{"id":318,"date":"2014-08-27T10:44:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T10:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/08\/27\/in-hungary-amended-religion-law-recognises-seventh-day-adventist-church\/"},"modified":"2014-08-27T10:44:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T10:44:46","slug":"in-hungary-amended-religion-law-recognises-seventh-day-adventist-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/in-hungary-amended-religion-law-recognises-seventh-day-adventist-church\/","title":{"rendered":"In Hungary, Amended Religion Law Recognises Seventh-day Adventist Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

28 February 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States<\/strong><\/span> [Bettina Krause; TED]\u00a0A difficult saga for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hungary took a new turn this week when the nation\u2019s lawmakers voted to restore the denomination\u2019s official church status.<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s parliament amended the country\u2019s controversial \u201cLaw on Churches\u201d February 27 to expand the list of officially recognized churches from 14 to a total of 32. Among other faith groups added to the law were the Methodist Church, the Pentecostal Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Hungarian Islamic Council.<\/p>\n

Tam\u00e1s \u00d3csai, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hungary, said the vote concludes months of uncertainty for both church leaders and members. Under the Law on Churches, first passed in July last year, 14 denominations retained their traditional legal status while some 300 minority religious groups, including the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were \u201cde-registered\u201d and invited to reapply for church status. The Hungarian government said the law is part of its broader efforts to shore up the country\u2019s struggling economy, and is aimed at preventing sham religious groups from claiming rights and privileges extended to churches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe past six months have been challenging,\u201d said \u00d3csai, speaking just minutes after parliament voted on the amendment. \u201cBut throughout it all, we haven\u2019t felt alone. We\u2019ve experienced a tremendous sense of support from our worldwide church family who\u2019ve been praying, along with us, that God\u2019s purpose will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bertil Wiklander, president of the Adventist Church\u2019s Trans-European Division, welcomed the news, saying the vote allows the church in Hungary to look to the future with renewed purpose and energy. \u201cThe Hungarian Seventh-day Adventist Church has a long tradition of community service through its houses of worship, education programs, and welfare and public health initiatives,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very pleased the government of Hungary has recognized this rich heritage, and that our church\u2019s many fine ministries for the public good can continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiklander also commended church leaders in Hungary for their \u201cbalanced, persistent approach in dealing with a complex political and legal situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we join our brothers and sisters in Hungary in giving thanks to God for leading them through what has been a tremendously difficult time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Raafat Kamal, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Trans-European Division, called passage of the amendment \u201can immense relief for all those who\u2019ve been working tirelessly for this outcome.\u201d But he also noted that the Law on Churches has stirred considerable international concern since it was passed last year, with some analysts saying it overtly politicizes the religious landscape in Hungary.<\/p>\n

In response to criticisms, the Hungarian government has emphasized that even religious groups without church status can continue to meet, worship, and evangelize — rights which are protected under Hungary\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

John Graz, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Adventist world church, said Seventh-day Adventists in Hungary and around the world have reason to give thanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope,\u201d he added, \u201cis that the government of Hungary will continue to reassess the way it deals with religious minorities. Religious freedom is best served when a government makes no legal distinction between religions, and extends the same protections and privileges to all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Adventist Church in Hungary was first officially recognized by the government in 1957, and today has more than 100 congregations and 5,000 members. It also operates the Adventist Theological Seminary in P\u00e9cel, near Budapest, which serves 66 students. [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail:\u00a0tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the\u00a0communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the\u00a0Trans-European Division.\u00a0
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin\u00a0without need for\u00a0special permission. However, we kindly request that you\u00a0identify\u00a0ted<\/em>NEWS\u00a0whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28 February 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States [Bettina Krause; TED]\u00a0A difficult saga for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hungary took a new turn this week when the nation\u2019s lawmakers voted to restore the denomination\u2019s official church status. Hungary\u2019s parliament amended the country\u2019s controversial \u201cLaw on Churches\u201d February 27 to expand the list of officially … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1586,7,1578],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hungary","category-news","category-religious-liberty-public-affairs","tag-hungary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}