"FROM THE CRADLE OF UNITARIANISM"

 

A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear

Sunday, November 26, 2006

All Souls Unitarian Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

 

            It may seem strange without a context, but earlier this month some of us listened to a Hungarian choir in Transylvania sing the African American gospel spiritual “Deep River.”  They sang in English, though few of them understood the actual words they were singing, and one could hear the heavy accents on the English words. 

            Without a context, this is a strange picture, with not a little cognitive dissonance.  Here’s an Eastern European Unitarian choir singing the emotional melodies and words created by African slaves two hundred years ago to give themselves hope and spiritual strength in time of suffering.  You may recall the words: 

 

Deep river, my home is over Jordan. 

Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground. 

O don’t you want to go to that gospel feast, to

That promised land where all is peace? 

Deep river, Lord, I want to cross over into campground. 

 

            Without a context, the picture seems just a little bit awkward, a little bit of cultural cacophony.  But in context, with the story of their cultural and religious struggles, the picture seems altogether fitting.  Hungarian Unitarians in Transylvania have known oppression and denial of freedom for 400 years.  They may not have experienced the chains of slavery, but they know the chains of tyranny all too well over the centuries.  Songs of freedom ring true in such a context. 

            Earlier this month, six of us from All Souls Unitarian Church made a visit to our Partner Church in the town of Sepsi St. George in Transylvania, Romania.  Nancy and I first went to this town five years ago, and it exciting to see what is happening with our Unitarian cousins there.  Over the years, there have been a dozen or so members from this church visit there. 

 

For most Unitarians in the late twentieth century America, Unitarianism is a very modern religion.  And of course, it is.  We do not talk about ancient creeds and traditions that survive through the centuries.  Most of us -- the vast majority of us -- were born in a different religious tradition and chose to be Unitarian. 

In that choosing, we often seem to encounter Unitarianism as a fresh, new religious approach, and seem to give little thought to its tradition and roots.  Some years ago, when the late Unitarian minister Peter Raible, addressed a gathering of Unitarians in a 400 year old Unitarian congregation in Transylvania, and put it this way: 

 

AIt is a deep privilege to be here.  I live in a land where 9/10 of Unitarians did not grow up Unitarian.  Some tend to think that Unitarianism began last Tuesday when they walked in the door.  Knowing about Transylvania gives them a heritage.  I say to them:  Transylvania is our holy land.@ 

 

I will speak this morning of the land that can be considered "the cradle of Unitarianism."  Unitarianism we celebrate today was first organized nearly 450 years ago in Transylvania.  The story I tell about the commitment to freedom and reason in religion has continued unbroken through the centuries, making Unitarians older than Methodists or Baptists, Pentecostals or fundamentalists. 

 Most Unitarians seem surprised when this centuries-old heritage is identified.  It is a surprise to discover that our roots go as deep as they do.  The fact is, of course, that the central principle which brought together Unitarians in 16th century Transylvania is the same principle which brought together Unitarians in 18th century New England, and is the same principle which brings people into the doors of All Souls Unitarian Church in 2006.  It is the principle of freedom in religion.  It is the principle of reason in religion.  It is the principle of tolerance in religions.  These are our roots, and our roots go deep. 

Everyone understands something about the idea of freedom.  And most people do not associate freedom of belief with relig­ions.  As far as I’m concerned, it is our commitment to freedom that most distinguishes Unitarians from other religions I know.  It is not an exaggeration to suggest that religious freedom, and particularly religious tolerance, are among the values this world could most benefit from today. 

We mostly think about our commitment to freedom in terms of early Unitarians and Universalists in this country.  Thomas Jefferson -- who, next to James Madison, was probably the greatest architect of religious freedom in the United States -- defended religious freedom from the standpoint of a Unitarian. 

This principle of freedom leads us to a conviction that many other religions would repudiate:  that it is far more important for our beliefs to be freely affirmed than it is for our beliefs to be correct.  And further­more, it is far more likely that beliefs will be correct if they are allowed to be freely reached.  Beliefs formed without a context of freedom are empty beliefs. 

This is the underlying justification for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:  freedom of speech and press and religion.  Why?  The First Amendment is an expression of a faith -- a faith that truth is more likely to prevail in an environment of freedom, and not coercion. 

Our commitment to religious freedom parallels, therefore, our commitment to political and social freedom.  Where there is repression, you are likely to find Unitarians and Universalists in battle against it. 

It is sadly ironic, then, that we Unitarians in America have enjoyed freedom for 200 years, but the earlier Unitarians of history, the Unitarians of Eastern Europe, who have been committed to freedom in religion for twice as long as we have, have suffered much more political repression over the centuries, and are now struggling to survive in the freedom of their land, a freedom that has existed now for less than 20 years, and is still extremely fragile.

Many Unitarians in the U.S. are unaware of our roots in Eastern Europe.  Unitarians remain strong there, even if the political atmosphere over the last few decades has been one of strangling religious voices.  There are in Hungary and Romania whole towns which are overwhelmingly Unitarian, and where the only town church is a Unitarian Church.  The strongest cluster of Unitarians today can be found in an area known as Transylvania, and I would like to offer information on their background, which is also our background.

 

Transylvania.  I fear the word itself is part of the problem.  It is a beautiful word -- and a beautiful land -- which means, in translation, "The Land Beyond the Forests."  Transyl­vania.

The geography of Transylvania has been compared favorably with the Swiss Alps.  It stretches across the Carpathian mountains, and in fact many maps refer to it as the "Transyl­vanian Alps."  It is filled with quaint villages nestled in the valleys. 

Transylvania.  The problem with that word is that most people in this country -- as geographically and culturally ignorant as we sometimes prove ourselves to be -- associate one thing and one thing only with the word "Transylvania."  And that is?  Dracula.

Sometimes when people ask me to talk more deeply about the  Unitarian concept of "freedom," I try to tell them the story I'm about to tell you -- for the whole concept of religious freedom had its birth in the Western World among Unitarians in the 16th century in Transylvania.  As I tell the story, the word “Transylvania” too often interferes because in our minds it invokes visions of vampires and bats.  But it is religious freedom, not vampires, that should be invoked by talk of Transylvania. 

The Protestant Reformation in the 1500's in Europe was not a single movement.  There were two major Reformations.  The one we hear most was in Germany and Switzerland, lead separately by Martin Luther and John Calvin.  But another reformation was also going on in Eastern Europe -- in Poland, in Eastern Germany, and in what has more recently been known as Hungary, Czechos­lovakia, and Romania. 

The Reformation in Eastern Europe was of a very different type than that of Luther and Calvin.  It was far more extreme, and has been dubbed by historians as "The Radical Reformation" or sometimes, "The Left Wing of the Reformation." 

It was in that region that Unitarianism was born -- and along with it many other Protestant religions, such as the Baptists and the Mennonites.  The Protestant Reformation in general was grounded on the principle of freedom -- of breaking away from the authoritarian rule of the Roman Catholic Pope -- but the Radical Reformation took the principle of freedom much further. 

Perhaps the greatest principle we remember from the Reformation is that of "the priesthood of all believers."  This attitude, promoted primarily by Luther, succeeded in questioning the authority of the Roman Church; but Calvin and Luther could only take freedom so far, and no further.  Once they were freed from the reigns of Catholicism, they themselves instituted their own authoritarian approaches to religion. 

The wars of the Protestant Reformation instituted the policy that each local prince would decide the religion for his subjects.  If a new Prince brings a new religion, the religion of that region would be expected to change.  But, for Luther and Calvin who accepted this system, there was no sense in which freedom -- the priesthood of all believers -- extends politically below the level of the Prince. 

That was not the case in certain important pockets of Eastern Europe.  There, the Radical Reformation took the principles of the Reformation to the most extreme conclusion.  And there Unitarianism -- a religion grounded on the principles of freedom  and reason -- took root for the first time since Unitarian heretics were banished by the Church a thousand years before. 

One major advocate of Unitarianism was Faustus Socinus, who preached throughout the area, including Transylvania, but he eventually settled in Poland, and had his major influence there.  

This morning I am speak of another Unitarian reformer, one who even today is revered among Unitarians in Transylvania as the founder of Unitarianism.  While we were there, the congregation was preparing for a great celebration the following Sunday honoring the anniversary of his death 427 years ago.  His name is Francis David. 

Francis David was minister in the largest church in the largest town in Transylvania, the city of Kolozsvar, also known in recent times as "Cluj" by the Romanians.  He began life as a Catholic, but began his ministry as the head of the Lutheran Churches of Hungary.  Later he headed the Calvinist Churches of Transylvania.  As he took over the Church in Kolozsvar, his theology became increas­ingly Unitarian, and over the course of his ministry there, virtually the entire town converted to Unitarianism.  He eventually became the head of all Unitarian churches in Transyl­vania. 

Today Kolozsvar (Cluj), is the headquarters of the Unitarian Churches of Transylvania, and there it has a Unitarian university, seminary, and even a bishop. 

A recent leader of Unitarians in Transylvania, the late Dr. Janos Erdo, was minister of the Unitarian Church in Kolozsvar when he wrote about his predecessor, Francis David, this way:  

 

 "In his view, the reforms of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin had been incomplete and largely confined to less important changes in theology, liturgy, and organization.  At the same time, in carrying out their reforms, they had set bounds to the freedom of human experience and further religious development.  For them (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli), the reformation of the Church was complete. 

"Francis David, however, considered that the work of the Reformation must be continued and extended.  Semper reformanda was for him an eternal principle.@

 

Erdo then described David's religious views, which, by the end of his ministry, look not too different from Unitarian views today.  While he revered Jesus for the religion he taught, David refused to accept Jesus as a God.  But the greatest contribution of David, according to Erdo, had to do with freedom.  Erdo writes: 

 

"The Unitarian reformation represented the most progressive religious ideology of the 16th century.  It was not satisfied with denial of the Trinity, but in the spirit of the gospel created fundamental humanist principles also, such as toleration and freedom of conscience." 

 

Francis David counted among his admirers the new King of Transylvania, John Sigismund, who took the throne in 1561, at the age of 21.  His father, King John Zapolya, had been a Catholic, though somewhat at odds with the Pope.  His mother, Isabella, was nominally Catholic with strong Protestant leanings.  Through the influence of Francis David, King John Sigismund became a Unitarian -- the only Unitarian King in history, though his reign was short-lived.    

John Sigismund is responsible for one of the most dramatic moments in our Unitarian history.  It is an event and a story that can rival almost any religious legend in the world.  That event is captured in a famous picture, which hangs in all Unitarian Churches in Transylvania, and a copy was discovered here at All Souls by the Partner Church committee.  You can see it now in our Social Hall, at the east end of the North wall.  The story is this: 

King John was interested in religion, and particularly issues of religious freedom.  In January of 1568, he called together represen­tatives of various religions to a debate in the city of Torda.  The Catholics, the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and the Unitarians all showed up.  Francis David spoke for the Unitarians, and was known widely as among the most eloquent speakers in the land.  One Unitarian historian, Edward Darling, described the scene this way:

 

"In a very tense atmosphere, full of suspicion and fear, with feelings running high on all sides, the condi­tions of the debate were agreed upon and judges appointed.  The king and the whole court were present, and the debate -- if one can believe the record -- lasted ten days, beginning each morning at five o'clock. 

"In our day, Unitarians have no hesitation in arguing all night; but one wonders how big a crowd could be collected before cock-crow for a week and a half without interruption.  It is no wonder that this is considered the greatest debate in the entire history of Unitarianism." 

 

David, to be sure, was the clear winner. 

Such debates were not unusual in Reformation Europe.  The pattern was, of course, that the winners would receive special favors and privilege, and the losers would lose favor, perhaps be outlawed or banished from the kingdom. 

What David requested as reward for his victory was only this: complete religious freedom for all religions throughout Transyl­vania.  King John was persuaded by David and granted his request, and issued the following proclamation on January 6, 1568 [January 6 continues to be celebrated among Transyl­vanian Unitarians as a special religious holiday.]: 

 

"The preachers should everywhere preach the gospel, according to his own belief, and the community might accept it or not.  Nobody should compel it, as this would not ease anybody's soul, but the community should have the right to keep such a preacher whose teaching it likes.  None of the (religious authorities) or others are allowed to do any harm to the preacher, no one should be hurt for his religion....  Nobody is allowed to threaten anybody with prison or with expelling him from his place of teaching." 

 

So here we find the first declaration of complete religious freedom in Western history.  It is the legacy of our Unitarian heritage, coming directly from Transylvania.  If it had taken hold, if it survived and spread, it would be a far different world we would be living in today. 

Unfortunately, such freedom did not last long.  King John died in an accident a few years later, and a bitter struggle for the throne ensued.  The Catholics succeeded, and religious freedom was abolished.  Unitarianism became illegal outside of two towns, Kolozsvar and Torda. 

Francis David, needless to say, was in trouble.  He was eventually arrested for the heresy of denying the Trinity.  A trial was held, and he was found guilty.  Though many in power wished to execute him, he was sentenced to life in prison, and died only after a few months in the dungeon of a castle in Deva.

 

The drama of Unitarianism in Transylvania continued over the years.  After issuing the first decree of religious freedom, Unitarians were never again allowed to practice their religion freely in Transylvania. 

For a thousand years, the region of Transylvania had been part of Hungary, not Romania. However, after the world wars of the 20th century, the region of Transylvania was removed from Hungary=s borders by the Allies, and given to Romania as a punishment to the Hungarians and a reward to the Romanians.  Over the years, Romanians have settled the region, but Hungarians remain the largest ethnic minority in Transylvania.  Romania=s population in modern times is about 23 million people, 2 million of whom are Hungarian, most of them living in Transyl­vania.  Some 80,000 of those Hungarians are Unitarians -- it's the largest group of Unitarians outside of North America.  It is vital to understand that  Transylvanian Unitarians are not Romanian, but rather an oppressed Hungarian minority within Romania.  

Over the years, as the Hungarians were increasingly oppressed under the Romanian majority, some 10,000 Transylvanians, including many Unitarians, fled across the border into Hungary.  One of those refugees was the great modern composer, Bela Bartok, who became a member of the Second Unitarian Church in Budapest. 

Also, after the second world war, Romania came under communist rule and became one of the so-called Iron Curtain countries.  From 1965 until the fall of communism, Romania had been ruled by a dictator named Nicholas Ceausescu.  Ceausecscu and the leaders of Romania were not pleased with this Hungarian ethnic group which did not identify with Romania.  A plan was developed for a form of "ethnic cleansing," though not quite as extreme as genocide.   There’s was a cultural cleansing.  The government banned Hungarian language in schools, theaters, libraries, museums, books, and newspapers.  Hungarian Unitarians were not allowed to sing their Hungarian hymns.  Unitarian leaders over the years were arrested and imprisoned, some even executed.  Many Unitarian congregations were centered in small Hungarian villages throughout Transylvania, and Ceausescu began a program of bulldozing those villages to rubble, destroying homes and churches that served people for centuries, and forcing the residents into urban high-rise apartments.  All church possessions, other than the church buildings themselves, were nationalized.  It was not safe to be a Hungarian.  It was even more dangerous to be a Unitarian Hungarian. 

David Gyero, a Unitarian minister from Transylvania who has spoken here at All Souls a few years ago, expressed the situation eloquently: 

 

We Transylvanian Unitarians are among those who are seen as aliens in our own country, enemies of the dominant Romanians and a scourge in society.  Think about this:  our Unitarian ancestors were the first people in the world to proclaim religious tolerance and freedom of conscience as law.  It was in 1568 in Torda, when John Sigismund was the Unitarian King of Transylvania.  He had the power to force Unitarianism on others; instead, he offered them the right of choice.  Yet today, it is we, his descendants, who are the targets of ethnic cleansing and religious intolerance in our own land.  (We still await) the renewing Spring, but there is fear and concern on our faces.  After 400 years since proclaiming it as law, we still wait for tolerance. 

 

The Unitarians of Transylvania seem to look at this recent era as a continuation of religious oppression over several centuries since their Edict of Toleration was rescinded following the death of King Sigismund.  During that period, there were ministers and lay leaders of Unitarian churches who were killed during worship services.  One modern Transylvanian Unitarian minister, Mozes Kedei, reflected on their history this way. 

 

Only the most faithful people remained Unitarians through centuries of hard history.  In my former (church), centuries ago, when the village was compelled to give up the Unitarian faith, the lay president of the congregation (responded) this way:  "I and my family would rather die than to give up the Unitarian faith."  Through these people our faith survived.  Through centuries of persecution, of depravation of our rights, we learned well the lesson of history:  we could survive only if we help and love each other.  There remains a proverb from those times:  "They love each other like Unitarians." 

 

Almost miraculously, there are still entire villages in Transylvania which are Unitarian -- the Unitarian church being the only church in the town.  Above the door or pulpit of each church is the motto of Francis David, the simple saying, "Egy Az Isten," [pronounced Edge Oz Eeshten, it means "God is One"].  This phrase identifies a distinguishing mark of Unitarianism in affirming divine unity rather than trinity. 

When, in 1989, most of the communist world had opened to freedom, Romania remained one of the last holdouts.  Since the fall of Ceaucescu, much of the severe threat has calmed, but our Unitarian cousins in Transylvania remain poor, and are struggling to keep their lives, their culture, and their churches afloat.  Their status as Hungarians still marks them as an ethnic minority subject to discrimination.   Their status as Unitarian marks them as a religious minority. 

 

Since the 1920s, Unitarian churches in the United States have had "sister church" relationships with Unitarian churches in Transylvania.  During the years of communist rule, much of that connection died as the region became closed to outside contact.  But since 1989, the UUA created the Partner Church Council to encourage not only institutional ties, but personal ties between American and Transylvanian Unitarians.  It is clear that those courageous Unitarians of Transylvania are continuing to struggle for survival, and that the economy of the region remains poor and volatile. 

            Some years ago, All Souls became a partner church to the Unitarian Church in Sepsi St. George in Transylvania.  Over the years, our Partner Church Committee here has helped raise money that supported them in building a new church building, and contributing college scholarships to young members of the church who could not attend college any other way.  Other means of support have been given, and about a dozen of our members have visited there over time the last six or eight years.  Their minister, Istvan Kovacs, has also visited here.  

            There are now over 100 partner church relationships between American Unitarian and Transylvanian congregations.  Largely because of those partnerships, the future of Unitarianism in that region looks more promising than it has for four centuries.  The people there taste freedom for the first time in memory. 

            Partnership is not just financial support – it is human relationship, a sense of being partners in the struggle for religious freedom and reason in the world.  Transylvanian Unitarian minister David Gyero, whom I mentioned earlier, said it this way to an American audience: 

 

            “During these years of search and rebuiliding, in the midst of social and economic struggle or nationalist and intolerant threats, it is vital to know that we are not alone, that there is a larger community out there to which we belong and which empowers and energizes us.  There is need for many tings in our lives, but nothing is as important as the living sisterhood and brotherhood.  In our [438] years of Unitarian history, we were almost always oppressed and persecuted – and intolerance and hate flows toward us even today.  Now when we must concentrate our forces to make a difference, we need you to be part of this process.  Before you do anything, just be there – that is the basic teaching of partnership.” 

 

            It was good to see the progress of our partner church since our first visit five years ago.  More personally, it is exciting to be inspired by the efforts of Unitarians who for over 400 years, in spite of personal and social persecution, have nurtured a religion of freedom.  In the context of that story, there is no surprise that the spirit which led African American slaves to compose songs of freedom can be found among Unitarians of Eastern Europe who lived for so long under oppressive conditions. 

 

The story of Unitarianism in Transylvania is a powerfully moving one, and we should be honored by our association with their courageous and proud history.   We owe a great deal to our Unitarian heritage in that region, including the most precious of all legacies, the religious freedom we cherish, the legacy of religious freedom and tolerance the whole world now longs for and needs. 

 

 

READING

From “The Premise and the Promise: the Story of the UUA:

By Warren Ross

 

        The eighty thousand or so Unitarians in the Transylvanian section of Romania, who despite persecution, poverty and isolation have maintained the (500 year old) faith inspired by Francis David that North American Unitarian Universalists also cherish as part of their heritage.  Never was their suffering greater than in the twentieth century, when they were subjected successively to Hungarian fascism, Nazi domination, and the consequences of World War I when the Allies transferred their territory from Hungarian to Romanian control.  Next there followed a communist dictatorship that was hostile to all religions as well as determined to stamp out Transylvania’s Hungarian language and ethnic identity.  This effort went so far as to threaten to bulldoze the villages where most of the Unitarians lived so as to force the residents to move into more readily controllable towns.  And, of course, it made contact with the West difficult, even dangerous. 

        But the link was never entirely broken.  It goes back to 1825, when the Transylvanians sent congratulations to William Ellery Channing on the founding of the American Unitarian Association.  When World War II broke out and the United States was still neutral, the Unitarian Service Committee tried to provide what help it could.  After the war, North American Unitarian Universalists began to realize that not only did the Transylvanian Unitarians need our help in their struggle for sheer physical survival, but that we had much to learn from their example of courage and persistence.  Unitarian Universalists who drop out because they are offended by one Sunday sermon might consider how they would bear up if their faith were challenged by the secret police of three successive tyrannies. 

        (After the war, contact with Transylvanian Unitarians were briefly reestablished.  Contact began in earnest after the fall of communism in 1989.)

        There was a severe shortage of minister since the Ceausescu dictatorship permitted only two or three students a year to enter the theological seminary.  Some thirty to forty congregations had no clergy at all, and many of the remaining ministers were long past retirement age. 

        Also, while people no longer disappear, Hungarians and Romanians are still not treated equally.  For instance, Unitarian youth cannot attend high school unless they pass an exam in Romanian.  Sheer economics also play a role in the population’s sense of isolation.  Some 90 percent live in villages that have changed little over the past 400 years – farming communities ranging from 50 to 750 people, raising cows, hogs, sheep, chickens, geese, rabbits, sugar beets, and potatoes.  Of course this stability also has a positive side.  Some of the villages have churches that became Unitarian in the sixteenth century, and have remained so ever since. 

        When they realized the Unitarians’ desperate need to restore their village churches or to build new ones in the cities. . . the UUA appealed to North American congregations to “adopt” Transylvanian churches. 

        As soon as Ceausescu was overthrown, UUA President William Schulz and Moderator Natalie Gulbrandsen led a UU delegation to find out first-hand how North Americans could help.  After great difficulty in obtaining visas, they arrived in March of 1987.  Despite the dictator’s overthrow, Gulbrandsen discovered, not much had changes.  “When I looked out the plane when we landed at Kolozsvar, there wre guns aiming at us from every direction.  It was not a very good welcome.”  Later – attesting to the continued efficiency of the secret police – when she mentioned to her husband in the privacy of their hotel room that she missed American toilet paper, some rolls were delivered the next day. 

        More to the point, it was an extremely emotional trip.  “The people were so moved to see us, Gulbrandsen recalls.  After one service at which she spoke, “as we were coming out of the church, they were waiting for us, just to touch us.  And when we went to Torda (the site of King Sigismund’s diet), they said, ‘We are very ppor and we have no money for a gift for you, but we have something that is very dear to our hearts.’  They had gone u high into the craggy mountains and had picked edelweiss to give to us.  I still have it.” 

        Reflecting on the spirit of partnership, Leon Hopper quotes Albert Schweitzer:  “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.  Each of us has some cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lit the flame within.”  In many North American UU congregations, that flame has been lit by their Eastern European partner church.  As of the start of 2000, the number of partner congregations totaled at least 160 in Canada and the United States, and some 224 in Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.  Now the Partner Church Council is considering how the model might be applied not only in Poland, but in the Philippines and in India. 

        According to John Gibbons, parish minister in Bedford, Massachusetts, and current council president, hundreds of Unitarian Universalists have by now visited Transylvania, and well over a million dollars has gone to the denominations European partners.  Unitarians in Romania, he adds, still feel very much like an endangered minority as the government persists in trying to move ethnic Romanians into Hungarian language areas. . . . 

        Gibbons is especially impressed by the impact trips to Transylvania have had on UU teenagers.  “When they stand in the pulpit where Francis David stood and hold the communion ware that David held, that experience of touching their own history has a profound effect.”  These are not pen pal relationships, he stresses, though they might start that way.  “These are bonding experiences for mutual enrichment.”