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Picture from Summer 2008 Partner Church visit
Who are these Partners? They’re members of a large Unitarian congregation in Marosvasarhely, Transylvania, a part of Romania heavily populated by ethnic Hungarians. Transylvania was the sixteenth century birthplace of Unitarianism. Ethnicity and religion have combined to place present day Transylvanian Unitarians at a disadvantage in a society that still struggles to recover from forty years under communism. Because the Romanian government offers few social services, our partner church provides financial assistance to those out of work, a support group for abused women and children, and in other ways goes far beyond what we expect from churches in the United States.
What does a Partner Do? Most important, we make reciprocal visits that foster mutual understanding and create lasting friendships. Small groups of Winchester Unitarian Society adults traveled to Marosvasarhely in 1994, 1997, 2000, and 2006. Thirteen Winchester adults and youth made the trip in 2007 and, in the summer, 2008, sixteen youth and adults from Marosvasarhely, including minister, Laci Nagy, and wife, Gizi Nagy, visited Winchester for ten days. Following this growing trend, twenty-two Winchester adults and youth returned to visit our partner church in summer 2010, touring Prague and Budapest also. We have also supported seven university-level scholarship students. Five have graduated (Emoke in pharmacology, Botond in law, Lorand in music and Orsi & Moni in nursing). We continue to support Lorand in graduate school, Timea in medical school and Zsolt in pharmacology. We have also been helping our partner church support their student minister Marton. Finally, for over a decade, the Society has sent the proceeds of its Christmas Eve collection to its partner church.
What’s New with our Partners in Marosvasarhely?
An energetic group of women lead by our partner church’s minister’s wife Gizi Nagy and our friend Dr. Zsuzsanna Szabo will be hosting the Second International Convocation of Unitarian*Universalist Women from October 4-7th, 2012 in Marosvasarhely. This convocation is the second international meeting of UU women from liberal faiths committed to initiatives to improve women’s lives worldwide. They are expecting women from all over the world including the US and India. We are hoping several WUS women will attend this convocation. The following is the planning group’s vision for the convocation:
BELIEVE TOGETHER - Honor our Unitarian heritage; share our faith stories and how we live our values in the family and in the community.
THINK TOGETHER - Learn about: the four pillars of human development theory; the new UN Women entity dedicated to improving the status of women worldwide; efforts to prevent family violence; and programs to ensure educational opportunities for girls.
SING TOGETHER - Make time for yourself: meditation practices and other ways of coping with stress; honor the choices we make as women.
ACT TOGETHER - Live through the global economic crisis; learn how to count and value women’s uncompensated labor; and explore the challenges facing the worldwide micro-credit and finance industry.
CHANGE TOGETHER – Define our partnership across cultures; maintain local values and culture in a global community; develop women’s leadership skills; and use the democratic process for community improvements.
If you are interested in more information, visit www.icuuw.com.
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