“Ecclesiastical Authority Terror”. The Downgrading of the Szigetszentmiklós Reformed Parish to Mission Parish in 1956

Author(s):  
Gábor Lányi

"On 24 May 1956, Délpest Reformed Diocese – by the consent of the Danubi-an Reformed Church District– downgraded the Szigetszentmiklós Reformed Parish to the status of mission parish. The 700 members strong, almost 400 hundred years old parish’s chief elder was also relieved of his duties whilst the consistory was dis-solved. The downgrading of the long-standing parish, the dissolution of the elected consistory, and the deprivation of its right to elect its minister gave rise to protests both inside and outside the parish. An array of scandals, disciplinary issues, and dif-ficult as well as intricate lawsuits followed. The matter also generated waves in the entire Reformed Church since the presidium of the diocese overlooked the ecclesias-tic rules and regulations, ordering the downgrade without the consent of the dioce-san assembly –also assisted by the presidium of the church district–, accepting the new situation and appointing the mission minister. The case of Szigetszentmiklós is a great example to understand the global pic-ture of the actions taken against the disloyal ministers and consistories by the ecclesi-astic governance intertwined with the one-party state. Keywords: Hungarian Reformed Church during communism, church–state relations during communism, 20th-century history of the Reformed Church in Hungary, cold war, Albert Bereczky, Szigetszentmiklós."

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Britz

This article undertakes a survey of the application of the Formularies of Unity by the Dutch Reformed Church, covering its history from the 18th century to approximately 1935. Although these Formularies were the accepted confessional basis of the church, it did not prevent additional theological accommodation during the 18th century. During the first part of the 19th century an institutional concept of the church put forward a subscribing formula. The confession became important. In principle the way was opened for an institutional and contractual enforcement of the Formu­laries. This happened when the church was involved in the wide-ranging li­beral struggle during the sixth decade. Even before the 20th century a new approach in which the role of the Formularies was seen more dogmatically and confessionalistically came to the fore. And, when the church was once again entangled in a struggle (viz. the well-known 'Du Plessis case' of the 1930's) the dogmatic point of departure played into the hands of a con­fessional fundamentalism. In the history of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Formularies thus gained in ecclesiological emphasis and value and its application was conditioned by the context and theological influence. Most importantly, the underlying problem of its historicity on the one hand, and its scriptural context and intent on the other hand, remained an unpaid account.


Author(s):  
Stefan Bauer

How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city’s significance for the history of art. The Invention of Papal History corrects this distorting emphasis and shows how history-writing became part of a comprehensive formation of the image and self-perception of the papacy. By presenting and fully contextualizing the path-breaking works of the Augustinian historian Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), this book shows what type of historical research was possible in the late Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. Historiography in this period by no means consisted entirely of commissioned works written for patrons; rather, a creative interplay existed between, on the one hand, the endeavours of authors to explore the past and, on the other hand, the constraints of patronage and ideology placed on them. This book sheds new light on the changing priorities, mentalities, and cultural standards that flourished in the transition from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation.


1943 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Kenneth Scott Latourette

A strange contrast exists in the status of the Christian Church in the past seventy years. On the one hand the Church has clearly lost some of the ground which once appeared to be safely within its possession. On the other hand it has become more widely spread geographically and, when all mankind is taken into consideration, more influential in shaping human affairs than ever before in its history. In a paper as brief as this must of necessity be, space can be had only for the sketching of the broad outlines of this paradox and for suggesting a reason for it. If details were to be given, a large volume would be required. Perhaps, however, we can hope to do enough to point out one of the most provocative and important set of movements in recent history.


1940 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivan A. Peterson

The body of law dealing with discipline, polity, and sacramental administration which has grown up in the history of the church is ordinarily styled Canon Law (jus canonicum), because it is a collection of canons. Canon (derived from the Greek kanon) means a rule, in a material and moral sense. Its original meaning was a straight rod. In apostolic times it signified the truth of Christianity as an authoritative standard of life and a statement of doctrine in general. It is, therefore, easy to understand how the word kanon later came to mean the ecclesiastical legislation which governed the conduct of the faithful. The excellent definition given by Archbishop Cicognani. states that “The Canon Law may be denned as ‘the body of laws made by the lawful ecclesiastical authority for the government of the Church’.”


Artifex Novus ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Anna Sylwia Czyż

ABSTRAKT Sprowadzone do Wilna między 1616 a 1618 r. benedyktynki utworzyły niewielką i skromnie uposażoną wspólnotę. Ich sytuacja zmieniła się w 1692 r., kiedy to dzięki bogatym zapisom Feliksa Jana Paca mogły wystawić murowany kościół konsekrowany w 1703 r. Hojność podkomorzego litewskiego nie była przypadkowa, bowiem do wileńskich benedyktynek wstąpiły jego córki Sybilla i Anna, jedyne potomstwo jakie po sobiepozostawił. Z nich szczególne znaczenie dla dziejów klasztoru miała Sybilla (Magdalena) Pacówna, która w 1704 r. została wybrana ksienią. Nie tylko odnowiła ona życie wspólnoty, ale stała się również jedną z najważniejszych postaci ówczesnego Wilna. Po pożarze w 1737 r. Sybilla Pacówna energicznie przystąpiła do odbudowy klasztoru i kościoła, którą kończyła już jej następczyni Joanna Rejtanówna. Wzniesioną wówczas według projektu Jana Krzysztofa Glaubitza fasadę ozdobiono stiukowo-metalową dekoracją o indywidualnie zaplanowanym programie ideowym odwołującym się i do tradycji zakonnej i rodowej – pacowskiej. W fasadzie wyeksponowano ideały związane z życiem benedyktyńskim sytuując je wśród aluzji o konieczności walki na płaszczyźnie ducha i ciała, włączając w militarną symbolikę także konieczność walki z wrogami Kościoła i ojczyzny oraz charakterystyczną dla duchowości benedyktyńskiej pobożność związaną z krzyżem w typie karawaka oraz zOpatrznością Bożą. Jednocześnie przypominano o bogactwie powołań w klasztorze benedyktynek wileńskich przyrównując mniszki do lilii. Porównanie to dzięki obecności w fasadzie herbu Gozdawa (podwójna lilia) oraz powszechnego w XVII i XVIII w. zwyczaju określania Paców „Liliatami” można było odnosić także do ich rodu, w tym do zasłużonej dla klasztoru ksieni Sybilli. Tak mocne wyeksponowanie fundatorów było nie tylko chęciąupamiętnia darczyńców, ale wraz z całym architektonicznym i plastycznym wystrojem świątyni wiązało się z koniecznością stworzenia przeciwwagi dla nowego i prężnie rozwijającego się pod patronatem elity litewskiej klasztoru Wwizytek w Wilnie. Przy tym charakter dekoracji fasady kościoła pw. św. Katarzyny wpisuje się w inne fundacje Paców: kościół pw. św. Teresy i kościół pw. śś. Piotra i Pawła będąc ostatnią ważną inicjatywą artystyczną rodu w stolicy Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. SUMMARY The Benedictines, who had been brought to Vilnius between 1616 and 1618, formed a small and modest community. Thanks to the generous legacy of Feliks Jan Pac, in 1692 their situation changed as they could erect a brick church, which was then consecrated in 1703. The generosity of the Lithuanian chamberlain was not a coincidence; his two daughters, Sybilla and Anna, the only offspring he left, had joined the Benedictine Sisters in Vilnius. Sybilla (Magdalena) Pac, who became an abbess in 1704, was particularly important for the history of the monastery. Not only did she renew the community life, but she also became one of the most important personalities of the then Vilnius. After the fire in 1737 Sybilla Pac vigorously started rebuilding the monastery and the church, which was completed by her successor, Joanna Rejtan. The facade which was then erected after Johann Christoph Glaubitz’s design was adorned with stucco and metal decorations with a perfectly devised ideological programme which referred to the tradition of the order and to the one of the Pac family. The facade presented ideals connected with the Benedictine life, which placed them among the hints of having to fight at the level of spirit and body, incorporating among the military symbols also the need to fight the enemies of the Church and the state, and the typical for the Benedictine spirituality piety connected with the Caravaca cross and the Divine Providence. At the same time, it reminded of the Benedictine vocations comparing nuns to lilies. This comparison, due to the presence of the Gozdawa coat-of-arms (double lilie) and the common nickname of the Pac family in the 17th and 18th cc. “the Liliats”, could also apply to their lineage, including the abbess Sybilla and her services to the monastery. Exposing founders in such an emphatic way was not only the will to immortalise them, but was also, together with the entire architectural and artistic decor of the church, connected with the need to counterbalance the new and dynamicallydeveloping Visitation Monastery in Vilnius. At the same time, the nature of the facade decoration of the Church of St. Catherine is in line with other foundations of the Pac family: St Theresa’s Church and the St Peter and St Paul Church, and was the last significant artistic initiative of the family in thecapital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo Johannes Modise

This paper focuses on the role of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in the South African society during the past 25 years of its services to God, one another and the world. Firstly, the paper provides a brief history of URCSA within 25 years of its existence. Secondly, the societal situation in democratic South Africa is highlighted in light of Article 4 of the Belhar Confession and the Church Order as a measuring tool for the role of the church. Thirdly, the thermometer-thermostat metaphor is applied in evaluating the role of URCSA in democratic South Africa. Furthermore, the 20 years of URCSA and democracy in South Africa are assessed in terms of Gutierrez’s threefold analysis of liberation. In conclusion, the paper proposes how URCSA can rise above the thermometer approach to the thermostat approach within the next 25 years of four general synods.


NAN Nü ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-336
Author(s):  
Daniela Licandro

Abstract Feminist inquiries into the status of women in Mao-era China have shed light on the challenges women experienced in their double role as producers and reproducers in the nascent socialist state. Less is known about how women lived up to expectations of (re)productivity while struggling with illness. Drawing on gender studies, literary studies, history, and the history of medicine, this article examines articulations of pain in the diaries that writer Yang Mo (1914-95) kept between 1945 and 1982, and published in 1985, to explore intersections among normative configurations of pain, gender politics, and identity construction in socialist China. Yang’s diaries show that the narrative of pain is fundamentally shaped by cultural and political discourses of “overcoming” physical and ideological shortcomings – discourses that the party-state upheld to transform the Chinese people into physically-fit, ideologically-correct socialist citizens. Within this context, this study focuses on Yang’s embodied experience to reveal both the empowering potential of these discourses and their inherent limits.


is generally compatible with the teaching of the common and vulgar pride in the power of this world’ Reformed church, and therefore with doctrines (cited Var 1.423). Readers today, who rightly query found in the Book of Common Prayer and the hom-any labelling of Spenser’s characters, may query just ilies, rather than as a system of beliefs. See J.N. Wall how the knight’s pride, if he is proud, is personified 1988:88–127. by Orgoglio. Does he fall through pride? Most cer-Traditional interpretations of Book I have been tainly he falls: one who was on horseback lies upon either moral, varying between extremes of psycho-the ground, first to rest in the shade and then to lie logical and spiritual readings, or historical, varying with Duessa; and although he staggers to his feet, he between particular and general readings. Both were soon falls senseless upon the ground, and finally is sanctioned by the interpretations given the major placed deep underground in the giant’s dungeon. classical poets and sixteenth-century romance writers. The giant himself is not ‘identified’ until after the For example, in 1632 Henry Reynolds praised The knight’s fall, and then he is named Orgoglio, not Faerie Queene as ‘an exact body of the Ethicke doc-Pride. Although he is said to be proud, pride is only trine’ while wishing that Spenser had been ‘a little one detail in a very complex description. In his size, freer of his fiction, and not so close riuetted to his descent, features, weapon, gait, and mode of fight-Morall’ (Sp All 186). In 1642 Henry More praised ing, he is seen as a particular giant rather than as a it as ‘a Poem richly fraught within divine Morality particular kind of pride. To name him such is to as Phansy’, and in 1660 offers a historical reading of select a few words – and not particularly interesting Una’s reception by the satyrs in I vi 11–19, saying ones – such as ‘arrogant’ and ‘presumption’ out of that it ‘does lively set out the condition of Chris-some twenty-six lines or about two hundred words, tianity since the time that the Church of a Garden and to collapse them into pride because pride is one became a Wilderness’ (Sp All 210, 249). Both kinds of the seven deadly sins. To say that the knight falls of readings continue today though the latter often through pride ignores the complex interactions of all tends to be restricted to the sociopolitical. An influ-the words in the episode. While he is guilty of sloth ential view in the earlier twentieth century, expressed and lust before he falls, he is not proud; in fact, he by Kermode 1971:12–32, was that the historical has just escaped from the house of Pride. Quite allegory of Book I treats the history of the true deliberately, Spenser seeks to prevent any such moral church from its beginnings to the Last Judgement identification by attributing the knight’s weakness in its conflict with the Church of Rome. According before Orgoglio to his act of ignorantly drinking the to this reading, the Red Cross Knight’s subjection enfeebling waters issuing from a nymph who, like to Orgoglio in canto vii refers to the popish captivity him, rested in the midst of her quest. of England from Gregory VII to Wyclif (about 300 Although holiness is a distinctively Christian years: the three months of viii 38; but see n); and the virtue, Book I does not treat ‘pilgrim’s progress from six years that the Red Cross Knight must serve the this world to that which is to come’, as does Bunyan, Faerie Queene before he may return to Eden refers but rather the Red Cross Knight’s quest in this world to the six years of Mary Tudor’s reign when England on a pilgrimage from error to salvation; see Prescott was subject to the Church of Rome (see I xii 1989. His slaying the dragon only qualifies him to 18.6–8n). While interest in the ecclesiastical history enter the antepenultimate battle as the defender of of Book I continues, e.g. in Richey 1998:16–35, the Faerie Queene against the pagan king (I xii 18), usually it is directed more specifically to its imme-and only after that has been accomplished may he diate context in the Reformation (King 1990a; and start his climb to the New Jerusalem. As a con-Mallette 1997 who explores how the poem appro-sequence, the whole poem is deeply rooted in the priates and parodies overlapping Reformation texts); human condition: it treats our life in this world, or Reformation doctrines of holiness (Gless 1994); under the aegis of divine grace, more comprehens-or patristic theology (Weatherby 1994); or Reforma-ively than any other poem in English. tion iconoclasm (Gregerson 1995). The moral allegory of Book I, as set down by Ruskin in The Stones of Venice (1853), remains gener- Temperance: Book II

2014 ◽  
pp. 31-31

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Espinosa

[our goal] is nothing less that the coordination of the living forces of Mexican Catholic youth for the purpose of restoring Christian social order in Mexico …(A.C.J.M.’s “General Statutes”)The Mexican Catholic Youth Association emerged during the Mexican Revolution dedicated to the goal of creating lay activists with a Catholic vision for society. The history of this Jesuit organization provides insights into Church-State relations from the military phase of the Mexican Revolution to its consolidation in the 1920s and 1930s. The Church-State conflict is a basic issue in Mexico's political struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the Church mobilizing forces wherever it could during these years dominated by anticlericalism. During the 1920s, the Mexican Catholic Youth Association (A.C.J.M.) was in the forefront of the Church's efforts to respond to the government's anticlerical policies. The A.C.J.M.’s subsequent estrangement from the top Church leadership also serves to highlight the complex relationship that existed between the Mexican bishops and the Catholic laity and the ideological divisions that existed within Mexico's Catholic community as a whole.


2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (29) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Frank Cranmer

In any discussion of church-state relations in the United Kingdom, it should be remembered that there are four national Churches: the Church of England, the (Reformed) Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales (disestablished in 1920 as a result of the Welsh Church Act 1914) and the Church of Ireland (disestablished by the Irish Church Act 1869). The result is that two Churches are established by law (the Church of England and the Church of Scotland) and enjoy a particular constitutional relationship with the state, while the other Churches and faith-communities (the Roman Catholics, the Free Churches, the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others) have particular rights and privileges in particular circumstances.


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