Organization - Hungary

I'm told, and I think that I'm right to say that we Hungarian Unitarians are a [mirror] image of Transylvanian Unitarians - that if they are the roots, we are the leaves; and if they are the body, we are the branch. When I say that we are a [mirror] image of the Transylvanian Unitarian church, I mean that we use the same Bibles, with just a few modifications, and use the same hymn book as the Transylvanian Unitarians.

Hungarian Unitarians have their own history which goes back to 13th June 1869, when the former minister of Kolozsvár, by name József Ferenc, held the very first public service for the Hungarian Unitarians in Budapest and founded a Unitarian congregation in the city. Then after a few years, in between 1888 and 1890, the congregation erected a wonderful building in the downtown area of the city on the corner of Constitution Street and Nagy Ignác street. You will find there that wonderful building which serves as the Hungarian Unitarian headquarters and as the home of the First Unitarian congregation of the city.

Probably, all of you heard that on the 10th of June 2001 we had the ordination service for the new bishop of the Hungarian Unitarian denomination. And probably, you will raise the question later on, why we need to have [a bishop] in Budapest, I mean in Hungary, for the Unitarian denomination, if we are just the leaves, or just the branch, of the Transylvanian Unitarians. I can't see that all of us, the Transylvanian and the Hungarian Unitarians, need this bishop stuff in Hungary.

We heard professor Elek Rezi saying that the situation in Transylvania and in Romania is not politically and economically stable, is not certain, and not doing well. In a few years the Hungarians will be able to join the European Union, and who knows what is going to happen after that with those who are not in the European Union and with those who are in. So I think that it is a good thing to have administaration work, and to exist [separately]. I think that this is very important for the Hungarian Unitarians. I think I will stop there.