In the context of the concept of just peace, which has been taking shape in the international ecumenical discourse for almost 100 years, the Conference of European Churches held a European consultation in Warsaw from the 9th to the 11th of December.
From November 25th to the 27th, HEKS/EPER hosted a Church Cooperation Consultation in Budapest in cooperation with the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH). The consultation brought together various church partners from ten countries to discuss the variety and nuance of church missions across diverse contexts.
On November 7 and 8, Eurodiaconia, in cooperation with the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH), hosted a Roma Inclusion Network Meeting in Budapest. The meeting was open to partners across Europe working in Diaconia within the network or part of a member organisation of Eurodiaconia.
The General Secretary of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, Mario Fischer, visited the Reformed Church in Hungary in Budapest and Debrecen on November 4th and 5th, as a follow-up to the CPCE General Assembly held in Sibiu, Romania, at the end of August this year, which the Hungarian Reformed Churches did not attend.
On October 16th, the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (HRCA) celebrated opening a new location for its “DIACONIA” brand at the Récsei Center in Budapest. With the establishment of this shop, HRCA marks a significant milestone in its economic development efforts associated with the Emerging Settlement Programme.
The international consultation on Shared Responsibility: Cooperation between States and Religious Communities in Europe took place on 18 October at the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest in the framework of the Hungarian EU Presidency. Bishop József Steinbach, ministerial president of the Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH) addressed the participants.
Martina Wasserloos-Strunk, President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches-Europe (WCRC), visited the reformed church in Hungary and the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia (RCT) to meet with various church representatives in her capacity as president.
The Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH) and the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia (RCT) hosted representatives of the United Reformed Church (UK) (URC) and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (DOC) in the United States and Canada.
The visit affirmed the importance of commitment to fostering international relationships between the churches and the support and solidarity between the partners.
The Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (HRCA) has coordinated a response to the floods resulting from Storm Boris along the Danube River. Volunteers are packing and setting sandbags at designated sites in cities along the Danube.
József Steinbach, Bishop of the Transdanubian Church District, was unanimously elected by the Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary in April 2024 as the Ministerial President of the Synod. He was interviewed by the Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) Society, partner of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
“Karl Barth's lasting merit is that he firmly warned against any attempt to turn theology into a system of worldviews,” says theologian Sándor Fazakas, head of the Department of Social Ethics and Church Sociology at the Debrecen Reformed Theological University. This year, he was awarded the prestigious Karl Barth Prize, founded in 1986, by the German Union of Protestant Churches (UEK).
On June 19th, representatives from Swiss Church Aid (HEKS), the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH), the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid (HRCA), the Diaconia and Educational Service met to present and discuss two projects implemented in cooperation.
A delegation of representatives from the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences in the European Union (COMECE) visited Budapest between June 22nd and June 25th to meet with Hungarian representatives
He loves sports, gardening, art, but most of all, life. From a young age, he trained to be a minister, and after thirty-five years as a minister and sixteen years as a bishop, he was planning to retire. But the Lord had a new chapter in store for him: Bishop József Steinbach of the Transdanubian Reformed Church District was elected as ministerial president by the Synod of the Reformed Church in Hungary at its spring session.
"A congregation is not alive because it organizes programmes, but because what happens there points to Christ,” says Levente Zoltán Hajdú, head of the Mission Service of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
It is a Pentecostal miracle; we come out of the pit of selfishness and conceit, of self-obsession, egotism, and despair, and we become not only witnesses but instruments of God's saving love.
Dániel Pásztor resigned from his pastoral ministry in the congregation of Sajóvelezd (Cistibiscan Church District, Northern Hungary). The resignation terminates his mandate as bishop and ministerial vice-president of the Synod.
On April 20th and 21st, Martina Wasserloos, President of the European Area of World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), visited Transcarpathia to meet with pastors and church leaders of the Reformed Church in Transcarpathia (RCT). The visit also included a meeting with the Diaconal Coordination Office (DCO) and a tour of one of its projects.