The Partner Church Committee maintains the relationship with the Fellowship’s partner church in Sinfalva, Romania (Transylvania (Erdély)), which was Hungary until after WW I. Sinfalva is about 15 miles from Torda, the birthplace of Unitarianism. The committee raises funds, disseminates information about the origins and history of Unitarianism and its state in modern-day Romania, and encourages contacts between the members of the two congregations.
Contact Gabor Kiss, 201-602-3598 info@gaborkiss.com
Where is our Partner Church?
Here is a map to help you find the continent, country, the county, the city, and finally, the church. Sinfalva_map_2023
Here is the “first contact” letter sent by Paul Ratzlaff in 1993 to the new minister of the Sinfalva congregation. Ratzlaff_1993_letter_English(pdf) First_contact_Sinfalva_1993_Hungarian_2023
9/21/24 – Trip to Transylvania
Click ***here*** for a short report on my recent trip to Transylvania to attend the ICUUW (International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women) Convo 2024 meeting in Kolozsvár, Romania. While I was there I was able to visit Sinfalva twice, since it was only an hour away. On the second visit I was able to show Rev. Pálfi and his wife Ildikó and several other people the YouTube livestream of our Ingathering service, featuring Rev. Sasha in her first time in our pulpit.
Here are some very short video clips of a choir of Ukranian refugee women who sang for us one night in the big Unitarian church in Kolozsvár. They are very short but give you a feel for the joy and energy and also pathos that imbued the performance. It was really extraordinary and powerful, a wonderful experience. Clip 7 in particular is a solo by a woman who was actually hired by the Kolozsvár opera company, singing a folk song that was the basis for Summertime. I think you can hear the echoes.
Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3 Clip 4 Clip 5 Clip 6 Clip 7
Here are two videos about the Convo 2024 meeting. First, a 4-minute video in English Next, a 1-minute video in Hungarian with sorta creepy Gothic music.
8/6/2023 – 30 Years of Partnership Service
The Partner Church Committee led a Sunday Service on 8/6/23 entitled 30 Years of Partnership with Sinfalva . A link to the YouTube video of the service is ***here*** . Check it out, we think it’s pretty good! Here is the Order of Service. A better video of the service is *** here ***, the difference is that the photos from Diana and Don Marks’ visit have been added and also YouTube Chapters have been added. Don’s contribution starts at 35:00 in the video
Beth and Gabor were wearing their embroidered Partner Church shirts. Here is Annette Tyler wearing her embroidered Partner Church shirt, when she and Toby met Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray during General Assembly in Pittsburgh.
These handsome shirts were embroidered by the ladies of Sinfalva. If you would like one, we can send your shirt to Sinfalva to have it embroidered. Contact Gabor to discuss.
3/15/2023 – Learning Hungarian
As a Service Auction offering, four intrepid MUUF-ers were introduced to the Hungarian language in a 90 minute lesson. This included a brief introduction to our Partner Church’s connection to the Hungarian language, and then a quick survey/overview of some of the features and idiosyncrasies of this odd and wonderful language, and especially how it differs from English (and why it is so hard to learn if you don’t grow up speaking it). The video of the lesson is here.
2/3/2023 Christmas Greetings 2022 from Sinfalva, Zoli’s wedding video
We received Christmas greetings and thanks for our gift from the minister Rev. Dénes Pálfi
Christmas_Greetings_Sinfalva_December_2023.pdf
Also, here is a link to Zoltán Pálfi’s wedding video. It is another remarkable video, 6 minutes long. Well worth watching. Zoli is Dénes and Ildikó Pálfi’s younger son. The elder, Csongor, is also married and has one small child.
8/20/2022 Video from Sinfalva
Zoltan Pálfi, the younger son of the minister, has sent this REMARKABLE video of a Confirmation ceremony, held earlier this year. It’s only 2 minutes but it is a wonderful peek into the village of Sinfalva and the religious life there. I urge you to watch, it really is something special. Confirmation_2022_video
In this video you will see drone footage of the village and the church. You will also see a youth confirmation ceremony. The Transylvanian (Hungarian) Unitarians self-identify as a Christian sect. However, since they don’t believe in the divinity of Christ, some other Christians would deny that they “qualify”.
8/11/2022 Partner Church Corner “refresh”
We hope that you have glanced at the Partner Church Corner in the MUUF Library and have examined some of the artifacts which we display there. It has been there for a number of years, pretty much unchanged. This year, as part of an overall cleanup and “refresh” of the Library we are refreshing the Partner Church Corner as well. Here is a picture after the refresh.
In addition, we are dedicating it in honor of two long-time members who passed away recently, Don Price and Judy Oehler (see the two items below).
We have had physical 3-ring binders with paper photos for people to look through. Here are the same photos in PDF form for you to look at whenever you like:
Photos of First Trip to Sinfalva, Summer 1994
Photos of Second Trip to Sinfalva, Summer 1998
Here are some other photo collections which had not been displayed in the 3-ring binder but are being made available now. I will add captions to these collections in time.
Photos of Third Trip to Transylvania, Summer 2001 Mostly of the Unitarian Headquarters in Kolozsvar, also some photos of the Unitarian Bishop
Photos of Fourth Trip to Transylvania, Summer 2004 These are not in order. I took my 13-year-old (at the time) son Andras with me. We stayed in the church guest house, which had since been renovated
In 2001 Gabor left some single-use cameras with the folks in Sinfalva. Here are the photos they made (three different cameras):
Photos from Sinfalva single-use cameras 2001-2002
Here are some other photos sent by the folks in Sinfalva to us:
Photos of wine-making and wall repair – 2005
(More photos will be added …. )
Finally, though, no one it seems can hear the word “Transylvania” without thinking of Dracula. In fact, many are probably surprised that it is a real place, the “land beyond the forest”. Naturally, the Partner Church Committee addressed this enduring association, in a presentation called:
8/11/2022 In Memoriam: Judy Oehler
Judy was a long-time member of the Partner Church Committee. Pre-Pandemic the committee would usually meet at Judy and John’s house. They offered on multiple occasions to host our Partner Church minister and his family for a multi-week visit at their house, and it was a source of puzzlement and frustration that Rev. Pálfi and his wife Ildikó were reluctant to travel.
One vivid memory is that the committee wanted to do “palacsinta sütés” (frying Hungarian crêpes) as a fundraiser. Judy offered her kitchen as a place we could all cook together. We showed up with our ingredients and frying pans, only to discover that she had an inductive stovetop, which won’t burn you, but requires special frying pans, so none of our pans would work. We all had to share her pans of a variety of sizes, so the crêpes came out different sizes. Still delicious though!
Here is a letter Judy wrote to Mrs. Pálfi about her participation in UNOSZ (Unitárius Nök Szövetsége = Unitarian Women’s Association (of Romania), see also below): Letter from Judy Oehler to Ildiko Palfi – 2013
8/11/22 In Memoriam: Don Price
I’m not sure how, but Don heard about the origins of Unitarianism in Transylvania, and decided to travel there in 1990. He and Chica ended up travelling around Romania and actually meeting the Unitarian bishop, Georgy Andrassi, in Torda. Here is a photo of them, currently on display in the Partner Church Corner, in the MUF library. It was an audacious adventure.
Don attended the presentation by Paul Ratzlaff in 1993 where the idea of a relationship with a church in the village of Sinfalva, Romania was first discussed. Don was a founding member of the Partner Church Committee and for the past twenty five or so years, he had participated in our meetings and events and fund-raisers.
Don was the most energetic and faithful member of our committee, even though he had no personal connection with Hungarian culture. He was just fascinated with the history, and the first glimmerings of religious tolerance which Unitarianism of the 16th century represented. Here is a brief history of Unitarianism in Transylvania, written by Don in 1998 for a lay-led Sunday Service we did. The second page is a translation of the Edict of Torda of 1568, adapted for youth, which we recited at that service.
Don also enjoyed the connection with the popular vampire myth, which does have some grounding in history, in the story of Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad the Dragon, called “Vlad Dracul” in Romanian. Don usually brought a bottle of vampire wine, which is a red wine that looks like blood, I guess, to our Partner Church Committee meetings at Judy and John Oehler’s house.
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.
Christmas Greetings 2020
Christmas greetings from our Partner Church minister Rev. Dénes Pálfi for 2020 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