Looking out on street from Unitarian Headquarters
Amid the electrical wires and torn posters, always there are ornate domes, steeples,
cornices, carved wooden doors, ancient alleys...

Daily Life at 21 Decembrie 1989 Boulevard

The date of the Revolution when Communism was overthrown in Transylvania
(formerly Hungarian Boulevard)
The Address of the Unitarian Headquarters and Church in Kolozsvar



Happy, stark reality of the camera, my goodness...

 The onion top steeple of the Unitarian Church next to the plaster details of HQ- I love the metal and plaster textures and designs.  Looking up in this city is a joy!

 Giant halls become lounges. Note above door and below- famous painting of
David Ferencz, arm raised in shaft of light at Torda, convincing Sigismond Janos
that God is one- Unitarianism.

 Overloooking center courtyard and main playground for elementary and high school youth, below. Yesterday, I was working in the Archives watching childre play and I heard loud orchestral music as if in an overture to a Hollywood movie.  I turned to Lehel and said, "What was that?"  He said that other schools have bells, for the Unitarian children they have grand music!  I said, that could be in America!

The Hungarian Revolution March 15, 1848

The classic tale of Fat Cats (nobility) not wanting to pay taxes, Poor People (peasants, Unitarians and friends) being milked and can't vote.  Patriots Day, Boston Tea Party, Occupy and 4th of July, all rolled into one in the Hapsburg Empire in 1848.

Kolozsvar March 15-17, 2013

All Hungarian (Unitarian) Schools Closed and many Unitarians take day off as personal day.

Holiday for Hungarians, not Romanians, i.e. not a national holiday.

 Below-Standing room only at Interfaith Independence Day service at St. Mitchael's in Kolozsvar. Now Catholic, Unitarian Francis David preached here for many years and it remained Unitarian for 150 years. Obviously, service was entirely in Hungarian.

Below- entrance to Interfaith Independence Day Service-

Lutherans, Catholics, Reformed and Unitarians- all Hungarians in Romania. 

Note sprinkling of snow on trees.

Central Square, Kolozsvar BELOW, and Saint Michael's Church. This is where Ron Cordes shot much of Transylvania history section on his DVD, A Long Strange Journey. Unitarian Church and  Headquarters is about 3 blocks from here.

Sunday, March 17- three blocks away at Kolozsar Unitarian Church

Ministry Students' Sunday

Below- Unitarian Theological students rehearsing before the 11 am service. On Thursday evenong I was watching PBS videos in my room about 10pm and hear bold, loud minor key singing echoing up the hallways of this monumental building.  It was passionate and strong.  It was these students claiming their hard-won idendity. Unfortunately these renditions are milder.(press arrows)

Kolozsvar Unitarian Church (mother church), headquarters to right.

Below- Students rehearsing play before service for Magyar (Hungarian) Independence play.

Below-Church fills, in the end about one third full. Many older folks (many significantly shorter than Americans) but several families and young adults.Note organ in balcony, no stained windows.

Below- Note female student preacher, Julie, in raised pulpit.  Students half female/half male.

Below- Ministers speaks to congregation at the end. No idea of any content- all in Hungarian.

Below- "coffee hour," chatting on the street after service.  Bishop's back on left. Very friendly, jovial guy.

Below- Unitarian Seminary, yellow with red dome on right, about two blocks from the U Church and HQ.  Part of consortium of Protestant Theological School (Reformed, Lutheran and Unitarian). Uli (student) told me Unitarians had their own seminary housed in HQ building before the Communists.  The Communists forced all the Protestant seminaries together so they could be better controlled.  After fall of Coucesceau in 1989, Protestants remained together because it was more economical.  Catholic Seminary is across the street.

March 16, Saturday

Made peace with the ATM after using 16 precious minutes of American calling time on my Romanian cell.  Many thanks to Lehel for the phone loan. Warning, if you remember your ATM pin by the letters, the stations here have only numbers.  I suggest writing the numbers on your hand as I found it rattling trying to sort out the letter to number translation on a busy public street. Needless to say, I got it wrong:-) After my account was unlocked from America AND I entered the right numbers, all is well. I celebrated with a cafe au lait next door! Amazing what a difference it makes to feel access to money when you need it!  Many do not.

So I'm creating a little nest here: nice room, working ATM card, good work to do in Archives and a helpful and friendly guide in Lehel, meeting kind folks, working out meals, finding activity, enjoying PBS on laptop, living solitary life- looking for community.

My room up in the attic- small and sunny, private bath to left, yeah!

The roof and bell tower of Kolozsvar Unitarian, left and the Unitarian HQ, right- my abode.

.Looking the second of three flight of stairs window to roof of Old U Church.  I'm hoping to fly up these stairs by the end of the month!  Now, more a slow plod...

March 14, 2013, Kolozsvar

Rev. Claudia's first day

Top: Kolozsvar Unitarian Church front door

Also met the Bishop and the two ministers from the "other" U churches in town,

one was wearing a flaming chalice pin.  He said it was from his partner church.

                               Below- U Church left, U HQ right- this is "faith strengthening week"
                                                     in local Unitarian Churches.

                  Below- Unitarian Headquarters, home sweet home! Wth these students. Up in the eves....

                                            Below-Entry Hall, U HQ (this is the fancy part...)
                                         big improvement from 8 years ago when I was here

Inside HQ above, three photos are two previous HQ and now

Looking out from Unitarian HQ
Two Unitarian restaurants are among these shops-
one is only restaurant with no smoking, ahh!
No smoking in HQ, thank goodness.

March 15, day before Hungarian holiday

So many images and sounds from the day, all fuzzy with jet lag. A morning in the Archives- well ordered
acid-free cartons, labeled and filled with documents as old as 450 years. So much for one underfunded Archivist and a retired volunteer. I'm taking a closer look at letters- one box from Americans and one from English Unitarian leaders to the Unitarian Bishop before WWI. I found one letter hoping to fund a Hungarian young woman to Manchester College, Oxford suggesting the extraordinary possibility of her becoming a "lady minister" in the late 1800's!

My first meal in the student dinning room was with elementary students and I happened to sit at the table
with their English teacher, Bibi.  It was a relief to speak with someone with such fluency and she was eager to talk. I learned that the school includes people from all religions, and has special religion classes for Unitarians, Reformed and Catholics. I told her our public schools did not allow teaching religion and she thought that odd. I explained separation of church and state and it didn't register.

The food was wholesome, lots of potatoes and somewhat bland.  A good vegetable and dumplings soup, a pile of potatoes with a slice of gray meat and a big bowl of sliced pickles. Supper was fresh bread, pate, cheese, and sliced yellow and red bell peppers. The pate was like liverwurst, something I actually like, but it did not seem so popular.

The ATM was not cooperative.  Lehel went with me to the bank, but they said I had to call the US number on the back of the card.  Tomorrow I hope to get a phone, so I hope that works.  Meantime the Hungarian  bank exchanged my dollars for ROM, Lei so I was able to buy oranges at the basement market under the urban shopping center. When I asked for a small plastic bag, I got a blank look until someone told me I had to pay 50 Lei (15 cents) for a bag- and it appeared in short order.

After dinner I was indulging in old PBS "History Detective" shows on the internet, and I started hearing loud bold singing coming up big echoling halls and staircases from downstairs. Tomorrow is the Anniversary of the March 15 Hungarian uprising- need to find out about that- but it certainly has inspired the college students to sing bold populist songs- though I don't have a clue what the words say.

I have pictures from today, but need to work on downloading technique.  Signing off, tomorrow is a holiday!

On the Unitarian Ground in Kolozsvar

Newark Airport is a joy of modern soaring cielings, fresh daylight
and uncrowded openness after the dreary industrialization of north Jersey.  Ample carts made my bags manageable and check in and security was smooth and quick. The long wait was helped by an easy and spacious layout with services nearby. I was surrounded by young international travelers as I tried to recognize languages. My United flight was with Lufstansa to Munich, so my area was mostly Germans. I am crossing into the world of being a language minority.  Soon it will be Hungarian and Romanian.

Bleary-eyed from a long sleepless airplane night, in Munich I transferred to a regional Lufstansa to Cluj/Kolozsvar. Lots of families on this plane, two blonde wide-eyed little sisters and a pair of dark-eyed twin boys about three years old who were very fast runners, usually in opposite directions. Such sweet smiles! Fortunately their parents were equally fast, though clearly exhausted!

Through the cloud openings near Kolozsvar, I saw a few rural villages with quaint churches and surrounded by great bands of fields.
Those could be some of the Unitarian villages, I have no idea.

Lehel, the Unitarian archivist kindly met me at the Cluj Airport. What a welcome friendly face. As we drove into the city I had forgotten all the bleak, boxy reminders of Communism. Having never been bombed, Kolozsvar's story is told in the many eras of architecture from two millenia.

The square block Unitarian Headquarters in the town center, where I have a guest room, was built about two hundred years ago and is the third home for the Bishop's office, Unitarian seminary, high school and archives. It feels like the rock of Gibralter- huge, ambling and well-worn. Next door is the Kolosvar Unitarian Church, the "mother church." I had dinner at "Pizza Rex," a comfortable cafe with a wooden cieling and wooden booths across the street.  It is somehow run by the Unitarian Church but I'm not clear how.

My room is simple, small and European modern. It has an Ikea feel. It is in the eves of the buillding with a skylight, and best of all a bright bathroon with a lovely shower. The three flights of stairs are moderated by two halls midway where I pass the Bishop's office and other administrators. It is manageable for my cranky knees. I believe high school girls live down my hall- I hear frequent conversations but not in English.  I tried speaking with one girl but she knew no English.
I imagine I will be meeting some of these folks in the dining room.

My sleep cycle is completely off.  I'm well-rested at last, but it is 4am here. Today I wander around this great building to find the office to arrange meals in the dining room and the Archives, across the central courtyard. This is so amazing- I have been dreaming of being here and now I really am.  What a gift, a blessing. I am ready.

February 24

I'm flying to Kolosvar in three weeks to begin my sabbatical volunteering in the Unitarian Archives there. Haven't had a "full immersion" experience since college, so I am really excited!  Arriving as a stranger is a profound expereince, and adding all the cultural mysteries- language, public life, accomodations, money, food- my imagination is very active these days.  What will my room be like- a guest room in the Unitarian Center where the Unitarian seminary, high school, Bishop's office and archives are all located? Will I find friends? How will I spend evenings and weekends? Will the Wifi work in my room? I already imagine listening to my hometown NPR station to hear some familiar English- Colin MacInroe, Cayonne Wolf, Morning Edition, Wait Wait, Prairie Home.  Hope that Wifi works! Just realized I will be 6-8 hours earlier in Kolozsvar, wonder what's on NPR then?  Lehel Molnar, the archivist, is meeting me at the airport in Cluj- thank goodness. My work in the archives will be reviewing early 20th century correspondence to aid in the categorizing of the materials. I feel I may help bridge the English-Hungarian Unitarian world. What a priviledge to be able to do this work and have this amazing spiritual adventure. Yeow!