Thanksgiving worship service on Sunday afternoon took place in the new church building of the Reformed congregation in Pesterzsébet. Bishop Zoltán Balog preached the Gospel and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán greeted the congregation.
"Our task is to prepare the way for the Almighty, Creator and Redeemer God to reach the souls of the people. Primarily to reach ourselves and from there onwards the souls of others," said Zoltán Balog reflecting on the fifth chapter of the second book of Chronicles. In his sermon, the Bishop of the Danubian Reformed Church District and ministerial President of the Synod of RCH emphasized that it is the responsibility of the church-builders and those who serve in the church to invite others to and prepare them for the coming of God. But when God appears and make Himself present, they must not push themselves in the forefront. They must stand aside, because in such moments only God matters. "This is what should characterise us as Reformed, that we can step back when the encounter between God and humankind takes place," he said. He concluded his sermon by saying that "the message of every church building story is that if you prepare your soul, if you draw on the ministry of the faithful servants of Christ, if you put into words your desires in prayer, if you sing and play music for Him; then God's love and glory will fill your life, your home, and all your days. Just keep pure, clean and empty - unfilled - the space that is His. Put nothing else there."
In his welcome address, János Börzsönyi, pastor of the local church, looked back on a busy period of construction, which now came to an end, and the congregation takes possession of the building with a grateful heart.
"Our church buildings are lighthouses. When a new one is built, the light in the world grows," said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the thanksgiving service. "The building in which we stand is also a herald that there is a Reformed congregation in Pesterzsébet that believes in its own future. Normally you don’t build a church for one or two years," the Prime Minister said. He recalled the news about Christian communities in the process of dying out, even in the peaceful West. "How good that this is not the case in Hungary. We Hungarians have been a church-building nation for a thousand years," he said, adding that since 2010, 150 new church buildings have been built Hungary and in the Carpathian Basin, and more than three thousand churches in Hungary and abroad have been renovated with the support of the government. "We are in the Church called ‘alliance or belonging together’. This alliance is the future. At time harvest, one thinks of the fact that the Reformed congregation in Pesterzsébet has already pruned the grapes, so that it will bear even more fruit for the Hungarians in the future", Viktor Orbán said at the end of his speech.
Béla Kató, Bishop of the Trasylvanian Church District blesses the building
The foundation stone of the church, which was built based of plans by Imre Makovecz, was laid exactly three years ago, in September 2018. The construction was partly financed by public donations and the city of Budapest, and by the support of the local and national government. For the past seventy years, the 80-year-old congregation held its meetings in a community space converted from a former doctor's office, from where they moved this summer to the new building complex, which includes the church, the community house and the parish.
