On the 456th anniversary of the promulgation of the Law on Religious Freedom, on Saturday, January 13, at 11 a.m., a celebratory service was held in Cluj.
At the beginning of the church ceremony, the representatives of the various denominations read biblical ideas related to the ideal of religious freedom.
The pulpit service was performed by Mária Rácz and Zsolt Norbert Rácz, pastors of the Unitarian Parish of Cluj-Napoca, and the cantors Erika Kiss and Enikő Pusztai performed the duties of the choirmaster. In his church address, the pastor highlighted today's message of the 456-year-old resolution of the Torda Parliament, which is embodied in the interdependence of denominations.
In the twenty-first century, cooperation must determine the relationship between religions -
the statement of the Hungarian Unitarian Church quoted the speech. The ceremony continued with welcoming speeches. Ciprian-Vasile Olinici, State Secretary of the State Secretariat for Church Affairs of Romania, addressed the audience first. In his speech, he said that, taking into account the experience of the denominations and their different public participation models, as well as their full spiritual and cultural vocation, the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs treated and will continue to treat as a priority the recognition and highlighting of the historical and current contribution of the Romanian religious denominations.
They pay attention to and support all religious denominations in Romania and try to build the best possible relations of trust and partnership with them, considering that ethnic and religious diversity is a resource that Romania values and values and is a sign of spiritual, cultural and social vitality. . RMDSZ president Kelemen Hunor said in his speech:
"We know that faith is a gift from God, but to say it in 1568 required political courage. At the same time, a lot of work was needed for the decision declaring freedom of religion, even in a tolerant environment. Even today, we experience that we have to fight every day to ensure equal freedom and to live according to each person's own traditions, not only in our own country, but also in our wider environment, in the European Union.
The great lesson of the 1568 decision is that by relying on each other and accepting each other, we can progress, we can be successful, we can build. This is the heritage that we must preserve and pass on."
János Nagy, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office, testified as follows:
"We believe that respect is one of the most basic things that one person can give to another, one community to another, one nation to another. We think what Prince Zsigmond János and his court also thought at the time: the diversity of our views is replaced by the unity of the heart. If Europeans want to understand what Hungarians and Central Europeans think about Europe, they should come here, to Transylvania, to Cluj. Because Transylvania was built on this basis of patience".
The ceremony ended with a speech by István Kovács, the head pastor of the Hungarian Unitarian Church, who
"And the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor 3:17) based on biblical thought, he explained that the miracle of the proclamation of religious freedom was able to happen because the spirit of the Lord was there, because the legislators of that time were able to turn to God, because they were able to look down on human society from God's height, when they realized that the faith cannot be forced because it is a gift from God.
Imbued with the spirit of the Lord, the representatives of the various reformation movements realized that freedom is a gift of grace which, according to God's will, cannot be achieved by wresting it from each other's hands, but only by giving it to each other.
Featured image: Participants at the religious service held on the occasion of Religious Freedom Day in the Unitarian Church in Cluj on January 13, 2024. The Transylvanian Parliament held in Torda in 1568 enshrined the right to freedom of conscience and religion for the first time in the world on this day, thus declaring the freedom and equality of the four religions - Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Unitarian. The Hungarian Unitarian Church also counts its existence from this day. MTI/Gábor Kiss
