"The service must also be accounted for before God, it must also be done for his glory"

What is a service on the part of the state or in the private sector is a service in the case of the churches.

In kindergartens, the future of the nation and the country unfolds slowly day by day. What happens in the kindergarten will stay with the child forever - said the minister in charge of the Prime Minister's Office at the project closing ceremony of the national kindergarten program of the Reformed Church on Sunday in Kunszentmiklós, Bács-Kiskun county.

Gergely Gulyás emphasized at the Áldás Református Kindergarten: in order for the country to move forward, good kindergartens and good schools are needed everywhere. Furthermore, "there is a need everywhere for communities strong in faith and belonging, which work in the service of goals beyond themselves."

The minister said: the government was able to provide the necessary support for the most important goals even in the most difficult years - after an epidemic, with war next door - as it provided HUF 35 billion to the Reformed Church for the national kindergarten program. The Catholic Church builds, develops and expands 128 kindergartens out of HUF 67 billion, while the Lutheran Church builds 13 kindergartens out of almost HUF 10 billion.

Gergely Gulyás recalled: the basic law fully ensures freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. He acknowledges the fact that Christianity has always had a nation-preserving role in Hungary.

Referring to a 2018 survey, the minister highlighted: more than 80 percent of Hungarians value Christianity, and Christian culture and values ​​continue to "enjoy a high level of support in Hungarian society".

According to Gergely Gulyás, there is a huge demand for the services of the churches. For teaching from kindergarten to university. For social care from people living in extreme poverty to nursing homes. For treatment, from Bethesda Children's Hospital to adult patients to addicts, he listed.

He emphasized: what is a service on the part of the state or in the private sector, is a service in the case of the churches.

There is compensation for the service, while the service must also be accounted for before God, it must also be done for his glory, said the minister.

According to Gergely Gulyás, it is probably due to this fact that in most areas, more people still want to use the services of the Reformed Church than can do so, and this also imposes an additional obligation on the government.

"The obligation to be able to contribute to the creation of the framework in which the church, in accordance with social needs, undertakes and fulfills a public task with its service that carries essential values ​​for future generations," he said.

The minister reminded: in the past 13 years, more than 3,700 churches have been renovated in Hungary and the Hungarian-inhabited areas of the Carpathian Basin, and 200 new churches have been built with Hungarian government support. Of these, almost 1,300 Reformed churches were renovated and 55 new ones were built.

In today's world, this is a clear message in itself, and in today's Europe, it is an opposition to everything that is going on in the West, added the minister leading the Prime Minister's Office.

According to Bishop Zoltán Balog, the Pastoral President of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church, "when we say that religion is the most personal public matter, then it is a confession of faith", and everything follows from whether this is the most personal matter, whether faith fertilizes it or inspires it. does our nationality permeate our lives as men and women, fathers and mothers, grandparents and children.

According to the bishop, the miracle of the Christian faith is that it is personal, communal and universal at the same time. Faith keeps a person in his personal life, keeps the community, the church and the nation. And universality means that "our entire life, our communal national existence, is encompassed by Christ's redemptive love, Christ's redemptive work."

Zoltán Balog highlighted: it is a special responsibility, but at the same time a great privilege, that in the Reformed kindergartens they can pass on to the children what is most important, "the faith, Jesus Christ himself".

He reminded: within the framework of the Hungarian Reformed Church's national kindergarten program, 66 investments have been made since 2018: new institutions were built in 46 locations, existing buildings were renovated and modernized in 18 locations, and facilities were available for modernization in 2 settlements. He said: 24 settlements where there was no Reformed kindergarten service were also included in the program.

Thanks to the government's HUF 35 billion subsidy, three thousand new kindergarten places were created, so there are now more than ten thousand children attending Reformed kindergartens in Hungary. In connection with the investments, more than four hundred new jobs were also created - added the pastor president of the Synod of the Hungarian Reformed Church.

The project closing ceremony ended with the inauguration of a magnetic board modeled after Hungary, representing the locations of the national kindergarten program of the Reformed Church.

MTI