Transyslvanian Unitarianism: Past
     This morning I want to talk with you about our religious heritage and its relevance for the present and future of our liberal religious movement.  One important underlying message, that you’ve heard from me before, and that I don’t want you to miss, is that we are not alone.  As a part of the tide of history, as well as in the world of today, we are a part of something larger.

     Some of us sometimes feel like we’re on the cutting edge of religion, inventing or creating a new way of being religious, unlike anything anyone has ever thought of before.  And there is a grain of truth to that.  If we are succeeding in our efforts, we are always continuing to evolve, ever pushing the envelope of our experience and our understanding.

     And yet we are not creating our religion ex nihilo, out of nothing.  As we reach for the sky, we are standing on the shoulders of our forebears, building on what they have begun.  As we explore the scope and limits of faith, we share the way with others, who may end up taking a different path, but whose companionship enriches our own journey.

     My vehicle for looking at these issues this morning will be a consideration of Transylvanian Unitarianism: past, present, and future.  This first section of my talk will be a history lesson on the origins of Unitarianism as an organized religious movement.  The second section looks at the current state of Transylvanian Unitarianism.  The third and final section will be a look to the future: prospects and opportunities for cooperation and mutual enrichment.
 

     The roots of organized Unitarianism lie in sixteenth century Transylvania, what is now Romania.  Of course the sixteenth century, with the Protestant Reformation, was a time of religious turmoil throughout Europe.  The hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church was challenged by Protestant movements led by Martin Luther and John Calvin.

     The evolution of the Reformation was embodied in the person of Francis David, one of the heroes of our story.  Born in Kolozsvar, Transylvania in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, David was raised as a Roman Catholic.  But then he traveled to Wittenberg for advanced study, where he learned first-hand about the Lutheran strand of the Reformation.  Returning to Transylvania, David found the Reformation underway there as well.  He renounced Catholicism to become a Lutheran minister.  By 1559, however, David had been converted once more, this time to the competing Calvinist movement.

     But that was still not the end of the story.  David’s thinking continued to evolve.  Exposed to anti-trinitarian views, he ended up rejecting Calvinist doctrine.  He preached his first Unitarian sermon in the main church in Koloszvar in January of 1566.

     Meanwhile, King John Sigismund was concerned about the religious controversy that was dividing his country.  Early in 1568 he convened a diet at the town of Torda to address the issue.  The most important result of that conference was the Act of Religious Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience, issued by the king and supported by a unanimous vote of the diet.  The edict affirmed:
 

that in every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel each according to his understanding of it, and if the congregation like it, well, if not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve. . . no one shall be reviled for [their] religion by anyone . . . and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal from his post for his teaching, for faith is the gift of God.

     The Edict of Torda was followed by a long series of religious debates, featuring an articulate, persuasive Francis David on the side of Unitarianism.  Many Transylvanians, including King John Sigismund, accepted his position, and Unitarianism soon became the leading faith in the land.  Its rallying cry was “Egy az Isten” (“God is One”).

     In January 1571, King John formally recognized Unitarianism as one of the country’s “received religions,” giving it equal legal status with Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, and Lutheranism.  This was his last official act before dying at the young age of 30, after his short reign as the only Unitarian king in history.

    While this was cutting-edge stuff for its time, I must point out that, by our standards, the degree of religious tolerance afforded was severely limited.  First, it was limited to the four “official” religions, all of which were Christian.   Second, John Sigismund’s successors were not as open-minded as he.  Although the decree of religious freedom was reconfirmed in 1572, it was accompanied by a new law forbidding any innovation in religion.  The new ruler, Prince Stephen imposed censorship and closed down the Unitarian press.

    Francis David continued his outspoken support for Unitarian beliefs and did suggest a number of innovations.  For instance, he put forth the thesis that since Christ was not God, he should not be invoked in prayer.  His reward for such progressive positions was condemnation to life imprisonment, leading to his death in a castle dungeon in 1579.

    Despite the early harsh treatment of the fledgling Unitarian Church, and perhaps owing partly to the inspiration of Francis David’s martyrdom, the movement did hang on and continue.  By the end of the sixteenth century there were over 400 Unitarian churches in Transylvania.  But they faced nearly two centuries of continuous persecution, primarily at the hands of oppressive rulers, but also as part of the Catholic Counter-Reformation.  Through this long period, then, Unitarians suffered both religious and political restriction.

    Through all their travails, however, the Unitarians hung on.  Finally, near the end of the eighteenth century, a number of fair-minded, liberal rulers renewed the religious freedom and toleration that had led to the birth of the movement.  King Leopold II, in particular, was known as “the restorer of the rights of Unitarians.”  Unitarianism continued to grow through the first half of the nineteenth century, and connections were established with Unitarian movements in Great Britain and the United States.
The movement continued through various ups and downs until World War II.  After the war, and with the onset of Communist governments in Hungary and Romania, life was difficult once more.  Unitarians were watched closely and significantly restricted, until the revolution of 1989 that overthrew the Communist government of Romania.

    Since that time, the Hungarian minority in Romania, which includes most of the Unitarians, has still faced discrimination, but the Unitarian Church has begun to rebuild, slowly regaining hope for the future.
 
 
 

Transylvanian Unitarianism: Present
     So who are these Transylvanian Unitarians?  Are they our long-lost brothers and sisters, practicing the same religion as we, separated only by an ocean?  No, it’s not quite that simple.  We’re more like distant cousins, rediscovering each other after long separation; shaped by different histories and different cultures.  We do share the fundamental liberal religious values of freedom, reason, and tolerance.  But in terms of culture, and of religious structure, belief and practice, there are major differences.

     Culturally, Romania is still essentially an agrarian society.  The vast majority of Unitarian churches are in small farming villages across the countryside.  In terms of religious structure, the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Transylvanian Romania, as they are known, are much more centralized than is our Unitarian Universalist Association.  They are presided over by a bishop, and they have a catechism.  They still fall within the bounds of Christianity, albeit not in the mainstream.

     One way of attempting to characterize and understand Transylvanian Unitarianism in the present day is to take a look at the catechism to which they adhere.  And it’s important to note that the catechism is not taken to be the eternal, infallible expression of “correct” doctrine for all time.  It is a living document, subject to discussion and/or debate.  In the past 140 years the catechism has been revised 18 times, the most recent version dating to 1983.

     I have selected a number of passages – that is, questions and answers – from the catechism that I think give some flavor of how similar and yet how different is their approach to religion as compared to ours.  These excerpts come from a 1994 translation that appeared in The Unitarian Universalist Christian, journal of the UU Christian Fellowship.
 

1. What is religion?
Religion is love toward God and toward our neighbor.

4. What is the purpose of religion?
The purpose of religion is to refine our souls through love toward God and neighbor, to ennoble our feelings and to encourage service to God and neighbor.

9.  What is the Bible?
 The Bible is a collection which includes 66 books from antiquity, the authors and contents of which differ.

18.  Are Christians united?
 Christianity is not united.  In the course of history the Christian religion has divided into different denominations.  But Christians living on earth are bound together by Jesus’ teaching on brotherly unity.

30.  What is your confession?
 My confession is:
 I believe in one God, the creator of life, our providential Father.
 I believe in Jesus, the best among the sons of God, our true master-teacher.
 I believe in the holy spirit.
 I believe in the mission of the Unitarian Church.
 I believe in repentance and in eternal life.

32.  How are we to comprehend God?
 We comprehend God as spirit and as love.

48.  What are our god-given spiritual gifts?
 Our god-given spiritual gifts are as follows: faith, reason, free will, conscience and love.

66.  How does Jesus deliver us from sin?
 Jesus delivers us from sin by revealing what sin is, and how one can avoid it.  With the example of his life set before us, which we endeavor to follow, we escape more and more from sin.

71.  Do we also call Jesus God?
 We do not call Jesus God, because we know that he was in reality a man.

82.  What happened after Jesus’ death?
 After Jesus’ death, his loyal disciples and followers took his body down from the cross and buried it in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  His disciples and followers loyally kept the memory of their master and teacher, and proclaimed his teachings.

99.  How must we treat those in the church who behave poorly?
 Because we are all children of God, we cannot expel those who behave poorly from the church, but we must endeavor to recover them for the good way through brotherly love and exemplary life.

107.  Do Unitarians teach original sin?
 Unitarians do not teach original sin.  We do not believe that through the sin of the first human couple we all became corrupted.  It would contradict the love and justice of God to attribute to us the sin of others, because sin is one’s own personal action.

125.  What is the Lord’s Supper?
 The Lord’s Supper is the liturgy through which we remember Jesus’ life and death, and we receive encouragement to following his example.

     While our beliefs are not identical, we do share much in common: rejection of original sin and a literal resurrection, recognition of the humanity of Jesus, and a view of religion as a guide to living a good life in the here and now, in this world.
 

Transylvanian Unitarianism: Future
     Given their history in Transylvania/Romania, it seems like the Unitarians there could survive anything, and should continue on indefinitely into the future.  But in the years since the collapse of Communism in 1989, numerous American Unitarian Universalists, both individuals and congregations, have taken it upon themselves to get involved in the continuation and rebuilding of Unitarianism in central Europe.

     In response to the enormous grassroots energy that went into partnerships between American and European congregations, the UU Partner Church Council was founded in 1993 to focus and coordinate that energy.  Since then, efforts have expanded to other parts of the world, including the Philippines and India.  But by far, the majority of partnership efforts have been focused on Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

     The vision of the Partner Church Council is “that partner relationships between North American congregations and churches around the globe will be forged and sustained wherever they are desired – and that all of these relationships will be of high quality, firmly based, mutually beneficial, responsibly sustained, and linked by a joint and mutual covenant.”

     For me, the key phrase there is “mutually beneficial.”  The giving, the sharing, the enrichment goes in both directions.  While financial resources may flow primarily from here to there, human and spiritual resources flow freely in both directions.  I have spoken with numerous American Unitarian Universalists who have traveled to Romania to visit partner churches, to serve as English instructors, or to study in the University at Koloszvar.  Every one of them cherishes the experience as a source of rewarding human interaction, spiritual nourishment, and expanded cultural awareness.

     It may be easy for us to think about how we can be helpful to a struggling rural congregation.  I think it’s equally important for us to open ourselves to the gifts we might receive from a partner relationship, especially the inspiration of a faith that has sustained a people for four hundred plus years of discrimination, oppression, and persecution; and the constant reminder that we are not alone.

     I must tell you that the Partner Church Program is always looking for new participants.  A recent list of Romanian churches currently looking for a match included an interesting variety of situations.  All the way from a city with over 5000 Unitarians working on creating a second congregation, to a small village with 38 Unitarians sharing a minister with a neighboring village, which also seeks a partner congregation.

     I have been involved with two congregations that have had Transylvanian partner churches, and in both cases, the relationship clearly enriched the congregation’s religious life.  Given that much of my focus this year is on engaging religiously with the larger world beyond our own walls, I would love to see us consider such a partnership.  What it would take for us to do so is a small group of dedicated individuals willing to lead the way.  If that sounds like you, please come and talk to me about it.  I have the information you’ll need to get started, and I would be glad to work with you.  But this isn’t something that I can, or would even want to, do on my own.  It must be a congregational effort.

    In case you need more inspiration, I’d like to share some testimonials from some participants in the program.  First from Bob Mayer of the First UU Society of Albany, New York, who spent three-and-a-half weeks in Transylvania:
 

What we feel the greatest need to proclaim is the profoundly moving and gratifying spiritual experience our stay … turned out to be.  Our contact with the individuals and families were open and loving, and, surprisingly, our time in the Unitarian Church repeatedly had [us] in tears.  The ceremony, the music, and … inspiring sermons created an atmosphere that for me was a celebration of the beauty in human experience.  It involved a feeling of solidarity with other humans and with the world we live in, which in turn, causes a surge of intense love and joy.  In my case, this was quite unexpected since I have a world-view that one would not usually associate with this type of “worship” service.

    A number of other participants comment on the beneficial effects of their partnership on their social justice identity and involvement.  This from the Rev. Richard Beal:
 

    First Unitarian, Louisville, Kentucky, like many of our churches with a strong social justice identity and active presence in the local community, had doubts about our supporting a program like the Partner Church Council’s.  It was far away.  There was no one, targeted focus.  It might draw support away from local projects.   It would be unlikely that there would be any “hands on” component for any but a miniscule portion of our congregation because of the expense of traveling to Transylvania.

    [We have] now been a partner church for ten years.  It has not drawn support away from local projects, but rather made them more thoughtful, more meaningful and deeper.  The relationships that have developed between the partnered congregations continue to flourish and stimulate both.  Greater knowledge and greater contact have led to a deeper respect.

    I like to think of myself as a citizen of the world.  What better way to be a good world citizen than to seek out opportunities to establish ties and build relationships across oceans and across national boundaries.  And connecting with a people who have struggled for centuries to build and sustain a deep, strong Unitarian faith seems to me like a good way to bolster and enrich my own Unitarian Universalist faith.  If you agree, please consider joining me in exploring opportunities to build a brighter future for Unitarianism and Universalism everywhere.