Unitarianism in Hungary
The Unitarianism in Hungary goes back to the Reformation time of the 16th century and is strong with the church policy development in Transylvania connected. Between 1971 and 2010 there was an independent Hungarian Unitarian Church ( Hungarian : Magyarországi Unitárius Egyház ). Since 2010 the Hungarian parishes have been part of the Transylvanian Unitarian Church (Hungarian: Magyarországi Unitárius Egyházkerület ).
history
The Hungarian Reformation began around the middle of the 16th century. At first it was mainly the cities of Slovakia ( Upper Hungary ) and Transylvania in which Reformation ideas spread. This was also the tolerance policy of the Hungarian king and Transylvanian prince Johann Sigismund attributable, who himself converted from Catholicism to Unitarianism and the spread of Unitarianism promoted. In January 1566, the Transylvanian reformer Franz David gave his first anti-Trinitarian sermon in St. Michael's Church in Klausenburg . With the Edict of Tolerance of Turda in 1568, Unitarianism was finally recognized by the state as a fourth denomination, alongside the Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran parties. From Transylvania, Unitarianism subsequently spread to Hungary as well. A first center of Hungarian Unitarianism was the southern Hungarian city of Fünfkirchen (Hungarian: Pécs ), in which a strong Unitarian congregation could be established and a theological seminar for pastor training could be set up. Here in August 1588 a religious discussion between Reformed and Unitarian theologians took place over several days (Fünfkirchen Disputation). Unitarian congregations were also established in other parts of Hungary.
At the end of the 17th century, however, the Hungarian Unitarians came under pressure from the Counter-Reformation . Many churches were wiped out. Only with the in March 1848 by the Hungarian Parliament in Bratislava decided (now Bratislava, Slovakia) March laws Unitarians in Hungary were full again religious freedom . In August 1881 a new congregation was finally formed in Budapest . The Unitarian Church of Budapest, designed by Samu Pecz , was built between 1888 and 1890 . Later, new church buildings were opened in Debrecen , Füzesgyarmat , Hódmezővásárhely and Kocsord , among others . Another turning point for the development of the Hungarian Unitarians was the Trianon Treaty of 1920, with which the previously Hungarian Transylvania had to be ceded to Romania . As a result, several thousand Hungarian Transylvanians, including many Unitarians, emigrated to Hungary. In Budapest, the Unitarian Church in Pestszentlőrinc and the Béla Bartók Church, two more congregations founded by Transylvanian migrants, came into being.
While the congregations of Hungary and Transylvania were previously connected under the common roof of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, the congregations in both countries developed increasingly separately from each other after 1948. With the election of its own Hungarian bishop in 1971, an independent Unitarian Church in Hungary was finally founded. This was mainly due to the political circumstances under the communist dictatorships in Hungary and Romania and the increasingly poor relationship between the two states. It was not until 2010 that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Unitarians reunited in a common church. The eleven Hungarian communities with about 25,000 members now function as church district within the Unitarian Church of Transylvania. The Hungarian Unitarians have an observer role in the World Council of Churches in Hungary .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Harald Roth, Konrad Gündisch: Fünfkirchen / Pécs - History of a European Capital of Culture . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, p. 54, 55 .
- ↑ Evangelical Church in Germany: Country Information Hungary ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
