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The
Reformed Church of Hungary is the “mother” of the Hungarian
Reformed churches in America, and the only one of the original national
churches of the Reformation to survive undivided and dedicated to
the Reformed confessions. One of the largest of the Reformed or Calvinist
communions, it lives on in present-day Hungary, its neighboring countries
(torn off Hungary after WW I), and Diaspora (dispersed around the
world, including the USA). Although organized into independent national
and regional synods, all subscribe to the Heidelberg Catechism and
the Second Helvetic Confession along with the original ecumenical
creeds of Trinitarian Christianity.
At the end of the Nineteenth Century, tens of thousands of Hungarians
immigrated to the United States, bringing with them their Bibles,
Catechisms, and Hymnals. While some developed a church life and new
congregations independently, other Calvinists as the German Reformed
and the Dutch Reformed, aided others and the Presbyterians, establishing
new congregations affiliated with them. After WW I, an effort was
made to merge them, without success.
The independent churches organized a new Classis in 1896, relating
to the Reformed Church in Hungary, for moral and financial support.
After the tragic division of Hungary following the 1st World War,
its churches were unable to continue their support of the smaller
congregations in the USA. The Reformed Church of Hungary then assigned
its Classis churches to the Reformed Church in the United States (former
German Reformed), signing the Tiffin Agreement on Oct. 7, 1921. Several
of the congregations rejected the terms, and soon afterward organized
a “Free Hungarian Reformed” (HRCA) group, and those tied
to the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterians remained in those communions.
At first, the Hungarian churches were incorporated into the area Synods,
but a new Magyar Synod was created in 1939, following the 1934 merger
of the Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod of North America
(with Lutheran roots), which created the Evangelical and Reformed
Church. Another merger with the Congregationalists in 1957 gave birth
to the United Church of Christ. Subsequently, its name was changed,
reflecting its faith heritage, to Calvin Synod.
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