The Hungarian Research Institute (MKI), the Hungarian Baptist Church and the Baptist Charity Service signed a cooperation agreement on Monday in Budapest.

Miklós Kásler, director general of the Hungarian Research Institute, highlighted at the press conference held when the agreement was signed: the Baptist Church was founded in Hungary in 1523, which became a historical church and for 500 years represented everything of value in people's lives.

Primarily faith, morality, education, Hungarian traditions, Hungarian culture in general, he added.

He touched on the fact that the Hungarian government concluded a cooperation agreement with the Baptist Church in 1999 and 2021.

He also stated that the Hungarian Government established the Hungarian Research Institute to cleanse the Hungarian identity, sense of origin, culture, traditions, history and its values ​​of worthless, false and misleading claims. We try to approach truth and value at the highest level of availability, he said.

He emphasized: the goals of the Baptist Church and the institute coincide, the summarization and synthesis of the results of the collaboration represents a higher level of quality.

It has been said that at the end of this year they will jointly organize a conference where church history will also play a role.

János Papp, the president of the Hungarian Baptist Church, emphasized that the Hungarian Baptists, together with their predecessors, the Anabaptists, have been present in the Carpathian Basin for more than 500 years. The history of the Anabaptists and Baptists, as well as the values ​​they added to the survival and development of our people, is an important but still little-known part of the often stormy Hungarian history of the centuries that have passed since then, he highlighted.

He added: it is an honor and also a great opportunity for them to conclude the cooperation agreement. In the future, they will share their research results and launch concrete projects and research.

Among the community's values, he highlighted volunteerism, personal faith, and competence and creativity. He said about the latter in a few words: their predecessors were Anabaptist in the 16th and 17th centuries. were well-known specialists in the 19th century, the work of the so-called Habán court craftsmen was preferred by the noblemen of that time.

The Anabaptists' creativity produced many valuable fruits, including Haban ceramics and ornaments, he added.

Today, the large family of Baptists represents a community of almost 120 million people worldwide, of which community life in Hungary is a part, he said, adding that they have churches in 300 settlements here, and the number of people connected to their community exceeds one hundred thousand.

The self-awareness of this community with historical roots, the education of the next generations, as well as the social common knowledge can be helped by the cooperation between MKI and our church, as well as our main social and aid organization, he emphasized. He emphasized: they highly value the institute's work, to which they would like to contribute with their means.

Csaba Szabó, the general director of education and culture of the Baptist Charity Service, representing the president Béla Szilágyi, said: I want to uncover those Haban, Anabaptist memories in the Carpathian Basin, which are unique in the world. Of the 462 documents found in Europe so far, 400 are found in the territory of the former Hungarian kingdom, of which more than 80 are in Hungary, he said, adding that these memories will be collected and shared in the Baptist knowledge repository project.

This digital library and museum is already available, the knowledge base is expanding day by day, he said, adding that their goal is to publish these documents, make them available for examination and research. With the support of the MKI, the finds from Sárospatak, Esztergom and Sopron can also be examined.

MTI

Cover photo: János Papp, president of the Baptist Church of Hungary (b), Miklós Kásler, director general and honorary president of the Hungarian Research Institute (MKI) (k) and Csaba Szabó, director general of education of the Baptist Charity Service (j) of the MKI, the Baptist Church and the at the signing of the cooperation agreement between the Baptist Charity Service in the MKI building
Source: MTI/Noémi Bruzák