Meszko, the Alabaster Village
Meszko is well-known as the Alabaster Village. It is the site of a now dormant alabaster mine. Many of the chunks below the Unitarian Church wall (above) are alabaster. It is everywhere, including in the garden outside the new social hall (below) where we had lunch. Women of the church (in one case a man) prepared a meal for us in six out of the nine churches we visited. We were given lunch in the school dining room at the high school in Szekelykeresztur where we brought books and bookshelves. Everywhere the hospitality was gracious and meals were beautifully- served and delicious. Typically, we had chicken cutlets, goulash, polenta or potatoes, cabbage and palinka (a twice-distilled home-made plum brandy). This meals arrangement is of mutual benefit as travelers get a home-cooked meal right where they are visiting and the folks cooking can use their facilities and culinary skills to create income for the church and sometimes for the cooks! One of the advantages of having a pilgrimage with the UU Partner Church Council, and especially John and Csilla Kolzscar Dale is that they connect the folks who want to provide meals
with UU traveling groups, who all get to meet each other.
To say the hospitality was gracious is a real understatement. It was offered with such generosity, kindness, beauty and warmth that you felt the Unitarian connection despite that most of the cooks spoke only Hungarian, which none of us spoke. Of course Csilla
did a lot of translating but we learned how much is communicated with hospitality
despite a lack of verbal interchange. Talking isn't everything!
Love and kindness are communicated in so many ways!
Actually, the Alabaster Village is famous to many UU American because of a book published by that name. It is written by Christina Frederiksen Balazs Morgan, a Scandanavian woman who was married to Ferenc Balazs, a very talented, brilliant and creative Minister, poet, and troubador, who transformed this village in the 1930's and who also studied at Starr King School for Ministry (UU) and travelled the world as a Unitarian ambassador. Unfortunately, tuberculosis and constant exertion resulted in an early death for Balazs. Starr King created a scholarship for Unitarian Ministers from Transylvania for one year to honor him and they are called Balazs Scholars. These Starr King Scholars in over 50 years have created an ongoing dialogue between American and Transylvanian Unitarians which has now generated a large group fluent English-speaking Transylvanians who with a year in America have been able build on their years of studying English in school.
On Youtube there is an excellent video where these Ministers talk about their experience in American Unitarian settings and how it influences them in their ministries as well as their younger generation of Transylvanians.
You can watch this excellent and perceptive 60 minute video on Youtube.
It is called The History and Modernization of Transylvanian Unitarianism. I found in it a rare glimpse into a Transylvanian experience of Unitarianism with candid conversation about America's laissez-faire Unitarianism and issues with Christianity, the extraordinary pull of Hungarian identity and language, surviving extraordinarily hard times, the plight of village churches in a world economy, and the unavoidable draw of postmodern life.
Below, statue of Ferenc Balazs next to Meszko Unitarian Church.
Robi Balint, the very articulate and bright Minister at Meszko, introduces us to the Church and the story of Balasz Ferenc. Like many ministers, Robi has to be bi-vocational to support his family. With Kolozsvar an hour away, he commutes to the Unitarian Headquarters
and is Director of Publications there.
I didn't realize this and when we arrived at Meszko he immediately said, "I just read your article about Margaret Crook and I have a question." I was stunned. I knew it had been translated into Hungarian and would be published in their journal, The Christian Sower. But why would this minister in a small village have read it before it had even been published? He soon straightened me out and we had an interesting conversation about Margaret setting up a childcare program at the Norwich, England, church during World War I for mothers working in the armament factories.
Note bright blue embroidery here!
Hand-painted church ceiling.
The Minister's house.
Robi points out feaures of the new social hall just being completed.
A very attractive lunch in a village that loves blue!
Traveling from Meszko to Torda we saw this "gypsy house." They are fairly common and are large, extravagant and usually unoccupied. A conundrum.
Sometime people are living in small houses in the back.Torda, birthplace of Unitarianism
The Edict of Torda convened in a Catholic church to hear arguments about religious toleration. This plaque marks the church.
On to Kolozsvar, Home of Francis David, Unitarian Headquarters, the "Mother Church," and the Unitarian Archives
Maria Pop, Secretary to the Bishop, met with us on our arrival in Kolozsvar. She was one of two women admitted to the Unitarian Seminary in a group of ten right after the 1989 Revolution. She travels with the Bishop and does the administrative work of the church. Now approximately half of the seminary students are women.
We met with Maria in the Consistory (Board) Room at the headquarters. It is on the main floor (US second floor, two stories below where I stayed). Below is a clip of Maria explaining the workings of the Transylvanian Unitarian Church.
In Kolozsvar on Saturday, we learned that many of our Monday flights were cancelled because of a one day Lufthansa strike on Monday when many of us were flying. Some were able to fly out of Sunday, others were planning an extension trip to Budapest. Over ten days together, through miles in a small bus, some car sickness, the faces of the high school English students and the eager 5th graders, a kaleidoscope of churches, villages and cities, all experienced in a sense of group thoughtfulness and kindness. Extraordinary.
Our last evening all together was Saturday. We gathered in the courtyard of the Hotel Transilvania and shared our thoughts and reflections. We all knew that we had been blessed with an amazingly rich experience which we could only begin to understand. We had received wonderful hospitality from dozens of people. Our Unitarian world had expended beyond imagination- culturally, historically, emotionally, and theologically. This journey will be with us for a long time.
Below, Norbert Racz, the new minister at the First Unitarian in Kolozsvar, stayed after the Sunday Service to meet with us. His English is impeccable. When asked how he learned English, he said watching TV when he was a kid!
Note red embroidery in the style of this congregation. He told about the church programs, especially for youth, that happen outside of Sunday morning. Next below, Norbert holds the communion cup used by Francis David and still is use today for communion
, about 4 times a year.
Above, a 16th century communion plate for the bread and the Francis David chalice still in use.
In communion, Transytlvanian Unitarians see it simply as a symbolic meal (no body and blood)
where they celebrate community and look deeply into the Minister's eyes as they drink the wine,
an act of shared faith and connection.
Our Sunday evening final banquet was lovely, but smaller because some had to leave early, a few because of the strike. It was a quiet end to an amazing pilgrimage.
Bust of Francis David on the way up six flights of stairs to my room,
in the women's college dorm area.
Headquarters entrance area.
Kolozsvar Unitarian Church (left) and Headquarters, right.
Full Circle- The Unitarian Archives
The Hungarian Unitarian Collecting Archives in Koloszvar, Official Title
Having spent a month here in the Archives, it was exciting for me to be able to share this place with our Pilgrims. Lehel had been away and he scheduled early Monday morning before our fhights (which had since been cancelled!). Our numbers were reduced by the srtike, but Archivist Lehel Molnar pulled out all the stops and showed the 16th century gems of the Archives to an appreciative group. I felt gratified to be able to share this important part of my sabbatical with our SUUS folks, thousands of miles from home.
Lehel shows Jan and Mary Jo a 16th century church history in Latin.
Left to right- Jere, Lehel, Mary Jo, Jan, Elizabeth and Mary S.
Going Further- Recommended Links
On Youtube, "The History and Modernization of Transylvanian Unitarianism," insightful 60 minute video made by Starr King School of Ministry interviewing Transylvanian ministers who have studied a year in Berkely and how their ministry in Transylvania has been impacted, alomg with their comments on American Unitarian Universalism.
The Transylvanian Unitarian Cathecism in English: http://www.unitarius.hu/english/catechism.html
Check out, The Unitarian Church of Transylvania in Wikipedia. A very thorough and objective
description of the theology and history.
UU Partner Church Council, www.uupcc.org/
