First Universalist Society of Franklin Transylvania Partner
Church
August 18 – 31, 2004
Figure 1
- The
Introduction
Four pilgrims (Rev. Carol Rosine, Harriet Fisher, Pat Slovacek,
David Kassay) from
For all but Carol it was the pilgrims’ first visit to
Ádámos, or
Diary
Wednesday August 18:
We left the Franklin First Universalist Society parking lot
at
Figure 2 - Harriet Fisher, Rev. Carol
Rosine and Pat Slovacek checking in at
Thursday August 19:
Arrival in
Friday August 20:
This day was a Hungarian national holiday (St. Stephen’s
day), equivalent to our 4th of July. I spent the entire day with my
Hungarian relatives, most of whom I had not seen in 22 years. Harriet, Carol
and Pat spent the day visiting the sights of
Figure 3- Hero's Square in
Saturday August 21:
Today the trip began in earnest. We meet John Dale and
Csilla for breakfast and were ready to roll at 9. Our indomitable driver, Rev.
Dénes Farkas was at the Fabius punctually at 9. Dénes kept our program on
schedule by insisting on punctuality. After loading up the van we began our
adventure into
Once we were in
It’s about a 2 hour drive from Nagyvarad to Kolozsvár where
we spent a few days. Kolozsvár (Cluj) is the main city of
Dinner this night was at Rev. Csaba Mezei’s with 2nd
Unitarian Kolozsvár congregation. Csaba is the former minister at Ádámos and
has spent a lot of time with the
The evening turned into one of great celebration as we got
to know our “2nd partners” in Kolozsvár. Much Transylvanian cuisine,
wine, pálinka, walnut liqueur and Romanian beer were consumed. Many songs were
sung. The 2nd Unitarian congregation Kolozsvár is proud of their
reputation as the greatest singers (or easiest to break into song) of all the
Unitarian congregations in
The women of our group learned a lesson in Hungarian chivalry tonight that they never quite got the hang of. A common Hungarian greeting is “Csokalom” (choke-a-lome), which means “I kiss your hand.” This phrase has been in use for probably a thousand years and continues to be a standard way for people to greet. Standard, that is, for a man only when greeting a woman. Before they learned differently Carol, Pat, and Harriett would use this greeting with everyone they met. They found it very amusing when they were told the protocol for it’s more traditional use.
We met many wonderful people this night. Everyone had a
story to tell of the oppression the Transylvanian Hungarians have been subject
to in the last century and of close relations who had left
Sunday August 22:
Click here for more pictures from this day
There was a huge thunderstorm in the middle of the night
that woke me. Fortunately, all the rain during our visit occurred during the
evening; otherwise we had beautiful weather. László Jr. made us breakfast this
morning at 8. Breakfast consisted of toast, jam, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppermint
tea and coffee. Luci (pronounced Lutsee) is fluent in English and stayed with
us during our breakfast for discussion. English used to be a forbidden language
in
We took a cab for the two mile drive from Mr. Lörinczy’s
apartment to Csaba and Melinda’s house. Few people in
Our entire day was spent at Melinda and Csaba’s house. We attended services at Csaba’s church, 2nd Unitarian Kolozsvár, where Carol preached (the text of her sermon is here). Csaba selected songs from their hymnal that we were familiar with. The congregation would sing the hymn in Hungarian and then the English speakers in the audience would sing the English version from our hymnal. The service was more traditional than our services at FUSF. For example, the service began with a prayer (to God!), the congregation rose when the minister entered the room, and the minister was always referred to as reverend by the congregation, not by his first name. This congregation did not observe the traditional Transylvanian seating arrangement of men in one section separated from the women. The church is beautifully decorated with Hungarian folk art. The building itself is unassuming, you would have to know that there is a church there to find it. The building has no steeple or stained glass windows, for example.
Figure 4 - Carol Preaching at
The service began at 11 and after the service it was time
for lunch and discussion. Several of the congregation members had lunch with us
on the balcony of the parish house. Melinda had some help in the kitchen from
some of the congregation’s women. Many rounds of food, wine and pálinka were
served. I spent some time talking with Emma Mezei, Csaba’s mother. She had a
lot to say about the oppression Transylvanian Hungarians have been under for
many years. She pointed out to me the color scheme of the dishes we were
served. Many of them consisted of the colors of the Hungarian flag: red, green
and white. This small symbolic gesture gave the Hungarian minority of
Figure 5 - Pat Slovacek and Rev. Carol Rosine sampling the pálinka at lunch
In the afternoon we presented two year old Réka Mezei with
gifts from the FUSF congregation. She enjoyed the English language picture
books we gave her. Some white dress shoes and a pink hat given to her by one of
the FUSF congregants were also a big hit. The day ended with dinner on the
balcony and a prompt cab ride back to
Monday August 23:
Click here for pictures from around Kolozsvár
This was our day to tour the capital city of
The bishop wanted to show us more of the school but to do so
we had to go through a room where the high school choir was rehearsing. The
bishop did not want to disturb the rehearsal so he stopped us from entering the
room. We asked to listen to the rehearsal and the bishop and the choir director
obliged. The choir sang two songs while we listened, one was the tune of the
Doxology, which I remembered from my youth in the Episcopal church. After the
impromptu concert Carol spoke to the students, without the benefit of a
translator, about how much she enjoyed their singing and how much she enjoyed
hearing them sing when they toured the
After our visit with the bishop we toured the
We then went next door and visited the 1st
Unitarian church (there are 3 Unitarian churches in Kolozsvár). This is the
biggest Unitarian church in
We had lunch at the Rex Pizzeria, a restaurant in Kolozsvár owned by Unitarians. I had a Mexican pizza Transylvanian style (mixed vegetables and ham, I wasn’t sure what made it Mexican). We recognized a print on the wall of this restaurant of a scene from Kolozsvár from a similar print in the apartment where we were staying. We would later have a chance to visit the artist in his studio.
After lunch Csaba continued showing us around Kolozsvár. One of the sites he showed us, the statue of King Matthew outside the St. Michael’s church deserves a few words. This Hungarian treasure of one of its greatest kings was threatened with destruction by the former Romanian-nationalist mayor of Kolozsvár. Under the excuse of searching for Roman ruins that would prove how long the Romanians had lived in the area he began excavating very close to the huge statue. If the world leaders hadn’t pressured him to stop he would have dug right under the statue causing its collapse. Maybe he never intended to go that far but just wanted to play with the Hungarian’s psyche. Regardless, it is this sort of disrespect that the Hungarians of this region have been subject to for most of the past century.
Csaba also gave us a tour of his
Our final event with the 2nd Unitarian
congregation of Kolozsvár was dinner at a congregant’s home. This beautiful
home on a hill was built entirely by the widow’s husband and overlooks the
south western part of the city of
Tuesday August 24:
Click here for pictures of this scenic drive
Today we left Kolozsvár for the real purpose of our trip,
visiting our partner church in Ádámos. Dénes was at our door promptly at 9 and
ready to go. We said goodbye to the Lörinczys and headed down the bumpy road to
Ádámos. Ádámos is about 60 kilometers south east of Kolozsvár but it is off the
main road. That means you’re in for a very bumpy ride. Forget about reading or
writing postcards, it’s all you can do to stay in your seat. This kind of
amusement costs a lot of money at
On our way to Ádámos we visited many sites. Our first side
trip was to Torda. This is the town where in 1516 David Ferenc made his decree
on religious toleration at the Diet of Torda that was to pave the way for the
In fact, our next visit was to another famous Unitarian
church, the church at Mészkö. This church is famous because it is where Francis
Balázs (the one who they named the scholarship at Starr King for) preached. He
is considered one of the greatest Transylvanian Unitarian preachers and writers
of the 20th century and his ministry was brought to life in his
wife’s (now out of print) book The Alabaster Village. The church is
small but beautiful. It is decorated inside with blue Hungarian embroidery, a
nice change from the more common red. It has a sculpture of Francis Balázs
outside, which reportedly his daughter couldn’t stand the first time she saw
it. This church was also where our partner minister, Alpár Fulop’s father had
worked. It also has a nice kopjafa (cope-ya-fah) which gave us the idea to try
and get one for FUSF. The kopjafa is an ancient Hungarian symbol of carved
wood, sort of like a totem pole. It was originally used to mark grave sites of
brave warriors but today is used as decoration, or a memorial. During the
Ceausescou regime many kopjafas were burned in
We got a bit of a break from churches at lunch and visited a fantastic nature site instead. We had a picnic lunch at the Torda gorge and then went for a brief hike through the gorge. See the pictures linked above for views of this gorgeous site.
Figure 6 - The Torda Gorge
After our quick hike we drove on to Ádámos, where we met Rev. Alpár Fulop and his wife Erika. The Fulops live in the Unitarian parish, which has recently been renovated with some financial help from FUSF. The parish has two bedrooms, a living room/dining room, a bathroom and a kitchen. There is a three season covered porch that is also used for religious education classes for the children. The Fulops have a chicken coop as do most of the homes in Ádámos. They also occasionally have a pig but last year’s pig was in cold storage. Their dog Kiti (a dachshund) also welcomed us; the other dog, Lord, who guards the chicken coop was not allowed to welcome us. Lord is not friendly as one of the poor chicks discovered when it escaped from the coop. The chick ended up in Lord’s mouth as we looked on in surprise. Alpár rescued the chick before it ended up in Lord’s belly and nursed it back to health so that one day it could find its way into the villager’s bellies. We also met the church’s lay president at the Fulop’s house. András greeted us, he spoke no English so I did my best to talk with him in Hungarian. András’s son is building a house next to the parish and András gave me a tour of the property. He explained to me some of the history of the land. It was owned at one time by a wealthy man who gave it to the Unitarian church in his will. There were three women from the village who helped Erika in the kitchen. They made us dinner and we got to know the minister and his wife over dinner. There was the ubiquitous pálinka and Ádámosy wine to smooth the introductions.
We learned of our living arrangements while in Ádámos from
Alpár. The three women in our group were to stay in the parish house. Because
the parish house did not have a fourth bedroom for me, I got the privilege of
staying with one of the families of the congregation. So when the evening
discussion was over Alpár walked me over to my host family’s house. It was
about Ľ of a mile from the parish house. On the way we stopped at the Unitarian
store, a general store owned by the Unitarian
I stayed with the Rátani family. Irenka, her daughter little
Irenka, and son in law Béla. They live on what Alpár refers to as “widow’s
street” as so many of the families living on the street have lost the man of
the house. My family was no exception. Irenka’s husband had died 6 months
earlier. Life is very hard in the Transylvanian villages. The life expectancy
must be much shorter than the American’s. The nearby city of
The house is like most of the homes in the village. Irenka’s parents had owned the house; who knows how far back in the family the house went. The houses on the street are built closely together, the lots are not large, less than Ľ acre. The Rátani house has three rooms, a bath and a kitchen. The kitchen has a bed in which mother Irenka sleeps. Little Irenka and Béla sleep in the dining room/living room. I was given the guest room. The bed was a foldout couch and I was given nice warm blankets. The home does not have an indoor toilet, the outhouse is in the back with the geese, chickens and pig. They also have a vegetable garden. The villagers raise and grow most of their food. It is too expensive to buy meat and vegetables at the store (there are no supermarkets, Dicsö has an outdoor market).
The night ended with what would become a running joke for
the rest of the visit between the parish house guests and me. After a long day
and after having eaten a nice meal at the parish house I was just ready for
maybe a little TV and bed. However, I was surprised that, when I returned to my
lodgings, my hosts brought out an entire other meal for me at around
Wednesday August 25:
Click here for more pictures from Ádámos
My host family woke me at 7. They had drawn a nice warm bubble bath for me as they would do each morning of my stay (something the parrish house guests were envious they didn’t get). Breakfast began with a shot of pálinka, followed by another and some coffee. I would hear all kinds of reasons why pálinka was good for one’s health when I tried to refuse another glass. “It helps the appetite” or “It opens up the heart and lungs” were some of its benefits I remember being told. We then walked to the parish house. Béla was on vacation for the first few days of this week so he could accompany me to the Fulop’s.
After breakfast at the parish we began our tour of Ádámos
with Alpár. This was mainly a tour of the churches of Ádámos. Our first stop
was the Reform (Calvinist) church; the congregations of the Reform church in
Next we walked down the street to the (Romanian) Orthodox church. We were met along the way by the priest of the Orthodox church and his wife and child. The Orthodox church is the national church so it is in better financial state than the other churches of the region. We were given a tour of the church by the priest and his wife. The priest told us the Romanian side of the history of the region; he displayed some artifacts that “proved” the existence of the Romanians before the Hungarians. Alpár kept quiet, being used to hearing flimsy evidence such as this used to put down Hungarian claims to the region and not wanting to make waves. This is a very old and sensitive issue between the two nations, each side having their own historical evidence to prove their points. Later Alpár pointed out contradictions in the Orthodox priest’s account.
The Orthodox church is in good shape, its interior is covered wall to ceiling in icons, paintings, glass, every sort of religious icon imaginable. After looking around the pews and such where the people sat, we were shown in the inner sanctuary where only the Orthodox priest is allowed (not just any priest). I’m not sure what it is actually used for but one thing is clear: it is off limits! Our minister, Rev. Rosine, made the mistake of attempting to enter this sanctum where they keep the bones of their saints and other sacred items. Carol, unaware of the grave implications of anyone other than the Orthodox priest entering this lair, was hastily made aware of this rule. Shouts of “no! no! no!” rang out as Carol’s foot touched the precipice. Fortunately, she did not enter the sacred realm as we all might have been struck by lightening if she had. This attempted trespass might explain some of the unfavorable weather we were to have. I believe there was a thunderstorm later that night.
We spent a good hour in this church talking to the priest, with Alpár translating the
Romanian for us. The priest’s wife showed us the loft where
they have a nursery. At FUSF we think it can get noisy during Sunday services
with the youth having their classes in our foyer behind closed doors; this
church has the classes right in the church. Alpár explained that while the
Unitarians feel it is important to hear the minister’s sermon, in the Orthodox
church one’s mere presence in services for a few minutes suffices so a little
children noise probably doesn’t bother anyone. I am explaining this church
visit in a sort of tongue in cheek manner, but our hosts were very nice and
kind to show us around. When we left the church the priest said he had a
surprise for us – in the yard of the church was an ancient table saw made in
Our final tour site visit today in Ádámos was the Unitarian cemetery, the final resting place of many a Szentgyörgyi and Kis (being two of the most common family names in Ádámos), and other families. There was a long walk up a hill to get to it but it was worth the walk. The cemetery offered beautiful views of the surrounding hills. Each of the denominations of the town have their own cemetery. There is also a “common” cemetery where people who don’t commit to one of the town’s religion’s are buried. Apparently, as Alpár explained, it is a great shame to the family of the dead to bury one of their own in the common cemetery.
Figure 7 - The Unitarian cemetery in Ádámos
This day ended with one of the highlights of our partner
church visit: the horse-drawn wagon ride to Unitarian forest in the hills of
Ádámos and the cookout there. The Unitarian
About 20 people from the congregation made the trip to the
forest to have dinner with us. The main course was the regional favorite,
mititei. Unfortunately, Ádámos was not able to give us our first experience
with this
We all climbed in the wagon for the trip back to the village. Harriet opted out of the return wagon ride and took a car ride back. The rest of us enjoyed the brisk return ride downhill with frequent stops to enjoy the view and have a glass of Ádámosy wine. We visited two of the congregant’s homes. One of the homes we visited on the way home was that of one of Ádámos’s many widows, Ilonka. She frequently helped Erika in the kitchen during our visit. Her entire yard is a flower garden. Both her daughter’s have left Transylvania for the west and she was looking forward to their visit in a couple of weeks.
We concluded the evening with discussion about the American Unitarianism and Transylvanian Unitarianism. We talked about the different programs at FUSF, men’s groups, women’s issues, religious education. My second dinner was at 10 with my host family. We watched an American movie on Romanian HBO before retiring for the evening.
Thursday August 26:
Today was dedicated to visiting the city of Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures). I woke at 7, made the trek to the outhouse, took my bubble bath, had two shots of pálinka over discussion and snacks with my host family and headed to the parish house. I had breakfast with the gang and Dénes picked us up at 9. The ride to Marosvásárhely went through Dicsöszentmarton (hometown of the famous Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti) where I got to see up close the Carbid Fox factory whose flames I could see from Ádámos. Most of the factory looks like it had sustained some serious bombing. Only part of it is still functional and the factory has lost a lot of jobs in the recent years, probably to global competition. I didn’t get a complete look at this city but the road through it was not impressive. The factories seemed to cast a pall over the entire city.
Dénes arranged for us to meet with the daughter of the former minister of the Dicsöszentmarton Unitarian church, whom Carol had met during her last visit to the region. This was typical Dénes; Carol merely mentioned a fond remembrance of Rev. Fazakas and the next thing we know Dénes had arranged a meeting for us not only with the reverend but with his daughters too. This daughter worked at a beer factory on the road from Dicsö to Marosvásárhely. She was able to sneak out of her office long enough to say hello to Carol. Dénes also arranged for us to meet Rev. Fazakas’s other daughter in Marosvásárhely. He was constantly working his cell phone arranging things for us and taking care of our every whim.
Marosvásárhely is also the home of our translator, Csilla Kolcsár, who served as our tour guide of the city as well. I think Marosvásárhely is a delightful city. The city is clean, lively, intellectual, and historical. The city, like just about every city in Transylvania, has its own statue of the legendary Roman founders Romulus and Remus. I think that originally the mayor of Rome gave one of these to the city of Kolozsvár to recognize its ancient past but copies have since cropped up in all towns. The government chose this symbol to make sure everyone knows who occupied the region first and who has the greatest historical claims to the land.
Marosvásárhely has many beautiful buildings, streets and parks. Our first stop was at the cultural palace and hall of mirrors. There is a nice series of stained glass windows here that depicts a Hungarian allegory. We made the obligatory trek to the Unitarian church and were given a tour by one of the church’s young, female ministers. The church appeared to be in good shape; Csilla’s father is the former minister of this church. Outside the church in a small park stands a statue of the famous father and son mathematicians, Farkas and János Bólyai. We also visited a museum dedicated to these two. János Bolyai is famous for his discovery of non-Euclidean geometry.
We had lunch outdoors at a deli-style restaurant that served hot Hungarian dishes and fresh squeezed juice called Kabob. In the afternoon we visited the Teleki library. Count Teleki collected a wide range of original pressings of famous books in the 18th century. The library houses a great collection of ancient texts from all the famous writers of that period and before. We were shown an original, signed “United States Declaration of Independence” that Count Teleki bought in Poland in the late 18th century. Alpár told us another story about Count Teleki relevant to Unitarianism. It seems that the good count had one of the few copies of an early Unitarian text by Michael Servetus (On the Errors of the Trinity), most of which had been burned or confiscated as heretical, and was asked to give it back by someone with claims to it. Always thinking, the count had a copy made of it before returning it. The original was destroyed and all that remains of this classic text is the count’s copy.
On way home we stopped in Dicsöszentmarton and visited with the a former Unitarian minister of that city, Rev. Endre Fazakas and his wife Lydia. Rev. Fazakas was recovering from an illness but gave us a warm welcome. This open-hearted man served us wine and pálinka while his wife brought out pastries and snacks. Carol had stayed with this family when she last visited and she enjoyed seeing the reverend and his wife again. Rev. Fazakas admitted that he misses preaching and might be willing to fill in for Alpár when he and Erika visit FUSF.
Dinner was served at the parish house by Erika and the good women of Ádámos. We talked into the night about a variety of things. When I returned to my host family my evening concluded with more food, wine, pálinka and chat.
Friday August 27:
The morning began like all mornings in Ádámos, at least as far as preparing for the day goes. There had been another big thunderstorm during the night but it looked like it would be a nice day so I left my raingear behind. One of my host family’s neighbors, Monika, stopped by and walked with us to the parish house where she helped Erika in the kitchen. After breakfast the lay president’s wife stopped by to say hello. Her name is Mariska Szentgyörgyi (Ádámos has many Szentgyörgyi families).
We spent today visiting old German Saxon villages in the region. Dénes and Csilla picked us up at 10 and we drove to Biertan. This was another hazardous drive down the bumpy Romanian roads. We again passed through Dicsö, this time by a different road that took us around the city. The road apparently had been paved last year but it was already in a shambles again. We passed cars, bicyclists, pedestrians and horse-drawn wagons on the way. There was one point in the road where they were doing repairs. The road was completely dug up and we had to crawl over the enormous roadway bumps, our bodies tossed in every direction. We also drove through the ancient city of Medgyes, the city where Marton, the Rátani’s visiting cousin, lives. The city is nicely settled, surrounded by hills. The approach to the city, coming down a winding road is particularly nice. The city itself does not look so nice, another once-nice town degraded by Romanian communist industry of 50 years.
We finally made it to Biertan, a village half way between Medgyes and Segesvar. We visited the Gothic fortress church located on a hill in the center of town and accessible via a long wood-covered staircase. Our guide through the church spoke Romanian and Csilla translated for us. The church was fortified to protect the villagers from invading Turks and Tartars. The vestry of the church has a magnificent large, thick wooden door with a bolt on it that simultaneously engages 15 locks. The fortress has seven watchtowers, built in the Middle ages by the various town guilds. It is also interesting for it’s “Divorce chamber (prison)”. Before a couple was allowed to divorce they had to spend some amount of time in this one room chamber. If they couldn’t iron things out for themselves in here they were allowed to divorce. We are told that it had a pretty good success rate. We also visited the spooky mausoleum where various important church figures of the Middle Ages are buried. We had lunch in Biertlan at the Ungerlus restaurant, a new restaurant with a lot of tourist appeal. The restaurant is new and decorated in a medieval theme.
After lunch we drove to Segesvár. This is another medieval fortified Saxon town. It is also allegedly Dracula’s home town and there are many opportunities here to buy Dracula memorabilia. This is also the town where the famous Hungarian poet and revolutionary Sándor Petöfi was killed by Russian troops during the Hungarian revolution against the Hapsburgs in 1849. You approach the town center up a cobblestone street with people hawking Dracula souvenirs everywhere. There is a great clock tower in the center of the town. Segesvár also has a covered staircase that leads to a fortified church. This staircase of over 100 steps also leads to the town’s high school. This daily walk to work/school must keep the faculty and students in good shape. We walked through the Lutheran church which was being restored by Germans.
Figure 8 - Erika, Alpár and Pat at top of long covered staircase in Segesvár
Segesvár was having some sort of festival the day we were there. They town center had a stage set up for music and entertainment. We sat at a table at an outdoor café, had coffee and “chimney bread,” a sweet, hollow bread made on hot metal tubes by street vendors. I would have liked to spend more time in this town but we had a schedule to adhere to and had to leave after a brief one or two hour stay. On our bumpy two hour drive back to Ádámos Dénes picked up a little Hungarian girl no older than 10 who was hitchhiking on the road outside of Dicsöszentmarton. He must of recognized her somehow as being Hungarian because he passed many other hitchhikers by. It was unusual for me to see a child that young hitchhiking but that is just another example of how different life in Transylvania is. After dinner at the parish house it was back to my host family for my second end to the evening.
Saturday August 28:
A day essentially used for shopping. We traveled to Székelyföld, the region of Transylvania with the greatest percentage of Hungarians. We took the rough ride to Korond, which is famous for it’s pottery, embroideries, and Hungarian souvenirs. There are dozens of stores all selling roughly the same things. The town is also well known for its wooden gates engraved with Hungarian folk motifs. There is a picture of one in our photo album. Our tour guides took us to a store at the end of the main street in Korond that happened to be owned by Unitarians. Korond looks very prosperous compared to other Transylvanian villages, due mainly to the tourism the stores bring. There is also a famous salt mine and thermal bath nearby (Parajd) that attracts tourists and patients as well as supplying the country with salt. We spent a couple of hours going over everything in the store, deciding which of the hundreds of ceramic wares, embroideries, and knick-knacks we wanted to buy. We spent most of our remaining cash at this store. The store keeper was a friend of Dénes’s and he tended to the store while she helped us with our shopping.
While I was browsing through a book on Transylvania in the store I noticed that the poem that closed the book was by an Imre Farkas. I asked Dénes (Farkas) if this was a relative. He replied in the affirmative and proceeded to recite all ten verses of the poem from memory - it was very impressive. When I told Alpár this story he told me this was nothing for Dénes. Dénes once drove Alpár from Budapest to Kolozsvár and spent the entire six-hour drive reciting poetry. Apparently, he is a limitless font of verses. Later I was looking at a display of writings on handmade paper. On one was the Székely hymn (the hymn that impressed me when the congregation of 2nd church Kolozsvár sang it). Dénes noticed me reading it and asked me to read it aloud. I was a little nervous about my Hungarian accent but decided to give it a try anyway. I read the first two verses to the approval of the Hungarians in the store. I think it made the Hungarians who heard me read it proud to hear an American Hungarian recite their hymn. It made me very proud also. The shopkeeper heard me read it and gave me the wall hanging in appreciation. Csilla complimented me on my Hungarian accent.
When we had finally made all our purchases, which took awhile, we climbed back in the van and headed back to Ádámos. The storekeeper didn’t have a cash register or adding machine. Our numerous purchases had to be added up the old fashioned way, with paper and pencil. Pat and Carol made some questionable purchases that you can ask them about but most of the things we left with were of Hungarian folk art.
We stopped in Marosvásárhely for lunch at the Kabob and to drop Csilla and John off. On our walk from the restaurant to the van we passed by the Bólyai statue once again. This statue inspired Dénes to tell us a parable. He compared this statue to the Transylvanian and American Unitarian churches. In the statue the father is seated, looking up at his brilliant son, who is deep in thought. Dénes compared this to the Transylvanian church, old, wise but proud of it’s shining offspring, the American Unitarian-Universalist church. The father/son relationship had a rather tragic end so let’s hope this is where the comparisons end. Dénes could have used some of this wisdom while driving us out of Marosvásárhely as he was busted for driving while talking on his cell phone. The fine was something like $15.
Figure 9 - Rev. Dénes Farkas at the
Bólyai statue in Marosvásárhely
After we returned from our shopping field trip we finally got a tour of our partner church. The church is about 500 years old and in great need of repair. It is a Unitarian and Transylvanian treasure whose interior and exterior ought to reflect its significance. Water has damaged much of the building’s walls. Carpets have to be rolled up after Sunday services so they don’t get water damage. The exterior was recently painted but the congregation couldn’t afford professionals so they paid under the table to have it done cheaply and now the paint is peeling everywhere. You can see the water marks on the interior walls. However, we were pleased to see many of the pictures and the wall hanging that we had sent the church on the walls. The church has many beautiful folk art examples but the church’s original ceiling and some of its original furnishings are now on display in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. The congregation has a plan to renovate and repair the church including an irrigation system to prevent further water damage to the building. They just need the money to implement it. While we were talking about the church’s history and our partnership we were summoned to dinner. Is was not surprising that while we were with Alpár we would miss our deadline while in conversation.
The day ended with another highlight of the trip – a dinner with the Ádámos congregation in the old parish house. About 20-30 people from the congregation showed up for dinner in a room next to the Unitarian general store. The dinner was typical Transylvanian fare, lots of breads, pastries, vegetables, and meat. The wine and pálinka, naturally, flowed abundantly. The men sat on one side of the room and the women sat on the other, just like in an Ádámos church service. We had great fun taking pictures at this dinner as can be seen in our photo albums at www.ofoto.com. After dinner Carol made a brief speech thanking the congregation and then held and question and answer session. There were questions about our church’s finances and how we could afford the various programs we have. The audience was impressed with the $200,000 we raised in a single day for the religious education wing of FUSF. We were also asked about a get rich scheme that one of the members had heard about. Transylvanians are still adjusting to 40 years of communist dictatorship and the naiveté about capitalist markets has made them easy prey to conmen and get rich and pyramid schemes. Kolozsvár was actually the scene of one of the most infamous pyramid scheme scandals ever. Shortly after the regime change in 1989 hundreds of thousands lost everything to the conman who brought the plot to Romania. Some did make great gains but most lost a lot of money. We cautioned the woman about making any investment with someone promising her huge returns.
What could I do after such a sumptuous dinner but go home a celebrate some more with… another sumptuous dinner (stuffed cabbage). Tonight my host family gave me some gifts. I was given a 22 year old bottle of pálinka and a bottle of Ádámos wine. They gave me a wooden walking stick with a wooden ax blade that I think belonged to Mr. Birtalan when he was ill. Mrs. Birtalan gave me a doll clad in traditional Hungarian dress that she asked me to give to my mother.
Sunday August 29:
Our last day in Ádámos. After a typical breakfast for me at the Birtalan/Rátani house I went over to the parish to get ready for the Sunday service. This was a special Sunday as the congregation would vote on whether to have Alpár as their permanent minister. We were joined this morning by the district president, the minister from Dicsöszentmarton, Endre Nagy, and the district lay president as they would officiate over the election. The usual crew of kitchen helpers were there preparing for our big lunch. The preparation included the sewing of chicken parts but not being a cook I don’t know why they were doing that. Before we left for the church Alpár and Erika gave us gifts to remember them by. I was given a ceramic flask for my pálinka. I now have it hanging on my kitchen wall. It was a beautiful day and we walked in line the short distance to the church. The Ádámos congregation separates the men from the women. Csilla told us they do this out of respect for their traditions which is important for a minority population. I sat with the district president and the lay president in the front of the church. We sang “Find the Stillness” and another song in Hungarian and English. The Transylvanian hymns are sung very slowly, which can be quite powerful (or sleep inducing, depending on your state of mind). Alpár started the service with a five-minute prayer, which was longer than our congregation is used to. However, we were later told that some Transylvanian ministers can go on much longer than that, we were lucky it wasn’t 10 minutes long. Carol repeated the sermon she had given in Kolozsvár with Alpár giving his own translation for the Hungarians.
After the sermon Alpár introduced us to those in the congregation who hadn’t yet met us. He made a special mention of Harriet and her husband, Frank, who passed away on this day one year ago. A lay official of the church, Monika, then presented us with more gifts from Ádámos. The district officials then gave some speeches stating Alpár’s qualifications as minister and put the congregation’s acceptance of him to a vote. He was elected unanimously. We stood in the greeting line after church and were met by everyone with kisses, and greetings of “Isten aldjon” (God bless you).
After the service we had our final meal in Ádámos. Lunch was served in the three-season porch of the parish house with the congregation and the district and lay president. It was a combined farewell lunch for us and celebration for Alpár. After lunch we loaded up the van, said tearful goodbyes to the Fulops and departed Ádámos. We hope to return again.
Our destination was Kiskapus, a village west of Kolozsvár on the way back to Hungary. We stopped in Kolozsvár, however, and paid a visit to a local artist whose work we had admired in various places we visited in Kolozsvár earlier in the trip. It turned out that he is a friend of Dénes and when we mentioned the artist’s work Dénes knew who we were talking about and arranged this meeting for us. The artist is in his 90s now. We visited his small studio and bought some prints. The prints depicted scenes from around Kolozsvár. We also admired his striking oil paintings of Transylvanian village scenes.
We spent the night at a pension in Kiskapus that is run by our host in Kolozsvár, László Lőrinczy. His wife, two sons and daughter in law were there helping him. Transylvania has two towns called Kiskapus, the other being a somewhat run down factory town near Medgyes that no tourist would want to visit. This Kiskapus, however, is a quaint little village that appears to be rather prosperous by Transylvanian standards. Mr. Lőrinczy had asked me in Kolozsvár what we would like for dinner when we stayed in Kiskapus. I answered “something typically Hungarian,” so tonight we had “Luckos Káposzta,” a typically Hungarian cabbage dish, with chicken and potatoes. We were also served stuffed squash and mushrooms. Ice cream and watermelon were for desert. After dinner we went for a walk through Kiskapus with Csilla and John. We saw cows and water buffalo returning to their pasture after having gone home to be milked. We crossed a creaky old bridge to visit our last church of the trip, the reform church in Kiskapus. This was a interesting visit for me as my grandfather had grown up a reform minister’s son in nearby Tenke.
Monday August 30:
We were given a nice breakfast banquet. Unfortunately, we had to deal with our sole bout of upset stomach this morning as Harriet had experienced that tourist’s bane during the evening. She was not feeling well enough to partake in the eggs, fruit and breads that were on the table. Fortunately, it didn’t take that long for her to recover. We left the pension for our drive to Budapest. It was sad to say goodbye to Transylvania where we had felt so welcome and had made so many new friends. Hopefully we will be back before too long. We had no trouble at the border and had lunch in Hungary at Hidi Csarda once again. We had more of the world famous Hungarian gulyás. We stayed our final night in Hungary at the Fabius. I spent the evening with more relatives who I did not have the opportunity to see two weeks earlier. The rest of the gang got to have dinner with partner church founder Leon Hopper. My cousin who I visited with knew some of the history of the Ádámos Unitarian church, which surprised me. He is a professor of Hungarian ethnography so I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised at his knowledge. He told me of the church’s ceiling, which had been removed from the church one hundred years ago for it’s historical and artistic value and for fear that they would be destroyed in the deteriorating church. He located pictures in books from his library of the ceiling and other artifacts that were removed from the church and brought to the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. On my next visit to Budapest I have to go to the National Gallery to see it.
Tuesday August 31:
Sad goodbyes to Dénes, Csilla and John. Dénes is visiting the United States this year and we hope he will have the opportunity to visit us in Franklin. John and Csilla are planning their marriage and if all goes well with the American visa authorities they will be visiting the United States too. Our greatest hope, though, is to bring Alpár and Erika to visit us in Franklin for Easter 2005. The greatest hurdle to this is getting their visas.