachers of religious instruction. Part of Csiha's trip to the United States includes visits with two US Congressmen who are members of the Christian Reformed Church: Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland). Both are active in human rights issues and Ehlers is a member of the US House committee on NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). Csiha is working on the reestablishment of Christian schools with William Sytsma, a member of the Christian Reformed denomination and executive director of Worldwide Christian Schools, based in Grandville, Michigan. Top officials of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, institutions of the Reformed Church in America, as well as Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary, CRC institutions in Grand Rapids, are active in working to assist in the re-establishment of university and seminary-level education. Theological education is particularly important for the Hungarian church due to a severe shortage of pastors under Communism. While serving a 10,000-member church prior to his election as Bishop of Transylvania, Csiha was forced to preach six times per week and even under Communist harassment held daily services in both the morning and evening to accommodate the overflowing crowds in his church. Despite his current international responsibilities, Csiha said he still preaches twice per week. Another major project in which Csiha is seeking help from Reformed Christians in the United States is the re-establishment of diaconal centers for training Christian nurses. According to Csiha, sanitary conditions are so poor in Romanian hospitals that one of his pastoral colleagues had to undergo 22 separate operations to deal with repeated internal infections following an appendectomy. "In Romania many more people die after surgery than before because the clean environment is not assured, and the nurses who are trained by the state do not care," said Csiha. "The reason we would like to establish a diaconal center is we see that the country needs a good school for good nurses. This would combine two types of education, medical education and church education." Csiha said the religious instruction given in the proposed diaconal centers would be based on the doctrinal standards of the Hungarian Reformed Church, namely the Heidelberg Catechism and the Second Helvetic Confession, with the goal of training nurses who could provide pastoral care as well as medical care. "Our idea is a pastor can visit a person in the hospital for five minutes, ten minutes, an hour or two at maximum, but the nurses are there all the time. We need to train pastoral nurses," said Csiha. On diaconal work, Csiha's denomination is working with the Transylvanian Reformed Assistance Committee, an interdenominational organization of Christian Reformed, United Reformed, independent Reformed, Hungarian Reformed, and Protestant Reformed members. Headed by Rev. Bernard Woudenberg, recently-retired pastor of the Kalamazoo Protestant Reformed Church, the Transylvanian Reformed Assistance Committee has concentrated its work on helping churches take advantage of extremely favorable exchange rates for American dollars which allow United States churches to support full-time pastors and diaconal workers in Romania for only a few hundred dollars per month in US currency. Csiha's meetings with Hope College and Western Seminary officials, as well as his public speeches at Calvin Seminary and Seventh Reformed Church, highlight an unusual degree of cooperation between a wide variety of Dutch Reformed denominations. Seventh Reformed, long one of the most conservative congregations in the RCA, was expelled for nonpayment of denominational financial assessments, and many of TRAC's strongest supporters are among Christian Reformed secession churches. According to Dr. John Bolt, professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, one of the reasons for cooperation between people who don't always cooperate is the urgency of the cause. "It is important for the Reformed churches in North America to continue to build bridges to our brothers and sisters in the faith in Eastern Europe," said Bolt. "There is a long tradition there of Reformed Christians and we need to be more aware of them." Bolt also said North American Christians needed to learn more about what it means to suffer for Christ. "There are all sorts of signs of hostility, the Colorado initiative to tax churches, and other efforts to bring churches into disfavor in this country," said Bolt. "The message about Reformed faith and oppressive societies needs to be heard here." Contact List: Dr. John Bolt, Professor of Systematic Theology, Calvin Theological Seminary 3233 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4387 O: (616) 957-6010 * H: (616) 245-3046 * F: (616) 957-8621 * E-Mail: BLTJ@luther.calvin.edu Dr. John R. de Witt, Pastor, Seventh Reformed Church 950 West Leonard St., Grand Rapids, MI 49504 O: (616) 459-4451 * F: (616) 459-3896 Mr. Bill Sytsma, Executive Director, Worldwide Christian Schools 4555 Wilson Ave., PO Box 851, Grandville, MI 49468-0851 O: (616) 531-9102 * O: (800) 886-9000 * H: (616) 392-6287 * F: (616) 531-0602 * E-Mail: Worldwide-chr-sch.com Rev. Bernard Woudenberg, Director, Transylvanian Reformed Assistance Committee 427 N. Fletcher, Kalamazoo, MI 49007 H/O/F: (616) 345-4556 * E-Mail: 73611.2244@compuserve.com ------------------------------------------------ file: /pub/resources/text/reformed: nrma9602.txt .