Our Partner Church is 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 Church 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 the minister, Laci Nagy, and wife, Gizi Nagy, visited Winchester for ten days. Twenty-two Winchester adults and youth then visited Marosvasarhely in summer 2010, touring Prague and Budapest also. In 2017, Rev. Heather Janules went to Marosvasarhely with other WUS

WUS has also supported seven university-level scholarship students from Marosvasarhely. 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 helped 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.

Coming soon: More information about…

• Scholarships
• Bells
• Visits
• History of Transylvanian UUs