Amidst festive celebration of the unity and the belonging together of the Hungarian reformed community, the General Convent, representing 56 Presbyteries from around the Carpathian Basin.
The General Convent, after two years of restrictions due to the pandemic, met in person in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Transylvania, Romania) to discuss issued that are of common concerns and interest of the so called “part churches” of the Hungarian Reformed Church from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Representatives of the diaspora communities living in the Unites States and Western Europe also attended the annual meeting.
The HRC's operational body is the General Convent. As the common representative body of the Reformed churches in the Carpathian Basin, it has an important role in the coordination of common issues and works to achieve unity through a harmonizing liturgy and Hymnbook, because of their cooperation in mission and diaconia. The General Convent consists of all the deans and lay presidents in office of the Reformed presbyteries within the Carpathian Basin, as well as bishops and first elders in office of the church districts. Its presidium meets every two months and is composed of the bishops and first elders (lay presidents) in office.
After the presentation of the hosting church, the Transylvanian Reformed Church District, those present remembered the beginnings of the 400 years old educational system which Gábor Bethlen, Calvinist Prince of Transylvania established and the reformed community sustained since.
On 23 May 1622, the Diet of Kolozsvár (Cluj) approved the foundation of the Collegium Academicum. Prince Gábor Bethlen invited foreign scholars to lecture at the educational institution he had established in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia). The academy had three faculties: theology, philosophy and philology. In 1658, the Ottoman army sacked the seat of the prince and the students fled to Kolozsvár. Therefore, in 1662, by decree of Mihály Apafi, the academy was transferred to Nagyenyed (Aiud), where it has been operating ever since, under the name of Nagyenyed Reformed College.
Participants discussed the draft paper of a common mission strategy of the member churches in the Carpathian Basin. The General Convent thanked for the work of the working group preparing the Mission Strategy and committed itself to discern and discuss it a broadly in the Church Presbyteries. The completed and final version of the strategic document will be submitted to Common Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church which the General Convent convened for the first half of 2023.
The war in Ukraine has been in the center of the concerns. Bishop Sándor Zán Fábián, head of the Reformed Church in Trancarpathia, Ukraine, offered a detailed report about the political and economic situation, the ministry of the reformed communities for the refugees and IDPs. The Hungarian Reformed Church Aid offered a report of its complex relief program.
“The war in our neighbourhood has also brought our Church into a new situation. The General Convent is saddened to see more and more people fleeing the war zones and recognises that it is its Christian duty to help the refugees, which it has done in an exemplary way: the humanitarian aid provided by the Reformed Church is larger than ever before. The Convent commits itself to continue to support refugees and IDPs, and prays for an end to the bloodshed and the suffering of the innocent. It will continue to mobilise its forces to support our Hungarian Reformed brothers and sisters in Transcarpathia, Ukraine”, reads in the Final Statement of the meeting.