Find a Stillness (song #352) in Hungarian
Sunday March 14, 2021 is our UN Sunday service. This year it is a collaboration between UU@UN, Green Earth Ministry (GEM) and Partner Church Committee (PCC). Part of the music is song #352 Find a Stillness sung in Hungarian by our spectacularly talented Music Director, Stearns Matthews. You are invited to sing along in Hungarian too. Here is all you will need:
Here are the sheet music and words. Read the transliterated words as if they were English and it sounds like Hungarian!
Here are the words spoken slowly and carefully in Hungarian for you to emulate.
Here is Stearns singing.
Give it a try! It’s a virtual service, no one can hear ….
UNOSZ Virtual Services
UNOSZ is the Hungarian acronym Unitárius Nök Szövetsége = Unitarian Women’s Association (of Romania). They have a very cute logo and there is also Facebook page here.
It is associated with the International Convocation of Unitarian Women. Read about the history of this remarkable organization here to see that Transylvanian Unitarians are well represented. The wife of our partner minister, Ildiko Pálfi, was an early attendee of the Leadership School for Unitarian women in Transylvania mentioned in the history page. You can read about some of the ongoing projects in Transylvania here.
UNOSZ has conducted two virtual services, one in October 2020 and one in January 2021. The first can be seen here. I’m looking for the English translation of the whole video, but the translation of the sermon only is here. The second was the New Year’s 2021 virtual service in English and Hungarian here. You can listen to an English welcome at 3:48 and a charmingly Hungarian-accented rendition of Come Sing a Song With Me (Jöjj Enekelj Vellem) at 44:20. English translations of the service are here.
Roots Program 2018 and Visit to Sinfalva 2018
2018 is the 450th anniversary of the Edict of Torda (1568). Here is an article in the Winter 2017 issue of UU World about this anniversary. UU_World_450th_Edict_of_Torda. There is also this page from the UUA with additional materials. https://www.uua.org/international/torda450
In honor of the 450th anniversary of the Edict of Torda (1568), the Transylvanian and American Unitarian churches have put together a program to allow partners to explore the other’s beliefs and culture more deeply. Here is a summary of the Roots program.
This experience will culminate in a 5-day program in Aranyosszék, Transylvania (Unirea in Romanian) from July 11 – July 15, 2018. The minister of our Partner Church, Rev. Dénes Pálfi, has invited us to participate and sends his fervent hope that we will be able to.
The Roots program is being held in a village very close to Sinfalva so we will combine participation in that program with a visit to Sinfalva either before or after. The map below shows the location of Sinfalva as well as Torda and Aranyosszék
We have started planning the travel for this summer’s trip. Here is a summary: Travel_outline
Christmas 2015
Here is a letter written by Judy Oehler on behalf of the Partner Church Committee (translated by Klara Kiss) and the response from Rev. Pálfi.
Speaking of Christmas …
Since about 2005 the Partner Church Committee has been conducting an event at the Holiday Party called Incredible Edible Christmas Tree Ornaments based on the Hungarian tradition of “szaloncukor”. Read about it here. Watch a video of kids doing it skillfully here.
October 18, 2020 Zoom Service conducted by UNOSZ:
UNOSZ is a Hungarian acronym for Unitárius Nőszövetség (Unitarian Women’s Association of Romania). They held a service celebrating the 110th anniversary of the organization, as well as the the 20th anniversary of Nők Világa (World of Women) magazine, and the 10th anniversary of the International Women’s Convocation (IWC).
This service was held on Zoom due to the pandemic and was attended by 100 persons mostly in USA and Romania and Hungary. It was conducted in Hungarian but with translation in the Zoom chat. The English translation of the sermon, entitled The Power of Women’s Service is here .
It is powerful and moving, well worth reading.
Székely Áldas Transylvanian House Blessing
A song we have sung several times is #1043 in the teal songbook (here )Székely Áldás or House Blessing. Here are videos of it being sung on November 8, 2015 and sung in September 2009 and sung in October 2012 and played as an instrumental in February 2011 . The instructions in the songbook say to sing it once in English, once in Hungarian, and once both languages simultaneously. Dr. Jim has learned the Hungarian really well (on his own), and if anyone is interested I can teach you easily. Here are the words in both languages.
Székely Áldas Transylvanian House Blessing Hol hit, ott szeretet Where there is faith there is love Hol szeretet, ott béke Where there is love there is peace Hol béke, ott áldás Where there is peace there is blessing Hol áldás, ott Isten Where there is blessing there is God Hol Isten, ott szükseg nincsen Where there is God there, there is no need