FUSF Partnership with Adamos Transylvania Church

 

Good morning and welcome. On this, the four year anniversary of our last pilgrimage to Transylvania I am thrilled to share with you some memories of that trip. Today I am going to talk a bit about the history of the partner church movement and later share some personal reflections on a trip we took in 2004 to visit our partner church. As you may or may not know Unitarianism was founded in the land of Dracula, Transylvania. Transylvania is a region of Eastern Europe in what is now Romania. For most people outside of Hungary and Romania this is the land of Dracula although, the region is much more than that. The region is surrounded by the lush Carpathian Mountains and is rich in history. The land was settled by the Romans in the first century AD and since then has undergone many changes. In the 10th century the Hungarians settled there and for many years it was part of Hungary. At the end of World War 1, for their role in supporting the loosing side of the conflict, the Treaty of Trianon took Transylvania from Hungary and gave it to Romania, a source of great national sorrow that still exists in Hungary and amongst the Hungarians of Transylvania. Today the region is 20% Hungarian, down from 31% at the turn of the 20th century, largely due to the efforts of diminishing the Hungarian influence in the region by the Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu.

 

            This land played a significant role in the early history of the Unitarian Church.  In the 16th century (1568) a Bishop named Ferenc David proclaimed an edict of religious liberty before the ruler of Transylvania, Prince John Sigismond at the Diet of Torda. Prince Sigismond is one of the UU superheroes our 3rd and 4th graders learned about in RE last year. A depiction of that important event in the history of Unitarianism can be found hanging on the walls of our sanctuary. Hearing David’s arguments against the Trinity at this meeting, Sigismond converted to the Anti-Trinitarian religion. Transylvania thus became a Unitarian land. Today there are 65,000 Unitarians in Transylvania and many of the villages in the region have a Unitarian church.

 

            Some western Unitarian churches and particularly the theological seminaries have had relations with Unitarians in Transylvania for 100 years. However, world events of the 20th century such as the great depression of the 20s, World War II and 40-50 years of severe communist rule in Romania brought the sister church program to a virtual halt. It wasn’t until the fall of Ceausescu’s regime in 1989 that the country began to open up once again to Westerners and the partner church program began once again in earnest.

 

            Our own partnership with the Unitarians in Transylvania began in 1998 when FUSF voted to become partners with the Unitarian church in Adamos, Romania. Adamos is a small village in Transylvania made up of mostly Hungarians, some Romanians and gypsies. Its Unitarian church was built in the 1500s and featured some classic examples of Hungarian religious folk art. The pieces were taken from the church and today are on display in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. Ann Willever and her son Dan Jacobson were the first to visit Adamos in 1998. The minister at that time was Csaba Mezei and he spent a couple of weeks in Franklin while he attended Starr King Seminary. Many of the members of this congregation fondly remember Csaba from that visit. Rev. Rosine visited Csaba and Adamos in 2002 when she was on sabbatical. When Csaba was called to be the minister of the 2nd Unitarian church in the big city of Kolosvar, Rev. Alpar Fulop was called to minister to the congregation of Adamos. He has been minister there since 2002. We have had a couple of honored guests from Transylvania preach from this pulpit over the years. In 2002 the Reverend Zsolt Solymosi, the head of the Unitarian High School in Kolosvar where we were sponsoring a student, visited Franklin. In 2004 Dr. Judit Gellerd, one of the leaders of the recent partner church movement, gave a powerful sermon here. Her book, Prisoner of Liberty, on the life and death of her father, a Unitarian Minister in Transylvania and a victim of the Ceauşescu regime, can be found on our bookshelf.

 

            Now I would like to tell you about what lead me to have an interest in our partnership in this strange land of Transylvania. My father was a Hungarian who literally escaped from Hungary to come this country after World War II. He had to traverse mine fields after getting through barbed wire borders with machine gun toting guards to search for a better life than the one he would have in Hungary. His parents had deep roots in Transylvania. My grandfather was born and raised in the region and my grandmother’s parents came from the unofficial capital of Transylvania, Kolosvar. I have had a fascination with Transylvania since I was a boy from hearing the stories my grandfather told me of that area. So I knew it was more that some exotic land of vampires. I had a deep interest in the land, the people, the customs and the language. I even spent a year living in Budapest right after I graduated from college. Unfortunately, at that time it was not so easy to visit Romania; it was the height of the Ceauşescu regime, although I did take a day trip in to visit the town where my grandfather grew up.

 

            So when I was new to Franklin and was looking for a church to join, the fact that FUSF had a connection with Transylvania was very appealing to me. I thought this was something I would love to get involved with. For the first few years I was a member of FUSF I watched and listened to the occasional stories about Adamos and Transylvanian Unitarians. Every year the children had a partnership walk to raise money for Adamos, which helped pay for renovations to sections of the parish house. I heard Carol’s stories of the Easter service she was a part of when she first visited Adamos. I heard about the student, Istvan, from Adamos whom we supported in his studies at the Unitarian High School in Kolosvar. I was anxious to get involved in these activities so when Carol announced in 2004 that she was planning another trip to Transylvania and was looking for congregants to join her I jumped at the chance. After many months of planning, 4 of us, Carol, Harriett Fisher, Pat Slovacek and me made the pilgrimage to Adamos in August of 2004. For me, as well, I think, for the others of our group, this was a very moving and influential trip. I had never met any of the people we were visiting, never been that deep into Eastern Europe and really didn’t know what to expect. I spoke some Hungarian so was eager to use it again. The trip started with a couple of days in Budapest after which our guides from the UU Partner Church Council brought us from Budapest to Kolosvar. The van ride from Budapest to Kolosvar gave us an opportunity to get to know our guides some. We had John Dale from the UUPCC and his fiancée (now wife) Csilla who acted as our translator. Rev. Denes Farkas was our indomitable van driver. He negotiated the dangerous Romanian roads with great skill and helped arrange anything we asked for. Our first stop was to visit Csaba in Kolosvar. Harriett, Pat and I stayed in a very nice apartment of a Unitarian official while Carol opted for the newly renovated dormitories at the Unitarian High School. Throughout our visit we were treated with great hospitality and kindness by the Unitarians of Transylvania. They all seemed greatly appreciative that we were reaching out to them. Csaba had a party for us where we were introduced to the national drink of Transylvania, palinka, a very strong fruit brandy that many families make in their own backyards. The quality thus can vary greatly. Palinka is sold commercially where it is marketed to western pallets but the brews we were given in Transylvania were all homemade and very strong. Many Hungarians love to drink palinka and once they get going the stories (many of them sad about loss and isolation in the world) and songs really start to flow. We spent the night with Csaba and his congregation singing and getting to know one another. The non Hungarians in our group started to learn Hungarian social protocols and chivalry and when and when not to use certain greetings. The typical Hungarian greetings of “Csokolom and Puszi, Puszi” left them at times baffled and at others amused. Lots of food was made for us and I learned a little secret of the Hungarian resistance during the dark days of the Ceauşescu regime. In a symbolic gesture of resistance food was often prepared using vegetables in the colors of the Hungarian flag. This small gesture kept the Hungarian’s hope alive in the midst governmental efforts to crush their spirit and influence in the region.

 

            While in Kolosvar, Carol preached on a Sunday morning in Csaba’s 2nd Unitarian Church. In Transylvania the congregation rises when the minister enters the sanctuary and I think our own Reverend was a bit envious of this gesture of respect shown to ministers there. Her sermon was on the role of religion in the anxious and fearful post 9/11 America. That sermon was given four years ago this week when we were eagerly anticipating the results of the 2004 election. We also had the opportunity to visit many Unitarian sites in Kolosvar, the high school and seminary, the Unitarian headquarters and 1st church Unitarian in Kolosvar. We met many of the officials of the Unitarian church in Transylvania, including the Bishop, many of whom Carol knew.

 

            After 3 days in Kolosvar we hit the road to visit Adamos. We made a few significant stops on the way. We visited the town of Torda and the church where David Ferenc gave his famous edict of religious toleration that was so important in the history of Unitarianism. We also visited Meszko, the village where Ferenc Balazs preached. He was a well-known Unitarian preacher. The book The Alabaster Village written by his American wife Catherine recounts their life as village ministers in Meszko. The Meszko church is a beautiful village church and we were all much moved visiting it, especially when our Hungarian guides started playing the church’s stately pipe organ.

 

            Our stay in Adamos was for me the most memorable. Adamos is a very small village, third world in economy. There are no supermarkets, hotels, strip malls nor many of the conveniences of a modern economy that we take for granted in America. Alpar’s parish house is nice and had some recent renovations, thanks in part to funds provided by FUSF. Like many of the homes in Transylvania he has a grape arbor for making wine and palinka, a vegetable garden and some chickens for food. They are a very self-sufficient people. While the ladies of our group stayed in the nice accommodations of the parish house I was lucky enough to stay with one of Alpar’s parishioners. My host family was very gracious and kind to me and we became friends but the living arrangements were far different from any I had experienced before. Two generations live in a very small house. The family had recently lost the father of the family as so many of the families in Adamos have. Life is very difficult in this part of the world and the life-expectancy is much shorter than ours in America. Bela, now the man of the house, works two jobs, one in a factory furnace in a nearby industrial town. I was given a private room but the house had no indoor toilet facilities. Those were outside in an outhouse surrounded by geese, chickens and goats. Because of all the drinking we did I had to make use of this facility a few times a night, not an easy trip half asleep and half in the bag. Another gesture of graciousness from my host family that was difficult to get used to was eating two dinners a night. I would eat dinner with Alpar and Erika and the rest of our group in the parish house and when I would go home at around 10 PM there would be another dinner waiting for me from my host family. I tried to say no but gave in to be polite. They also served me wine and palinka at all hours of the day. Hardest to get used to was palinka for breakfast. They were just trying to be good hosts and that was the custom of the land. So when in Rome…

 

            We were given tours of the three active churches in Adamos. One of the vivid memories of this tour was visiting the Romanian Orthodox church. The Orthodox Church is in good shape; its interior is covered wall to ceiling in icons, paintings, glass, and every sort of religious icon imaginable. After looking around the pews and such, we were given a view of 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.

 

            The congregation treated us to a picnic dinner in a clearing at the top of a hill, in what’s called the Unitarian forest, a couple of miles from the center of Adamos. The trip up the hill in a horse-drawn carriage with a driver who made frequent stops to drink some wine was particularly memorable. Carol fearing for her life as we negotiated the rough terrain in a rickety cart held onto my arm for dear life at points.

 

            We enjoyed several excursions outside Adamos. One of the towns we visited has a library with an original signed American Declaration of Independence. It was quite impressive for us Americans to stand inches from the historical text without plate glass and dozens of tourists between us. The library also houses an original copy of Michael Servetus’ influential Unitarian text, On the Errors of the Trinity.  We made the obligatory trip to the supposed home of Dracula, Segesvar and a shopping trip deep into the land of the Szekelys, the ancient Hungarian people who settled that land, sometimes called the real Hungarians. We visited a Saxon village as well.

 

            Our Sunday service in Adamos was also significant as we were able to witness the church’s election of Alpar to be their permanent minister. A large festive party followed with many Unitarian dignitaries in attendance.

 

            Unfortunately, our contact with our partner church has lagged some in recent years. Communication is difficult on both sides of the Atlantic. We have talked about bringing Alpar and Erika and their baby to Franklin for a visit but we lack the funds to do that and haven’t had enough fundraising events to make it happen. I am confident that we will see Alpar again and hope that we can send another contingent over there soon. The church needs a lot of work and we have talked about sending a work crew over to help with some of the work that needs to be done. As I hope I have conveyed today it is a trip you won’t ever forget.