First Reading.
Carry each other’s burdens, and this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Therefore, as we have time, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to our family of believers.
Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. 6,2.10
Second Reading.
Your gifts—whatever you discover them to be—can be used to bless or curse the world. You must answer this question: What will you do with your gifts?
Choose to bless the world. The choice to bless the world can take you into solitude to search for the sources of power and grace; native wisdom, healing and liberation.
More, the choice will draw you into community, the endeavor shared, the heritage passed on, the companionship of struggle, the importance of keeping faith, the life of ritual and priase, the comfort of human friendship, the company of earth, its chorus of life, welcoming you.
None of us alone can save the world. Together, that is another possibility, waiting.
Rebecca Parker, President, Starr King Theological School, Berkeley, California
Dear members of the Arlington UU Congregation:
The Apostle Paul is warning his congregation, saying, “as we have time.” In fact, he is speaking about the urgency of recognizing what is most important in our lives. According to his understanding it is this: to do good to all people, carrying each other’s burdens. This is what gives real meaning and content to one’s life. To be good and do good, that is the highest value. It is what we should take as the purpose of our own lives.
But we have to recognize that we cannot just do it alone. We need others. We need to be responsible for our relationships. We need to decide consciously what relationship we want to have with our fellow human beings. But we need more. We also need, at the same time, to decide what relationship we will have with our larger movement, as members of the same family of believers. If, in fact, it is not important enough to us to support it fully, then the most honorable path would be to cut ourselves off from it altogether. We need to seriously consider our relationships and how we will respond to the responsibilities they place upon us. What will we do with our gifts?
I am here with you this morning to offer you a possibility, greeting you today as my brothers and sisters. I come to you because of the connection that exists between our two communities, to speak to you about a very precarious, perhaps most precious moment in the modern history of our Unitarian movement in Transylvania. I know that you have ears to hear and eyes to see the hopes and dreams that I have to share about our future: and about the most important way to secure this future. I come to speak to you about our children and young people, about the strong and healthy Unitarian community they must build if they are to preserve their precious heritage. The heritage is yours as well, dear sisters and brothers. Transylvanian Unitarianism is your heritage too. Think about your freedom of thought that characterizes your religion, and your freedom in sharing it with others. It is our common heritage when we listen to others, with tolerance and acceptance. It is your heritage too when you protect and help those who suffer from persecution and discrimination. It is your heritage too when you embrace justice and equity in your relationships with the world.
What is our Unitarian history in Transylvania? During 400 years, a major priority of the church has been education. It is not by chance that the Unitarian College of Kolozsvar was established at the very founding of the church. It has became one of our most important institutions, not only for our denomination, but also for others—as we welcomed students who were Catholic, Reformed, Jewish and Romanian who wished to study with us.
When we finally got rid of the Communist dictatorship after 45 years in 1989, we gave ourselves 10 years to figure out our most important priority. When the Communist government took over all education in 1948, private schools were closed in favor of unilateral state education. Following the political changes in 1989, however, a way opened for the Unitarian church, as well as other denominations in Romania. In 1993, the government gave us the opportunity to begin again. We began by starting one class in Kolozsvar and Szekelykeresztur. Each year, we added a new class of students. In Kolozsvar this year, we will start with two classes. Our results have been excellent because our faculty is very professional. But even more, there is a moral fervor that grasps students in our institution. Let me quote you some of the confessions of the students about their Unitarian education: “Experience, education and possibility – three words. Experience because in these 4 years these words were like a guiding master, preparing us for life, making us solve our problems and helping us to get ever stronger. The quality of the education we have received is outstanding. We not only learn subjects, but also ethics, which definitely define our present lives. Finally, this school means possibility. I had the choice to achieve my final dream.” Another opinion: “Even as a Catholic, I did find in the Unitarian College most of the things that I have dreamt of. I am part of a class with a great team-spirit, a community where the most important thing is affection.”
A recently graduated student wrote: “I spent my most beautiful high school years in this college, and I have never dared think that I have to separate from this warm and cozy place. Indeed, this was a wonderful family where we were all one in our love for God and for people. It is a family, where I hope I will always belong.”
Through the centuries, we have been oppressed and persecuted, but the integrity of the church system has always got us through. In 1948, the integrity was broken. The lands, forests, buildings and other properties were taken away by the communist government. Only the church sanctuaries were left to us. Today we are broken. We are many little shards of a religious organization. When our church leaders were asked to name a single most important priority, they agreed unanimously that building a student dormitory and center was the most essential. These dormitories will serve our youth and our church and will help us rebuild our integrity as an institution.
Without education, the young people have no options but to leave the country. If they leave, the group of us that call ourselves ethnic Hungarians will lose them, but their religious heritage will lose them as well.
Without community, there is no spiritual support or renewal. Without development of the intellectual leadership, we cannot build a church for the 21st century or sustain economically viable communities. Without consensus, 100% agreement, we cannot act as a body. The Consistory, the ministers, the lay members all have made the Unitarian Center for Students and Pilgrims a #1 priority.
We reasoned that if we could create a home for our students, that education could provide for them the resources and abilities they would need to create a new home and a new opportunity for them in their own country. The need is critical. If we are unable to guarantee a proper education for our young people, we will be without spiritual and intellectual leaders for the next generation.
Let me tell you a story.
It began in 1945, shortly after the end of the second World War. In September, of that year, as the new school year was starting, one or two wagons were departing from almost every village of the Unitarian region of the Szekeley land. The wagons were heavily loaded with straw mattresses, blankets, bed linens and clothing, as well as large bags filled with meat, potatoes, vegetables and—on top of all—young boys. They began the journey with tears in their eyes, but soon they were smiling heroically, knowing they were beginning one of the biggest challenges of their lives.
For me, as one of those young boys, this was my “first real journey” to the Unitarian High School at Szekelykeresztur. I was getting out in the world, ready to explore its wonders. But the most important discovery I made in this school, my home-away-from-home for 8 years, was that all of there were members of the same large family—teachers and students—all of us were children of the same Alma Mater, the same nourishing mother. She holds us together and prepares us for life.
After two years at the school, a drought destroyed all the crops in that part of Europe, and gave rise to poverty and famine in the villages. My parents wondered if I should continue my studies because of the extreme difficulties they were facing. My father went to Szekelykeresztur to discuss what should be done. The school-master, who was a Unitarian minister, said this: “You must give your support, even though it may be a big sacrifice, for the sake of your son. And the church will also give its support. We must join our care and effort—church and family—to guarantee a future for our children.”
This gift provided a kind of spiritual provisioning for my life’s journey. It gave me encouragement then, and still does today. It enabled me to serve my church and my people, first as a minister, then as a teacher, and now as the Bishop of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania.
Our connections have their roots way back in our common history. When the AUA was founded, we wrote you a letter in Latin congratulating you on this bold beginning in your country; your leaders answered it also in Latin – these were the very first steps of our cooperation. The Partnership movement began shortly after World War I, when AUA president Louis Cornish visited us. We established a relationship between our two oldest churches—our church is Kolozsvar and your King’s Chapel in Boston. During the war and the 50-year period of Communism, there was almost no communication, except for a few individuals who knew of us. But our renewal began in 1993. Many other churches—Lutheran, Reformed, evangelical—came to Transylvania to help their sisters and brothers. Our church people looked around, and asked: “Where are OUR sisters and brothers?” And soon thereafter emerged the Partner Church Council. We saw you come to us and realized—with some relief—that we were and ARE a part of the larger Unitarian movement. You helped us begin anew—restoring church buildings, making parsonages habitable. BUT make no mistake… what is meaningful to us is the spiritual sharing that has evolved. You share our lives in the smallest ways. We share in yours.
I want to close with these words. I am here because we ARE brothers and sisters. I am here because we share a common tradition, a common history, and a common spiritual center. In Transylvania today, we live in dangerous times, not only because of the ultra nationalist political leadership, not only because of the staggering inflation. We live in dangerous times because we also fear for the future of our precious religious heritage. We know that education alone can give us the educated leadership our churches and villages need, can embrace our young people in the strength of their heritage and the promise of their future.
That is why I am here today, worshiping and praying with you and asking for your support for a center that will give our young people a chance at life, and our church the hope to move forward. We know we are not alone. We have received pledges of financial support from the British Unitarian Association, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Partner Church Council, the government of Hungary. My friends, we have received pledges from the Unitarian church of the Khasi Hills, India, and from the Unitarian Church of the Philippines. We know we are not alone. Apostol Paul reminds we are one family, carrying each other’s burdens. Rebecca Parker reminds us that together we can save the world. As one family, we can do this together.
