Magyarországi Metodista Egyház
Az idén 50 éves Leuenbergi Közösség dél-európai csoportja Visegrádon tanácskozott az elmúlt napokban. A GEKE közösség református, evangélikus, metodista és valdens képviselői május 10-án a budapesti Luther-Otthonban tartottak úrvacsorás istentiszteletet. A szószéki és úrvacsorai egység ünnepi alkalmán az igehirdetés szolgálatát dr. Korányi András evangélikus lelkész-professzor végezte, aki prédikációjában az isteni Szó és Ige, minden helyen, időben és kontextusban eligazító valóságára mutatott rá.
A metodista egyház közép- és dél-európai püspöki kerületét Novica Brankov újvidéki lelkész képviselte Szerbiából, a Magyarországi Metodista Egyház részéről dr. Khaled László szuperintendens mondott köszöntést, amelyet itt is megosztunk:
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
It is a great honour for me to be here with you to celebrate the half-century anniversary of the Leuenberg community. The Methodist Church is present alongside the Reformed and Lutheran Churches as a little brother. And I think that, as in every family, the presence of a little brother is important here. In a family, brothers and sisters learn from each other, inspire and motivate each other. It is the same in the Church.
We want to build the Leuenberg community, to help it with our particular small church presence, our evangelical thinking, our faith focused on conversion and renewal. The community of Leuenberg was born in 1973, we Methodists joined almost 25 years later, in 1997, thank you for welcoming us. The unity of the pulpit and communion unites us, which is a very important foundation and testimony for ministry to the world.
John Wesley the founder of the Methodist movement himself had a particular openness to other Christian denominations, and did so on Biblical grounds. One of his fifty-two basic sermons, On the Catholic Spirit, based on an Old Testament question proposed by Jehu to Jehonadab: “Is your heart right with my heart as mine is with yours?” … “If it is, give me your hand.” (2Kings 10:15)
Wesley makes the point that we can hold hands, we can move in the same direction, because we are essentially one. We preach salvation in Jesus Christ.
The Methodist spirituality continues to give many signs of this: after joining to the Leuenberg Community in 1997, the Methodist Church was the first to join in 2005 to the Catholic-Lutheran joint declaration on Justification.
In Hungary, ecumenism and especially the protestant cooperation takes many forms. And it did not start 50 years ago. We are now in the Luther-Home, but 100 years ago an important Protestant meeting point was the Luther-Court in Budapest, Rákóczy street. After WWI, the Reformed, Lutherans, Methodists and also the Baptist worshiped more church meetings, prayers, at the Luther-Court in Budapest. That is a longer a story, and a valuable heritage.
We are involved in various unity efforts for more than 100 years. It’s good to see that our communities are not at odds with each other, but experiencing fraternal unity. The 20th century was the century of ecumenism. We hope that the 21st will be the same.
