Hungary: An Open Door and a Time for Healing

For the most part, church leaders in Hungary studiously avoid talking politics with outsiders. When Western visitors to Budapest inquire about the scars on buildings damaged in the 1956 uprising that was put down by Soviet tanks and troops, they are told politely of plans for urban renewal for that part of town, and the discussion moves quickly to more contemporary—and more pleasant—topics.

Although the Soviet Union still exerts powerful influence on the Hungarian government, life for most of Hungary’s 10.5 million population is immeasurably more pleasant than during the Stalin-Khrushchev era.

To the casual visitor, Budapest (population: two million) has the earmarks of a Western city. Privately owned shops abound on both sides of the Danube downtown, and the streets are filled with shoppers. University students mingle with other commuters aboard the modern subway trains (the nickel fare is one of the world’s last great bargains). There are Rome-sized traffic jams at rush hour, and smog as heavy sometimes as that in Los Angeles is killing hundreds of the trees that line main boulevards. Bars are plentiful—and busy. If one has enough forints (twenty to a dollar) he can purchase a better apartment, possibly from another individual who is on his way up in the world.

The churches are Westward-leaning, too, and there has been a notable evolution of freedom among them over the past ten years. The Protestant denominations and many local churches operate bookstores or book-tables within their premises where Bibles, hymnals, and other material can be purchased. Both the Catholics and Protestants have recently published new translations of the Bible (many Protestants say the Catholic translation is the better of the two). About 40,000 copies of the Protestant version have reportedly been printed since 1975. Reformed Church bishop Tibor Barta, president of the Bible Society of Hungary, has been pushing pastors to promote Bible sales so that inventory can be decreased and another printing ordered. The Brethren published 12,000 hymnals last year, 6,000 of them for use abroad.

Pastors can travel rather freely within the country, and local congregations have a full range of meetings. Of the 500 Baptist churches, for example, the following schedule of a Budapest congregation is typical for an urban one: Sunday, 9:00 A.M., an hour of prayer; 10:00 A.M., worship service (the average sermon is 25 minutes long); 11:00 A.M., Bible-study groups, including Sunday-school classes for children; 7:00 P.M. evening service (more music than in the morning); Thursday, 7:00 P.M., Bible study and prayer meeting; Saturday, 7:00 P.M., Youth Bible study. Choir rehearsals and women’s meetings help fill out the week.

Church leaders in interviews in Budapest last month pointed to slow but steady growth, and they said they’ve noticed something else of late: an “evangelical spirit at high levels” that “crosses all classes and ages” and is found in almost all of the denominations, including the Roman Catholic Church. And, they added, the churches tend to be filled at Sunday services now. Forces of spiritual renewal are at work within the churches, according to several pastors, and the so-called Jesus movement is beginning to take hold among the young (many of the recent converts in the churches are young people). The new developments have sparked spirited doctrinal discussions within the churches.

There is a strong emphasis among the clergy on the authority of the Bible, but the finer questions of inerrancy are up for grabs among the theologians. “We are conservatives but not fundamentalists,” commented Dean Josef Nagy of the Baptist Seminary, which was established in 1906.

Kornel Gyori, who teaches practical theology at both the Baptist Seminary and the seminary of the Council of Free Churches, an eight-denomination federation, said he was “shocked” in years past on visits to youth conferences in the West to find little use of the Bible by Western young people. At one conference of 120 youths, he said, “only five kids had Bibles—the delegates from eastern Europe.” Happily, he added, the situation is changing; at the latest conferences the Western young people are bringing not only Bibles but also Hebrew and Greek texts.

The stated membership of the denominations is as follows: Roman Catholic, 7 million; Reformed, 650,000; Lutheran, 400,000; Baptist, 12,000; Seventh-day Adventist, 5,500; Church of the Nazarene, 4,000; Evangelical Pentecostal, 3,200; Apostolic (Pentecostal), 2,500; Methodist, 2,000; Brethren, 1,420. Several smaller denominations have fewer than 500 members. Theology students: Catholic, 300 in two schools; Reformed, 185 in two schools; Lutheran, about 55; Seventh-day Adventist, 20; Baptist, 23 in two schools; Evangelical Pentecostal, 13. There is a shortage of full-time clergy, and in most denominations the majority of pastors must serve several parishes. Lay leadership must be relied upon heavily.

In recent years there has been a greater spirit of cooperation among the Protestant denominations (in pre-World-War-II days the smaller groups often suffered discrimination at the hands of the big denominations, and not until after the Communists came to power were the smaller groups really accorded equal rights). Teachers from the Reformed and Lutheran churches help provide instruction for seminarians in the small denominations, according to Dean Jeno Szigeti, 41, of the Council of Free Churches’ seminary. Most of the instruction at this ten-year-old school is by correspondence. Relatedly, the council also offers music education programs and leadership courses for laypersons, says Szigeti.

The Council of Free Churches (CFC) was organized in 1944 almost as a matter of survival by the small denominations. The Baptists had received legal status in 1905 but not on a par with the big denominations, and the other free-church groups did not attain legal recognition until 1945. At the helm of the CFC is Sandor Palotay, elected to an indefinite term in 1970 as president, the CFC’s top executive post.

Palotay identifies himself as a minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but a number of international SDA leaders deny him that description, mostly on grounds that his lifestyle is not in accord with SDA teachings. Palotay is also editor-in-chief of the Baptist Peace Messenger, an 82-year-old weekly that now serves the entire CFC constituency (it has a circulation of 5,500). He is the chief negotiator between the CFC and the government. His critics say he is too subservient to the state, and his supporters argue that he is merely accommodating himself to political realities for the greater good of the churches.

At last month’s annual meeting of the Baptist Union of Hungary attended by more than 1,000 in Budapest, he borrowed a text from Revelation and declared that God has set before the Church an open door of opportunity that no one can close. In a pointed aside that prompted a few chuckles, he said: “Sometimes we’ve made trouble for ourselves by trying to go through the wall instead of the door.”

After years of negotiation, said Palotay in an interview, he recently won amnesty for Nazarenes who had rejected military service for conscience reasons (those in jail were freed on March 17) and legal status for the denomination. From now on, he said, Nazarenes will not be required to handle weapons in the military, and instead of making oaths where prescribed they need only make simple affirmations.

With the lifting of state pressure, said Palotay, the denomination is now bogged down with internal strife: arguments over Bible versions, over styles of music, over whether laypersons can speak in church (pastors usually forbid it, and small groups meet privately elsewhere, only to be reported by loyal members to the authorities as illegal gatherings).

Probably the worst squabble in CFC ranks involves the Methodists. The trouble came to a head in July, 1973, when pastor Tibor Ivanyi of the 120-member Methodist Church of Nyiregyhaza in eastern Hungary refused a transfer to the similarly sized church in the industrial city of Miskolc. Ivanyi had been having a running feud with local government authorities, and the district superintendent at the time, Adam Hecker, felt it would be in everybody’s best interest to wipe the slate clean and allow Ivanyi to make a fresh start elsewhere. It was no secret that the gentle-mannered Hecker, who was nearing retirement, wanted the dynamic Ivanyi to succeed him. Ivanyi had leadership gifts, and he and his wife had a wide following among the young people in the denomination. Ivanyi, however, felt the transfer would suggest that the government had won the battle. His rejection of Methodist church order brought on a denominational crisis.

Hecker resigned in 1973, and the situation continued to deteriorate. In July, 1974, a special meeting of the church took disciplinary action against Ivanyi, and dismissed him from the pastorate. During the meeting, Ivanyi rejected the mediation efforts of Bishop Franz Schafer of Switzerland who has jurisdiction over the Hungarian church, according to special correspondent Alexander Haraszti, who spent several weeks investigating the matter. Frederick Hecker was later elected to succeed his father.

The denomination purchased a modern apartment in Nyireghaza for Ivanyi and his family (the Ivanyis have eleven children), but the minister refused to vacate the parsonage, and he and his members barred the new pastor (from Miskolc) from taking over the church.

Ivanyi appealed his case to the government, which ruled it was an internal church matter and referred him to the CFC, on whose executive council he sat. The council sided with the official Methodist position, sparking bitter criticism from Ivanyi. Some of it was directed at Palotay, and in the melee Ivanyi was ousted from his council seat.

In one attack Ivanyi, 49, accused Palotay of wheeling and dealing with church money for personal gain. Some letters circulated by the Ivanyi camp claimed Palotay had skimmed $5,000 from $50,000 of Western gifts for the Methodist Church (see August 29, 1975, issue, page 44). This led to an investigation by the government, which gave Palotay a clean bill of health, reported Haraszti. From his side, Ivanyi apparently could produce no documentation to back his charges.

(In interviews, denominational leaders said they are satisfied with the way funds are handled, and they said that regular audits and other safeguards are part of the CFC’s procedures. The CFC does have an account in Palotay’s name in Vienna to receive Western money, but Schafer said gifts to the Methodists never exceeded $4,000 annually. Ivanyi later disavowed to correspondent Roger Day the letter mentioning $50,000, but a friend of Ivanyi insists he heard Ivanyi himself make such a charge.)

In another attack, some of Ivanyi’s backers charged that Palotay is a Communist infiltrator.

Ivanyi lodged other appeals of his case with a variety of government bodies, including the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party, all to no avail. President Imre Miklos of the State Office of Church Affairs told Ivanyi his complaints were without foundation, said Haraszti.

Ivanyi sued the Baptist Peace Messenger after it published an interview with Frederick Hecker about the matter in its May, 1975, issue. He also sued the Hungarian State Insurance Company, which declined to recognize him as a church employee after his dismissal by the denomination. Both cases were thrown out of court.

During this period Ivanyi and two of his sons, both of them seminarians and assistant pastors, were arrested on forgery charges. One of the sons allegedly broke into Methodist headquarters and obtained an official seal to use on documents in an attempt to show that Ivanyi and the sons were still church employees. Palotay says he intervened on behalf of the Ivanyis and persuaded the court to give them probationary sentences rather than prison terms. (Some CFC members contend privately that Ivanyi is courting a jail term in order to achieve martyr status and enhance his position in the West, from which he receives much of his moral and financial suport.) The sons were ousted from the seminary on disciplinary charges.

Two pastors and their congregations sided with Ivanyi, along with a denominational headquarters secretary, and some deacons and students. One congregation’s majority subsequently turned against its pastor and returned to the fold, but the other remained loyal to Ivanyi. Thus today in the cities of Nyireghaza and Szeged (where pastor Andras Vadasz holds forth for Ivanyi) there are two Methodist congregations each. Both sides claim they are the true Methodists. Ivanyi claims 1,000 followers in the churches and preaching points, a figure disputed by Methodist leaders. They also deny reports that Ivanyi and his followers have been harassed by police and employers over the church turmoil.

Frederick Hecker doesn’t want to press the issue. Instead, says he, “these are days for repentance and renewal in our churches.”

Total Faith

A survey by Redbook magazine reveals that an “impressive number of American women have embarked on a religious awakening” in the past five years and have felt themselves “in the presence of God,” according to the magazine’s editors. The survey is based on questionnaire responses of 65,000 women ranging in age from 15 to 91, with the mean age 35. Also, a new positive image of the “religious” woman is emerging in contrast to the negative stereotypes seen in the past in books and movies, the survey shows. Religious women are found to be “optimistic, openhearted, generous, forgiving, and independent … rather than angry and punishing,” and the more religious a woman is, according to the survey, the happier she is.

Most of the women reported they lead an active spiritual life (attending religious services, praying, helping the needy, reading the Bible and other religious materials), and an “overwhelming majority” said they have had “religious experiences” of the sort Jimmy Carter talks about.

‘Imprudent Conduct’

Pastor Louis Hillendahl of the 100-member Ingleside (Illinois) United Methodist Church asked for and got a leave of absence from the pastoral ministry rather than face a church trial. His case got national press attention recently when it was learned he had conducted “nude therapy” sessions with members of his congregation during two months in 1975. The reports came to light during two child-custody court cases in which the former husbands of two women charged they were unfit mothers because they had taken part in the sessions.

Hillendahl, 56, acknowledged that he had held experimental therapy classes in which some parishioners who were “consumed with sexuality” disrobed. No sexual acts were performed, he said, and the sessions were not held at the church. He said he would do it again if it would help people.

Methodist bishop Paul Washburn appointed a ministerial committee to investigate. As a result, the pastor was charged with “imprudent conduct and unministerial behavior”—grounds for an ecclesiastical trial. Washburn met with Hillendahl and his wife, and the pastor subsequently requested the leave, forestalling the trial. He will continue to live in the parsonage and receive his salary until June.

Athletes in Action

Athletes in Action USA ended its best basketball season in history last month, narrowly losing to the Soviet Union’s top team, the Moscow Red Army. More than ten thousand fans in California’s Long Beach Arena saw the Moscow team take a 108–106 win—and heard AIA members give a halftime presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Athletes in Action is the athletic branch of Campus Crusade for Christ, and it fields six teams in four sports. All AIA teams give former college athletes a chance to use their skills as a platform for mass evangelism. Of these, the U.S. basketball team is the best known. John Wooden, former UCLA coach, says it compares “very favorably” with any of the top college teams in the country.

The chance to play the Moscow team fulfilled a longtime goal of Dave Hannah, AIA’s national director. Included on the Soviet team are such Olympic veterans as 6′3″ guard Sergei Belov and 7′5″ center Vladimir Tkachenko. Hannah felt a win for the Christian team, headquartered at Tustin, California (near Anaheim), would mean instant recognition and chances to play in major international tournaments. “We’d like to build the best amateur team in the world,” he added. “It would open many doors to international evangelism.”

The missionary cagers almost upset the Russian team, falling short only after some much disputed calls by Soviet referee Michael Davidov. With eleven seconds remaining in the game, AIA had the ball and a chance to overcome a one-point deficit. Davidov, however, outraged the crowd with an immediate traveling call on guard Brad Hoffman.

One second later, Davidov handed Hoffman another disputed call. He tagged the former University of North Carolina star with a blocking foul, and Viktor Petrakov sank two free throws that assured the Red Army win. Eldon Lawyer, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, hit a foul shot for AIA’s final point.

But even with the defeat, the Athletes in Action program seemed to be advancing toward its goal of establishing a worldwide outreach through basketball. “We’re considering sending AIA to the Jones Cup tournament in Madrid next October,” said Bill Wall, executive director of the Amateur Basketball Association. “The best teams in the world will be there. It’s also possible AIA could represent the United States at the world championships in Manila in October, 1978.”

Although AIA is now aiming at some international goals, the past season brought breakthroughs within America. After playing in obscurity for nine and a half years, the team had wins in January that brought national media attention.

These key victories came in Athletes in Action’s first home games ever—after a wearying string of 365 consecutive away contests. In the first, Coach Bill Oates’s team blasted the undefeated and then top-ranked University of San Francisco team 104–85. In the second, AIA trounced fifth-rated University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 104–77.

Many of the team’s players have given up lucrative opportunities to play for AIA, which posted a 36–7 record. Center Bayard Forrest, for example, turned down a six-figure contract from the Seattle team of the National Basketball Association and accepted a living allowance from AIA of one-tenth the amount. Hoffman and Doug Oxsen gave up European pro opportunities. Ralph Drollinger, 7′2″ center from UCLA, returned a Boston Celtic offer without opening it. (Forrest last month signed with the Phoenix Suns.)

Said Drollinger, “I’ve seen Christ change me so miraculously that it motivates me to tell the world Jesus is the answer to our problems. One of my objectives is to help fulfill the Great Commission.”

BILL HORLACHER

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