Church Districts Research Articles

“We Must Participate with the Fruits of Our Faith in Building Socialism”. The Preaching Committee in the Danubian Reformed Church District in the Mid-20th Century

As a result of the communist takeover in 1948, the Bishop of the Danubian Reformed Church District, László Ravasz was deposed, and Albert Bereczky took his place. In the end of 1951, Bereczky wrote a report to the general meeting of the Reformed Church in which he requested the authorization to set up a “preaching committee” with the aim of supervising sermons. He believed it was important for the pastors to talk about issues of their time in sermons because “we don’t preach in a vacuum space but to real people”. In reality, the committee’s function was the full control over pastors and the search for the ideological/theological content (which is called “narrow-road” theology) in preachings. That is why every pastor was asked to send in one sermon that was to be delivered between 1/01/1952 and 25/02/1952. József Bodonhelyi, head teacher of practical theology at the Faculty of Theology of the Reformed Church, who was also member of this preaching committee, wrote notes about these received texts and sermons where he probably appeared in person. We could find certain qualifications in his notes that seriously affected the careers of the pastors (for example, “he doesn’t address the issues of our time”; “his teaching is dangerous”; “he must urgently retire”). Keywords: Albert Bereczky, Reformed homiletics, history of preaching, preaching, Church history

“Unity and Refinement”. Paths and Quests for Organizational and Ceremonial Unity in the First Half of the 20th Century

This article explores the efforts of the Hungarian Reformed Church in the first half of the 20th century to achieve uniformity and refinement in its worship practices. The desire for a unified Hungarian Reformed worship service had been a hallmark of previous centuries, leading to a long journey of development in the 20th century. The standardization of the liturgical praxis aimed to create a sense of shared identity and eliminate historical variations in regional worship practices and customs. The movement for liturgical unity had been ongoing for centuries, with earlier attempts including church district agendas published in the 19th century. The publication of the Liturgical Book [Istentiszteleti Rendtartás] in 1930, which is the first official Agenda for the whole Reformed Church in Hungary, marked a culmination of efforts towards liturgical unity. The paper highlights the tension between achieving uniformity and preserving diversity within a religious tradition. Keywords: liturgics, history of liturgy in the Reformed Church in Hungary, liturgical book, 20th century, worship practices

Amish Land Ownership within Wisconsin

ABSTRACT Rapid growth of Amish settlement within Wisconsin over the past 60 years has brought 200,000 acres of land under Amish ownership. This paper studies patterns of Amish landownership within 27 settlements, representing 71 percent of Wisconsin’s Amish church districts, and illustrates differing average land ownership per household and degrees of land dispersal and concentration among the settlements. Average household land ownership ranged from 27.7 to 86.6 acres among the studied Old Order Amish settlements. Most Amish owned lands are dispersed among lands that remain under “English” ownership. Older and larger settlements display greater concentrations of Amish owned lands, whether measured by maximum acreage per survey section within the settlement, average owned acreage per section, and presence or absence of non-contiguous sections of Amish owned lands. Amish church affiliation, origins of Amish within the settlements, and types of occupational engagement also appear related to these differences. Keywords: agriculture, Amish, landownership, Old Orders, Wisconsin

The Model of the Higher Church Administration of the Russian Church as of the Local Council 1917–1918 Decisions

Abstract The author of this article reviews the reforms of the higher administration of the Russian Church that were carried out by the All-Russian Local Council in 1917–1918. These reforms decisively changed the system of government of one of the largest Orthodox Churches in the world. The model included the regular holding of Local Councils of various types, the leadership of the Church by the Patriarch, the work of permanent bodies of church power – the Synod and the Supreme Church Council (with the participation of not only bishops but also clergy and laity), the creation of church districts on the territory of the former Russian Empire. New managing mechanisms began their work, but after a few years they were curtailed due to repressions against Russian Orthodoxy, but at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries they were not resumed for other, even though also political, reasons.

"KERESZTYÉNNEK LENNI NAGY ÉS SOKSZOROS HŰSÉGET JELENT” PÁKOZDY LÁSZLÓ MÁRTON TEOLÓGUS PROFESSZOR, VALLÁSTÖRTÉNÉSZ, BIBLIAFORDÍTÓ MUNKÁSSÁGA

The world-famous theologian professor spent a significant part of his life in Debrecen. Between 1928 and 1932, he studied at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Debrecen, where he graduated, and in 1942 he received his doctorate in theology. At the end of 1945, he was appointed public extraordinary professor at the same faculty, and in the summer of 1949, he was appointed public ordinary professor. In the academic year 1949/50, as Dean of the Faculty of Theology, he was responsible for the establishment of the organizational structure of the Debrecen Theological Academy of the Tiszántúli Church District, which had been separated from the university by government action and had become an independent institution. In 1966, the church leadership transferred Pákozdy and his department from Debrecen to the Reformed Theological Academy in Budapest, where he taught future pastors for about two decades. Professor Pákozdy, a religious historian, has been awarded honorary doctorates by two foreign universities for his scholarly research on the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and for his translation of the Bible into Hungarian. In the twilight of his life, obtaining the Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences degree was made possible.

English Financial Aid for the Reformed College of Debrecen in Light of Hungarian Archival Sources

Abstract At the end of the seventeenth century, following the retreat of the Ottoman Empire from the region, the whole of the Kingdom of Hungary came under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Habsburgs, who introduced a number of measures that restricted the rights of Protestants. One of these measures affected the city ministers and the professors of the Reformed College in Debrecen, when they were forbidden by the Chamber of Szepes to have their salaries financed by the city. In such a situation, the leaders of the college had to seek financial help from Protestant-friendly countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England. Drawing on primary sources available in the Archives of the Reformed Church District of Tiszántúl, the aim of this paper is to present the history of the financial aid the Reformed College received mainly from England (and to some extent Ireland and Scotland) from the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth century with a focus on how the money was collected and how it was transferred to Hungary. (RB)

Őri Fülep Gábor életműve

Gábor Fülep Őri’s Oeuvre. Gábor Fülep Őri was the Bishop of the Tiszáninnen Reformed Church District between 1799 and 1823. He was born in Sajószentpéter on 25 April 1739 and died also here in 1823. He was educated in his native village, Miskolc, and Sáro

Appeals of the Vicar Bishops of the Tomsk Diocese for Help to the Starving in 1922 (Vicariates of Biysk and Novonikolaevsk)

Based on the local publication of episcopal appeals to the clergy and believers for help to the starving, the article considers the history of the campaign to confiscate church valuables in 1922 that rarely being in focus of research before. The mass famine of 1922 was a consequence of the severe drought and the social and economic experiments of the Bolsheviks. Under the guise of fighting hunger, a campaign was launched to confiscate church valuables. This campaign became a key moment in the relationship between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church. This paper publishes previously unknown copies of two appeals of the vicar bishops of the Tomsk diocese, addressed to the participation of the clergy and believers of the Biysk, Zmeinogorsk and Novonikolaevsk church districts in helping the starving in 1922. These appeals are stored in the State Archives of the Novosibirsk Region. The paper shows the historical outline underlay drawing up of appeals by vicar bishops. It analyzes the use of these sources in historiography, demonstrates examples of interpretations by researchers of the content of appeals. It establishes that the episcopal epistle was influenced by both hierarchical dependence on spiritual authority and anti-religious pressure of secular authorities. These sources are valuable in that they reflect the consolidated positions of the diocesan clergy and believers, their reaction to everything that was happening then in state-church relations. It is important to notice the features of the typographical set of the texts of these appeals since they were published in the form of leaflets in local printing houses. This article publishes the appeals taking into account modern scientific standards of editorial archaeography.

Cis et ultra montes – Quellenforschung zur Geschichte des ersten ladinischen Dekanats

According to the prince­bishop’s court the Ladin valleys, thanks to their peripheral location and linguistic peculiarities, called for founding a separate deanery. The vicar general who resided in Bressanone/Brixen was no longer able to meet the increasing demands. It also turned out to be impossible to keep the corrupt behavior of the clergy and the negligence in terms of pastoral care under control without permanent supervision. Owing to the analysis of written sources, it is possible to put the circumstances eventually leading to the creation of the Ladin deanery in a historical context. The Ladin deanery, initially called Decanatus Livinalislongi or Puechenstain, was ratified by the bishop on 11.02.1597 and confirmed on occasion of the synod in 1603. The deanery included all Ladin valleys except Ampezzo and Moena because the latter belonged to the Patriarchate of Aquileia. The situation remained unchanged until a first reorganization in 1667 when Val Gardena/Gröden was moved to the deanery of Laion/Lajen. The new division was based on practical and logistical considerations, with no evidence of linguistic or ideological reasons. Colfosco/Kolfuschg rejoined the Ladin deanery in 1668 and was made part of the parish of Fodom/Buchenstein, owing to its more fitting location and linguistic affinity. Until 1688 the dean lived in the parish of Fodom/Buchenstein. During the 100 years that followed the dean’s seat took turns between Marebbe/Enneberg and Val di Fassa/Fassatal. The expression Cis et ultra montes seems to have emerged for the very first time during this period but has not yet been discovered in the ecclesiastical documents of the 18th century. The end of the deanery was followed by a phase of transition characterized by recurring changes and adjustments of the deanery’s classification before the deaneries currently existing in the Ladin valleys began to emerge. It remains to be debated whether it makes sense to speak of a dean’s seat rather than a deanery seat. In any case it is a fact that every time the dean changed residence the name of the deanery changed accordingly. Hence the officeholder’s residence always corresponded to the residence of the church district.

Landownership within Amish Settlements in Wisconsin: An Exploratory Study

This study examines patterns of landownership within 18 Amish settlements in Wisconsin, including nine of the state’s ten largest settlements, plus nine smaller settlements. Landownership was plotted for 2,048 Amish households, who collectively owned over 115,000 acres. These households were drawn from 105 church districts, representing 58.7 percent of the state’s total. The study utilized three types of data: the recent Amish directory for Wisconsin, plat atlases showing landownership for selected counties, and detailed satellite imagery provided by Google Maps. Average acreage per household ranged from 27.7 to 86.6 acres among the settlements. Differences in acreage owned per household appear related to occupations. Average acreage of Amish-owned land per survey section ranged from 41.6 to 201.2 acres. The maximum acreage of Amish-owned land in each settlement’s survey sections ranged from 120 to 639 acres. Amish landholdings exceeded 160 acres in 30.3 percent of the sections having Amish lands, with the settlements’ proportions ranging from 0 to 55.2 percent. Interspersal of Amish lands among lands owned by non-Amish people is the norm, but differences in the density of Amish holdings, displayed by owned maximum acreage per section and average landholdings per section, are related to founding date and settlement size. Settlements established before the mid-1980s display greater clustering of Amish landownership. Newer settlements display many noncontiguous sections with Amish-owned lands not adjacent on their sides or corners to other sections having Amish lands. This pattern is particularly conspicuous within the Platteville-Darlington and Fennimore settlements.

STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REFORMED CHURCH ORGANIZATION (1946–1949)

The presented church history research provides a specific denominational study of a post-war transition from a regional perspective. Its purpose is to reveal the process during which (in the Transcarpathian region that became part of the Soviet Union in 1944) the new state power forced the Reformed communities to accept a radical structural transformation of their church organization. In addition, it presents the violent stages of the structural transformations, during which the Soviet bureaucracy gradually suppressed the former Reformed self-administration system which had been built according to the Synod-Presbyterian principle and was based on community autonomy. The research methodology is based on the analysis of little-known and unknown archival sources of the Archives and Museum of the Transcarpathian Reformed Church, the State Archive of the Transcarpathian Region, the State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine in Transcarpathia Region, the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine, the Synod Archives of the Reformed Church in Hungary, and the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the problem of the history of the Transcarpathian Reformed people after 1944 was carried out only as a partial mosaic-like study in the Ukrainian church history research along with other Protestant denominations, sometimes neglecting the chronological order and cause-and-effect relationship. Despite the fact that the history of the Protestants appears as a collective theme, or as the Protestant denomination with the largest organization, the history of the Baptists receives wide attention in the national church history writing. Our study is primarily not a factual narrative of historical chronology but rather focuses on thematic orientation. Following this point of view, it reflects on the issue (structural transformation) in the context of causality that is, when, why and how the organization of the Reformed church communities which had been based on traditional community autonomy was transferred to the hierarchical structural system. In conclusion, it can be said that the structural transformation through which the Reformed church organization underwent between February 1946 and December 1949, was a specific field for the manifestation of Sovietization. In the present study, the picture of the profound social changes that the Soviet occupation of Transcarpathia in 1944, initiated in the region clearly emerges. Based on its ideology, the openly atheistic imperial state believed that immediately after the annexation of the territory and sufficient transformations of the various denominations, it would be able to use them as ideological support in its interests. However, the Reformed church which had been built according to the council-presbyterian principle and based on the autonomy of parishes did not fit into the clearly hierarchical thinking system of the one-man dictatorship. That is why its church structure had to be transformed and adjusted to the form. Thus, the well-known and completely transparent Russian Orthodox Church served as a model for structural transformations in the Soviet imperial bureaucracy. As a result, the process of transformation of the Transcarpathian Reformed church organization into the Soviet model which ended up in the disappearance of the dioceses, deacons, the bishop, and the church districts is outlined.

Hungarian Consequences of the Toleration Missions to Bohemia and Moravia around 1800

The help provided by Hungarian fellow believers played a crucial role in the revival of Protestantism in Bohemia and Moravia after the Edict of Toleration of 1781. Two thirds of the approximately 70 reorganized Reformed congregations had Hungarian pastors from Hungary. Most of them had been sent by the Reformed Church District of TiszĂĄninnen, which convinced almost 40 young preachers to participate in the „Bohemian mission.“ Whereas the missionary work of the pastors in Bohemia and Moravia has been amply researched, the impact of their missions on Hungary has been largely neglected. Their mission was, however, a relationship with two ends. In this article I seek to close this gap on the basis of recently collected data on students from the Bohemian lands at the Reformed College of SĂĄrospatak and the documents on the repatriation of the Toleration Preachers and their widows who returned back to Hungary.

Ecclesiastical Asset Management and the New Introduction Of Section 2b of the Value Added Tax Act

This paper deals with church assets and the changes in the German VAT law with the resulting consequences. The implementation of EU law has resulted in numerous changes in the handling of assets and commercial facilities of institutional bodies such as the church. Using the example of the church district administration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Dithmarschen, an overview of the application cases for assets was examined. After an introductory overview and an analytical examination of the new law in the value added tax law, a result of action is provided in this elaboration, which will also be of interest for comparable facilities, corporations and institutions.

FORMATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH DISTRICT WITHIN SUBCARPATHIAN RUS

The article expresses the author’s attempt to outline the process of organizational and institutional design of the Reformed Church District within Subcarpathian Rus. It is noted that the Hungarian Reformed communities of the region found themselves isolated from the Reformed Church leaders after the First World War. That uncertainty negatively affected the overall tone of the Hungarian population, despite its religious affiliation. Two camps originated among the Reformed Church activists who remained on the territory of the newly formed Czechoslovakia concerning the future of the Reformed dioceses of Subcarpathian Rus. Some, including the newly elected Bishop Zinke, considered the possible alignment of the Transcarpathian dioceses to the Slovak Prytysyn Church District. Others argued for the separation and formation of an independent church district within Subcarpathian Rus. The Government circles “encouraged” that suggestion. The process of arranging the Reformed Church District within Subcarpathian Rus began almost after Saint-Germain and Trianon and ended only in 1923. As noted by the author, the relationship between the Reformed Church and the state remained complex and tense. The state did not openly restrict the autonomous rights of the church. However, several problems remained unsolved and caused conflicts: the issues of church officials’ and teachers’ citizenship, payment of congrues and promised state subventions, church school status, the language of instruction in church schools, national and religious affiliation of church school students, etc. The government was also dissatisfied with the candidacy of B. Bertok, the elected bishop of the Reformed Church of Subcarpathian Rus. For almost a decade (1932), the authorities de jure recognized the status of the Reformed Church District of Subcarpathian Rus but failed to admit Bertok’s status as the elected church head.

How Do I Count Thee? Various Angles for Examining the Doubling Times of the Amish

The focus of this article is the measurement of how rapidly various parts of Amish society grow, including the number of settlements, households, church districts, and ordained men. "Amish society" means those Plain Anabaptist communities that both identify themselves as Amish and forbid car ownership. Doubling time was selected as the statistic to examine this growth. It is a measure of how quickly a population doubles; that is, its exponential growth. Most of the doubling times calculated for this article were within a few years of the doubling time estimate of 20 years for the Amish population in general, based on statistics from the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. The article concludes with a discussion of what these measures of growth mean for the future of Amish society and extrapolations, based on current doubling times, by decade from 2020 to 2050. Recommended is a greater focus among Plain Anabaptist scholars on the population dynamics of the Amish, arguing that demographic dimensions underlie possible changes in the social, cultural, religious, and economic features of the Amish through the remainder of the twenty-first century.

Dairy Woes in Wisconsin: What about the Amish?

Wisconsin has steadily lost dairy farms for decades, yet the number of Amish dairy herds grew both numerically and proportionately into early 2018. Facing low milk prices, the overall rate of loss of dairy farms in Wisconsin accelerated since then. During 2019, the state lost over 1% of its dairy herds monthly, losing two to three herds daily. The expansion of Amish dairying also ended. Between April 1, 2018, when Wisconsin had 1,160 Amish dairy herds or 12.9% of the state's total, and November 1, 2019, the state lost 165 Amish herds. Losses are continuing.This paper focuses on the impact of the departure of many Amish farms from dairying, relying on examination of dairy producer licenses and a survey of bishops and ministers in Wisconsin's Amish church districts. The loss of Amish herds of dairy cows is greater than the overall departure of the Amish from dairying, inasmuch as the Amish have nearly doubled their milk goat herds over the past five years. Those settlements producing milk transported in cans have been more likely to leave dairying unless their community operates its own cheese factory. Yet dairying is declining in most Amish communities, other than in several recently established settlements. Expanding involvement in growing produce and in woodworking were seen.

Bishop Albert Bereczky (1893-1966) and the Revival Movement: Albert Bereczky’s Conversion

Abstract This original research paper discusses Bishop Albert Bereczky’s (1893-1966) first contacts with revivalism, especially his spiritual conversion experience during his adolescent years. Albert Bereczky, Bishop of the Danubian Church District from 1948 to 1958, was one of the most significant, and yet controversial persons of the Reformed Church in Hungary during the 20th Century. From a popular preacher of the Revival Movement of the 1920s, church planter of the 1930s, rescuer of Jews during the War, he became the tool of state interest of the Communist regime in the 1950s. This paper sorts out the origins of his turn to the revival movement, like his troubled childhood, the emotional and financial insecurity of an illegitimate child, his troubled relationship with his biological father, the positive example of his stepfather, and his deviant adolescence behavior. By showing examples of his personal accounts the paper discusses whether Bereczky went through a ‘sudden’ or a ‘gradual’ conversion experience.

CHURCH MUSIC EDUCATION AND PRECENTOR PRACTICE IN THE REFORMED CHURCH DISTRICT OF KIRÁLYHÁGÓMELLÉK

The Reformed Church District of Kiralyhagomellek was founded in 1921. After the first world war, as a result of the Trianon border change, the church leadership of the part detached from the Trans - Tisza Reformed Church District (Partium) led by Istvan Sulyok, the bishop of Oradea, decided to create a separate diocese. The administrative county boundaries in force today do not match the boundaries of a hundred years ago, it can be attributed to the fact that the dioceses of Satu-Mare and Salaj belonged to the Transylvanian district, so in these dioceses, the Transylvanian hymnbook and choral books edited by Samu Borsay and Gabor Veress were in use. In this period the cantor’s training took place only in Partium and Transylvanian teacher-training institutes. During communism, cantors were mostly prepared privately for the periodic cantor examination. The Oradea Cantor – Training Course in the Reformed Church District of Kiralyhagomellek started in 2006. In my dissertation, I discuss the cantor – training and cantor service in the Partium area, from 1921 to the present day.

A Narrow Breathing Space. The Issue of Prisoners in Bishop János Vásárhelyi’s Correspondence between 1944 and 1945

"In his study, the author focuses on analysing how the issue of war prisoners and of Reformed civilians dragged away from their homes is presented in the corre-spondence of Bishop János Vásárhelyi, the leader of the Reformed Church District of Transylvania. He also discusses the steps the bishop could take to obtain the re-lease of the captives. The author lists a number of examples illustrating the measures implemented in September 1944 at first by the Hungarian military authorities leaving northern Transylvania and then by the Romanian and Soviet military authorities marching in and whisking along Hungarian ecclesiastical personalities and also members of the congregation. One can find out from the study the efforts Bishop János Vásárhelyi made to convince the Hungarian authorities to release the members of Romanian Greek Catholic and Orthodox high clergy they had in their custody, and afterwards how he attempted to obtain the release of the Reformed Church’s clergymen, teachers, and professors and also of one of his family members imprisoned by the Romanian authorities in Romanian lagers. Furthermore, the study points out the fact that in that period many Hungarians who were transported to the Soviet Union in large prisoner trains via Kolozsvár/Cluj asked for help too, and the bishop tried to help within the narrow margins and with the few means that he had. Keywords: Bishop, János Vásárhelyi, World War II, Reformed Church District of Tran-sylvania, prisoner, Groza."

To Serve with Words, Letters and Deeds - The First Stage of the Református Család (Reformed Family) Magazine’s Publication (1929-1944)

" The study firstly addresses the crisis period, which made the creation of the periodical necessary. The first issue was published in 1929, but our time travel to understand the era needs to take us back at least to the 19th century since the roots of the crisis can be found there: the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848; the worker optimism following the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, which, in addition to spectacular results, further deepened the economic and ethnic gap between the various strata of the population; the people-centred, fickle ideological basis of theological liberalism; the horrors of World War I, the Republic of Councils of Hungary, the Treaty of Trianon. The second main topic outlines one of the successful areas of crisis management, i.e. the domestic mission aspirations unfolding in the Transylvanian Reformed Church District: the role of theology professors, Vécs Society, associations mobilizing certain strata of church members, and related press releases and press products. The third chapter presents the first release period of Református Család from 1929 to 1944: objectives of the periodical, columns, readers, editors-writers. Keywords: the Hungarian Reformed community in Transylvania, crisis period, home/domestic mission, Transylvanian Reformed Women’s Association (1928–1944), Református Család periodical (1929–1944)."