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Song/reading
Székely Áldás
Where there is faith, there is love;
Where there is love, there is peace;
Where there is peace, there is blessing;
Where there is blessing, there is God.
Where there is God, there, there is no need.
Sermon
Thank you to the choir for the lovely,
contemporary rendition of this traditional Transylvanian
house blessing. I have found this piece haunting from when
we sang it last year—it runs through my head at night when
I’d rather be sleeping. The words are on the cover of the
Order of Service (see above). These are also the words you
see on the embroidery I found in Budapest this summer, and
on the plate from a roadside stall near the pottery town of
Korund. It’s very common.
And because I’ve sung the words so many
times, the meaning has sunk in. Not that I understand it.
But it intrigues me. It seems so sure, so certain, even if
it does seem a bit circular in its reasoning. I find myself
asking, “Does my faith have such a solid, concrete
foundation?”
Foundations are very real for me right
now, as Al is rebuilding the foundation of our 85 year old
garage. The walls sat directly on the old concrete pad.
However, as the years went by, the yard has been filled in
to improve the drainage around the house, so soil butted
right up against the wood walls, and ivy and morning glories
grew right into the old cedar siding. The paint has faded,
and leaves have accumulated along the wall. As the walls
have rotted, they have literally slipped off their
foundation. One wall was relatively straight still, but the
other tilted significantly. It looked decrepit. And it
leaked. You could see the holes in the roof when you stood
inside and looked up. It was decrepit, shaky almost.
Following up on the theology in this
song has inspired me to do a couple of things. First I
joined a Partner Church Council sponsored conference call on
the theology of our Partner Churches, in Transylvania and
elsewhere. Eleven other folks joined me on an exploration of
the topic, and of course, I raised this piece. “How do they
live it out? How does it matter in their daily lives?” I
wondered. No one had much of an answer to that.
I was also inspired me to attend a
Theological Symposium held in Transylvania, in Koloszvar,
Romania—where their denominational headquarters are located,
and where their seminary students are trained, and where
they have a Unitarian residential high school. In fact, it
was in the high school lecture hall that we heard the
presentations. This lecture hall put me in mind of my
imagined Hogwarts, at least once inside the building built
in 1796. Outside a backhoe was busily tearing up the
battered sidewalk so that paving bricks could be laid. I saw
the back hoe hit, and then back off, the very worn dished
stone bottom step of the old school building. The sense of
history was vivid—there were numerous large portraits of
previous Bishops all around us on the walls. We sat on
benches, with a long desk in front of each row.
The Transylvanian Unitarians are part
of our Unitarian foundation. After the Protestant
Reformation in the early 1500’s, many people read the newly
translated Christian Scriptures for the first time, and,
through reason, rather than accepting the revealed Truth of
the Catholic Church, determined that they could see only one
God portrayed there. Of course, this was heresy, not easily
accepted anywhere in Europe.
One of these people was Francis Dávid
of Transylvania, now part of Romania. Dávid was ripe for
change, and indeed converted several times; first from
Catholic to Lutheran, then to Reformed, and finally to
Unitarian. By the late 1560’s, he was preaching a Unitarian
Christian theology to large crowds, and with his charismatic
oratory, gathered many followers, at least 300 congregations
by the time of his death. The Unitarian King Sigismund died
in 1571, and his successor, a Catholic, was not inclined to
be tolerant. When Dávid kept coming up with new theological
ideas, against the new rules, he was imprisoned. He died
later that year, November 15, 1579.
In 2001, there were about 80,000
Unitarians in Transylvania, and more in Hungary. It’s quite
a contrast to Canada, where there are maybe 5200 confessing
Unitarians, that is, adult members of congregations. I don’t
know that we ever have the only church in town, or form the
majority even in a small region. Which the Transylvanian
Unitarians do—or did in the past--in places, although they
are also a Hungarian speaking minority within a larger and
much less accepting population of both Hungarian speaking
and Romanian speaking others. Catholic, Reformed Protestant
and Orthodox others. Plus, a lot of folks who, thanks to the
Communist era, do not go to church at all.
While I was visiting our partner church
in Kobátfalva after the Symposium, I had the opportunity of
witnessing the confirmation of two young folks at a
neighboring church. The minister of our partner church had
helped out this temporarily without a minister congregation
with its confirmation class. North American Coming of Age
programs help youth articulate their beliefs. In
Transylvania, they are taught the catechism, all 136
questions and answers.
I watched with amazement as these two
14 year olds, a boy and a girl, answered question after
question from memory, giving the answers word for word. No
hesitations, no false starts. Just the answers, clear and
confident. Rev. Csongor said he only asked some of the
questions. Only about 40 of them, he said!
The confirmation ritual was part of a
longer church service. The church had two main areas of
seating. The men sat on the minister’s left, facing the
centre, and the women on the right. The new arrived
minister, a young woman, then gave her sermon from the
raised pulpit jutting out from the side wall, 12 or 15 feet
in the air. Then, after a song, accompanied on an organ
played by Rev. Csongor, he gave his admonitions to the young
folks. It sounded like a second sermon! Then the questions
and answers, alternating from one child to the other. Then
the children took their first communion with the Minister.
It seems to me that this Transylvanian
Blessing is, in some ways, a summary of their theology. The
initial paper presented at the symposium was from the Bishop
of the Transylvanian church, Dr. Árpád Szabó, and he
gave us his interpretation of their theology. He says,
“Unitarian religion comprises the essentials of personal
religion, the close relation of the human soul to God, the
reality of prayer, the consecration of life to the service
of God by doing his will and by loving one’s fellow humans,
the restoration of the sinner by repentance and forgiveness,
the sense of deep and assured trust in God in all the
changing events of life. There is no region of life where
our religion could be left out as having nothing to say.”
He emphasizes that we as Unitarians use
our minds, our reason, to figure out what the Scriptures
mean for us today, and what is right and wrong ethically.
Indeed, he says, human experience is a more reliable guide
than ancient authorities. Consequently, he says, the
Unitarian faith is a progressive faith, and we follow truth
as we see it.
He says, “We as Unitarians believe
first of all and most profoundly in one God. We erect our
churches for the worship of one God. This is the bond which
unites us as a religious community. Beyond this, we
formulate no creed. We assert that it is the duty of each
human being to be diligent in his/her search for truth and
faithful to the light God reveals to us. We reverence God so
deeply that we feel we cannot fully describe him.”
He relates the important principles of
their theology: freedom of faith is first, the ability to
discern the form—I think he means church institution—that
best fits us as individuals, and freedom of thought, which
comes with responsibility. Common sense and the requirements
of truth must accompany freedom of thought. Inner authority,
the use of reason and conscience and tolerance are also
central values of the Transylvanian Unitarian faith.
They do not have a formal confession,
or creed, although they do have statements that reflect
their identity as Unitarians. Historically, they did not
have a confession because in Dávid’s time, it was dangerous
to lay out new ideas so baldly. After all, he wasn’t
supposed to bring in any further innovations.
Bishop Szabó goes on to state that
“Faith is a… precondition to the appearance of religion.
Religion, church and theology [develop] from faith. Faith is
an individual matter…, but religion and especially church
are of many… it should be common with many others. [Without
this commonality] it cannot maintain a religious community,
and there is no hope for the future without a strong church
institution that has as a basis a confession as source and
frame of its religion.”
I wonder if he was trying to tell us
North Americans something.
And so we are back to the beginning.
Where there is faith.
I don’t know if this foundation of
faith is questioned by many, or even any, Transylvanian
Unitarians. I do know that they too struggle to fill their
pews. Another speaker, addressing their liturgy, said that
they attract only 10% of their members. Just because they
are Unitarian doesn’t mean they feel obligated to go to
church, whether they live in the more rural villages, or
live in the city. Have they lost their faith, or is it the
liturgy itself that doesn’t speak to so many people,
especially the young folk? I have no answer to this.
But I am back to foundations, wondering
“what is the foundation of my religion?” Is it crumbly and
decrepit, in need of shoring up? Or is it strong and solid,
quietly there when I need it?
Foundations are one of those things you
don’t often think about. Only when they fail do they come to
mind, and failure may come most often in times of crisis or
transition. I do know that when I was living out in my cabin
in Newfoundland, what I missed most was a community such as
this. That was the main reason we didn’t just stay there.
So, for me, the religious community is
central. The church. The older fellow who shares my taste in
lemon meringue pie, and the other one who shares my interest
in the outdoors. All those who want to question rather than
accept easy answers. This knowing myself, knowing who I am,
through the community of which I am part, is my foundation.
The rest is built on this keystone.
There is so much built on top of that
phrase “religious community.” God, holiness,
interconnectedness, the goodness of human nature,
generosity. I won’t describe these doors and windows.
My question for you today is, “I wonder
what it is that grounds you in your daily life. What is your
foundation? In what do you have faith?”
Amen.
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