torda

HUs and UUs - Alike or Different? Posts proceed by date, from bottom to top.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Hungarian Unitarians in the US

Hungarian immigrants to the US (and Canada) at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century built many churches, especially in the East and Mid-West. These immigrants were Roman Catholic or Reformed (now mostly United Church of Christ). Some Reformed congregations joined the Presbyterians, some remained independent. The latter refused to join the UCC, and organized themselves as the Independent Magyar Reformed Church. The congregations that joined the UCC are mostly members of the Calvin Synod.

There were a handful of Lutheran congregations (some still survive), and even fewer Byzantine-rite churches.

Curiously, we know of no Hungarian Unitarian churches in North America. This is odd because most of the Reformed came from Transylvania, where Unitarianism was still in bloom. There must have been Unitarians among the immigrants - but probably not in large enough concentrations to form congregations. Unitarians were probably absorbed by Reformed churches, which had a very similar liturgy - though not theology. Moving to anglo churches was not yet an option (except for the Catholics, used to the Latin mass), because of the language barrier.

That is not true of better-educated American Hungarians, who immigrated in later years with a knowledge of English, or who learned English here. Unitarians in these groups often did join American Unitarian or Unitarian-Universalist churches.


Hungarian Unitarianism

The purpose of this blog is to provide basic information about Hungarian Unitarianism in English. There are two church organizations practicing this faith, each with its own group of congregations: the Unitarian Church in Hungary, and the larger Unitarian Church of Transylvania, which is a kind of "mother church."

Though there is no lack of internet documents about Hungarian Unitarianism - both churches and a number of congregations have web sites - most of them are not in English. We shall of course provide links to those sites and their English documents as necessary.

This is our first posting, and it is as yet experimental. We'll see how it develops. Wish us luck.

A final note: anything published here is independent of the above churches and of any other organization, and reflects only the private views of the editor.

Louis Elteto, Ph.D.
(Éltető Lajos)