End of May the Hungarian Reformed Church (HRC) will be celebrating the sixth anniversary of the Constituting Synod that took place on 22 May 2009 in Debrecen. Over the years, the anniversary celebrations have taken different shapes and forms.
One of the most remarkable ones include the Reformed Cultural and Music Festival that will take place this year on 29th to 31st of May at Bakáts tér – Ráday utca in the 9th District of Budapest. Some of the performers include a 500 member festival choir, procession of students from Reformed schools, and various concerts.
On June 28 a large scale public concert will take place in the famous Palace of Arts in Budapest, initiated and organised by Gergely Böszörményi, editor and concert director. The Calvinist Hymns concert, organised annually since 2002, is the largest musical celebration of the Calvinist Church in the Carpathian Basin. The event is held to allow concert recordings to be made of psalms and choral works from the Calvinist hymnbook sung by professional musicians, which are then made available on CD and DVD. Now numbering 350 members, the Carpathian Basin United Calvinist Choir is responsible for bringing a wealth of excellent chorus masters, soloists, chamber choirs and organists to the series. Year by year, the event attracts more and more "secular” music lovers and international guests in addition to the local Protestant congregations.
"The concert series Reformed Hymns has been a long-cherished dream of mine and occupies a special place in my heart ever since it has begun. The right moment for its realization came in 2002 when to the initiative of the concert director Gergely Böszörményi the centuries old treasure of hymns of the reformed congregations, shared in many respects by other denominations, has stepped into the limelight of the concert podium. It is an immense gain to me personally to be part of this great encounter of church music and the performing arts, as each and every concert makes both of them richer. Discovering new aspects in well-known songs and improvising while eagerly waiting for the entry of the 300 member choir crowning the organ's solo are the most magnificent moments of organ-playing for me." - said János Pálúr, one of the most renowned Hungarian Organ players and organist of the Fasor Reformed Church in Budapest.
The other is the Bridge of Love will take place on the 29th and 30th of May. At the beginning of the HRC unity in 2009, the Bridge of Love was started as a call to the Reformed Community in the Carpathian Basin to collectively take part in Social Responsibility.
For the past 7 years Reformed Christians have come together for two days to labour in various sized groups in social, development or ecological fields, so as to help villages, institutions, congregations and communities. The initiative is a means through which people from different walks of life can commonly unite as Christians to take care of their community, environment to fight their difficulties and problems.
Just like other years, volunteers have registered to take part in this two day event in their local community. This year’s registration closes on 18th of May, and so far 15,000 volunteers have registered from all over the Carpathian basin to help their community.
Volunteers do various things, “from giving hugs, picking up rubbish or painting fences. The project actual features are the response to need, and through this give the love that we have received from God” - mentioned Judit Győri, Bridge of Love National Program Coordinator in an interview. The age range is not limiting, previous year’s children as young as 3years of age have taken part, and people older than 80years have taken part too.
The running of this programme has been successful through the work of the local coordinators. They are the ones, who identify areas of need, come up with working groups that will carry out tasks in these areas. They then connect volunteers to working groups.
If this year’s event follows in the footsteps of the events of the past years this will be a fulfilling time for the participants and a testimony to their local community of the Love of Christ passed on to others.
On 22 May 2009, the Hungarian Reformed Church celebrating its constitution opened the doors to the 21st century for our communities. Christ is the future, together we follow him! This faith clearly designates Christ as the Lord of the Christian community, but admitting his superiority and trusting in his grace, leaving the exact description of the community to the future.
Njeri Wagana Hughes
Photos: reformatus.hu; Kalocsai Richard