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History of the Partner Church Committee (PCC) and Our Partner Churches in Romania and India
—Brigitte Pieke
(April, 2007)

The historical roots of our Unitarian faith began in Transylvania. This land had belonged to many different masters with different faiths. In the course of the Reformation, the roots of our church were put down in Transylvania, a land its inhabitants call Erdely. This is Hungarian for “beautiful land.” Transylvania is located in the foothills of the Carpathian Alps and is indeed beautiful.

In the year 1561, John Sigismund became the King of Transylvania. This was the time of the Reformation, and wars were fought as much over the control of the land as over religion. In Transylvania, Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were fighting each other. An outsider group, called Unitarians, believed that people should be free to worship as they chose. King Sigismund wanted the people to stop fighting and unify the country. In January 1568, in the Transylvanian city of Torda, he called representatives of each religion to debate. Francis David argued for the Unitarians. His belief was that “faith is the gift of God” and cannot be forced by power or fear. When the debate was over, his argument was the most convincing, and the Unitarians were declared the victor. King John Sigimund became a Unitarian, which made him the only Unitarian king in history.  The edict of Torda (Edict of Toleration) said that each religious group had to tolerate the others.  All over Europe people were fighting each other about religious differences. But in Transylvania the Unitarian King claimed no special privileges for his own religion and guaranteed equal rights for all religions.

King Sigismund died after a short reign of 10 years. His successors did not believe in the freedom of religion, so Catholicism again became the official religion of the country. Nowadays, there are three churches (all sanctioned by the state of Romania). The largest group is still the Catholic church, followed by the Greek Orthodox church, the Reformed Church (Lutheran), and the Unitarians. Transylvania used to belong to Hungary, and that is why the people speak there speak Hungarian. However, following World War I Transylvania was transferred to Romania. This has left in Romania a Hungarian-speaking minority of two million people.

Unitarianism spread throughout the world and arrived in America in the New England States and spread westwards. The New England Unitarians inherited parts of congregations that had started as Puritans, along with a number of churches when the Congregationalists split off. After the Second World War, Unitarians merged with Universalists, providing a more broadly geographically distributed set of churches in the United States. Because of the international roots of Unitarianism, partner church support became an established UU activity. Two years ago the Partner Church Council was formed within our church and American Churches started to adopt partner churches in Transylvania.

In 1991 Reverend William Saunders started the procedures to adopt a partner Church. In 1992 he and four other members from our church went to visit the church in Romania. The partner church adopted was Szekelykal (in Hungarian) and Caluseri (in Romanian).  Reverend William Saunders, Gail Hueting, Jim Heins, and Claudia and David Gross were the members of the congregation who took it upon themselves to see for themselves where the roots of our church started. (Click on images for larger versions.) Gail Hueting writes about this visit:

The village of Szekelykal, Transylvania

“Our two-week Transylvanian Pilgrimage in August 1992 took us all over the Unitarian area, from Cluj (Koloszwar) on East. Our group met in Budapest and traveled in a rented van and a car to Southern Hungary and across the border into Romania. We stayed with families in Caluseri/Szekelykal.  The hospitality was phenomenal everywhere we traveled. The hospitality was always introduced with ‘Palinka,’ a traditional plum brandy, and you absolutely could not say no that. We visited many Transylvanian/Unitarian landmarks and came away with an appreciation of the past and the present of Transylvania. Our stay ended with a church service in Caluseri (Szekelykal)  where Will Saunders spoke along with Sandor Balasz, the local Unitarian Minister. We all sang ‘Spirit of Life’ and bid an affectionate farewell to our hosts.”

This delegation from our church established the friendship between our two churches, and we started to send some financial help to Szekelykal. With that money they started to build a meeting house where they would hold classes and smaller meetings.

The community house that we helped to build in Szekelykal

Four years later, in 1996, Brigitte Pieke  and her daughter Samantha Singer went to visit Szekelykal. for twelve days. The minister at this time was Szabolcz Kelemen. She writes:

“We traveled from Vienna to Budapest and took the train to Cluj. Szabolcz Kelemen picked us up and we went to Szekelykal in his car. A very old car and with the streets the way they were, we were very worried if we would get there. We were put up in the parsonage and introduced to all the elders in the church. I will never forget their faces. Worn from outdoor work, many had missing teeth, but they were all cheerful and welcomed us warmly. We participated in a Pentecost Service which I will never forget and which made a lasting impression on me. The a capella singing of the congregation I can still hear in my mind. It was just so beautiful. Village life was like fifty years ago: dirt roads, cows going to pasture and back morning and afternoon, chickens and horses everywhere, two telephones in the whole village, the doctor came only for three hours every Monday afternoon, beautiful handcrafts and wonderfully, warm and caring people. Twelve days were not enough; we felt we had to come back.”

The partner church in Szekelykal

On our return from this trip, the church started to have Partner Church Sundays. We told about our experiences and collected some funds to send to Szekelykal. We helped the church continue their most urgent projects, so they could repair their church and the community house. In 2004 Reverend Axel Gehrmann followed up by visiting Szekelykal while on sabbatical in Germany.

The children of the youth group in the partner church

In 1992 the church delegation had brought a hand-carved chandelier back and Brigitte Pieke came back with a plaque.  Our church has designated a space at the church entrance as a partner church corner and we have hung the chandelier, the plaque, and some beautifully stitched Transylvanian embroideries in this space.

Symbol of the American and Romanian partner churches	Decorations for Romania Sunday: pottery and embroidery from visit to Szekelykal

Over the past several years we have contributed substantial funds to aid the building and furnishing of the community  house, helping to install a furnace in the minister’s house, underwriting repairs caused by water damage to the church building, reproofing the church, and restoring the clock tower. We also send contributions for the congregation’s youth group activities.

After Reverend Axel Gehrmann’s  visit to India in 2003 we became interested in supporting a church in the Khasi Hills, India. The town is called Nongtalang and is located in Meghalaya in Eastern India, neighboring the Indian state of Assam and bordering Bangladesh. Many people in this area of India were neither firmly Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist on their first contact Unitarianism, which thus took root there. Our partner church in Romania was working on unimaginably bare-bones support when we first started working with them, and the situation is just starting to improve a bit. The needs of the church in India are even more stark.

(Click on images for larger versions.)

Artwork of Urbana over podium at Nongtalang	Children with anniversary sign	Schoolchildren using church building

Photos of new school building at Nongtalang:

The partnership with Nongtalang is going very well, and the congregation there is very appreciative of our efforts. We are exchanging songs, letters, and photographs. At our partner church Sunday in December 2006 we sang “Spirit of Life” in the the tribal language of the Khasi Hills, which was a spiritual experience. The congregation also admired a beautiful Indian dance presented by Lalita Kalita. For Christmas last year, the committee send cards with pictures of our R.E. children to both partner churches. The cards were signed by the members of our congregation. For the upcoming Easter, the committee is sending cards and pictures of the committee members  to both partner churches.

The Partner Church Committe (PCC) came together slowly with the help of the people who visited the Romanian partner church (Brigitte Pieke, Claudia Gross, and Axel Gehrmann), but now has great support of the members of the congregation. Some former committee members have now joined the “Friends of the Committee List” who are informed about news and activities periodically and also help out with events. The committee meets monthly, always on the first Sunday of the month and maintains a bulletin board in Fellowship Hall with pictures and news of both partner churches. Throughout the year we share news with the congregation about our efforts through the Uniter, announcements in the Sunday Bulletin, or Life Matters.

We are striving to improve our efforts every year, keeping in mind the words of our minister Axel Gehrmann:  “A Partnership is not a one-way relay of resources, in which we are cast into the rigid role of wealthy benefactors and needy recipient, narrow roles that diminish the personhood of all involved. Partnership is a two-way relationship of equals. It is an exchange in which both parties give and both receive. It is marked by reciprocity and mutual respect.”

Submitted by Brigitte Pieke (Chair), Nan Ehrlich, Charlotte Brady, Peggy Steele, Libby Tyler, and Barb Strauss.