Journal index

Church history claimed that the somewhat official yearbook of the Reformed Church District of Királyhágómellék was first published in 1927, six years after the formation of the new church district in 1921. It was entitled The Illustrated Calendar of Reformed Orphanages (Református Árvaházi Képes Naptár), published continuously until 1949. However, a recent project of processing and digitalising contemporary press revealed new data on the publication of a yearbook both in 1923 and 1925. Despite both issues being printed in many thousands of copies, none of those calendars were preserved.

We are always seeking for the sense of the life, for ourselves and for the place in our family and community. Religion shows a new way to us, according to Jesus Christ’s principles. The son of God not only created a religion, but gave us an example how to live, and sacrifice himself for us. Sándor Karácsony reckons religion as a spiritual behavior, the base of our social contacts. We have to see into our lives and character according to the message of Jesus Christ. The right and appropriate personality can be evolved by individual training.

The views of Sándor Karácsony about religious education can be clearly discerned from his writings. The main task of reformed pedagogy is to activate continuously the divine notions in this continuously changing world. Protestant teachers must accomplish their daily work according to the Gospel of Christ. The Hungarian Reformed Church was a so-called “church of schools” for hundreds of years. This means that even between WWI and WWII it owned more schools than churches. The number of Reformed schools is significant even today. Sándor Karácsony claims that only Reformed people and communities are able to maintain Reformed schools by people who “are ready to serve and sacrifice themselves” for this cause (Karácsony, Sándor: A magyarok Istene. Széphalom Könyvműhely, Budapest 2004, 172).