2023 NOVEMBER
Speech by Hungarian Prez Katalin Novák on Reformation Day in Sydney
Áldás, békesség! Békesség Istentől!
Grace and peace to you from God our Father!
It feels good to say this greeting in Hungarian, fifteen thousand kilometres from Hungary, on Reformation Day.
We arrived in Melbourne, Australia late at night ten days ago. We’ve been here for ten days on this continent, or rather, we have spent our time partly in Papua New Guinea and partly in Australia. For ten days we’ve enjoyed the hospitality of the Australians, but more importantly, for ten days we’ve enjoyed Hungarian togetherness.
It’s been a busy ten days, a relatively long period for a trip abroad. There have been official meetings, there will be official meetings, there have been and there will be governors, former Australian prime ministers, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, politicians, public figures, businesspeople to meet, but in fact, during these ten days we have been following the trail of Hungarians.
Starting with Melbourne, where we had the opportunity to celebrate together the 23 October War of Independence, in a shared commemorative ceremony.
In fact, I was even more privileged than that. On the very day, I visited the Melbourne Olympic Stadium with Cecilia Hartmann, one of the outstanding Hungarian Olympic athletes of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Through Cecilia, we could remember those who had decided to stay in Australia in 1956, and also those who had returned to Hungary to continue their lives under difficult circumstances. But then we also had the opportunity to spend a day together in Sydney, followed by a visit to Papua New Guinea, where again we followed in the footsteps of the Hungarians on Manus Island and Pityilu Island, as also mentioned by his Excellency Bishop Balog. We were so far from Hungary that it is hard even to imagine it in Budapest, and yet saluting the Hungarian missionary who had preached the Word there as a Reformed Christian and had left a mark that is still remembered by the local people 80 years after her tragic death.
I was deeply impressed by the fact that a Hungarian can influence the life of a community in such a profound manner. And then we could spend time with the Hungarians in Brisbane, where we consecrated a church, opened a club for the local Hungarian community, and enjoyed the company and fellowship of the four Hungarian pastors serving there, as well as the fruits of their community-building work. And now we can be together here in Sydney, where we will also have the opportunity to meet the Hungarians with their roots in the Délvidék Region. It moves me deeply that for ten days now, we have been visiting the landmarks left here in Australia by Hungarian life.
Today we are together again. Not just to spend time together, but also to celebrate together. On 31 October, the very day of the Reformation, we can reflect on what is eternal and what is new.
We can think of the eternal and we can think of the new, both as Christian people and as decision-makers, and even as Christian decision-makers.
For it is our task as Christian decision-makers to recognise and distinguish between what is of eternal value and what is renewable and needs to be renewed.
Today, just as five centuries ago in the Age of the Reformers, we are confronted with the same question: how can we renew what is eternal? How to bring about renewal while upholding the original, the essential?
Hungarians have an answer to this even today. In the same way that Albert Molnár Szenczi, Gáspár Heltai or Péter Méliusz Juhász had an answer to this question, we Hungarians have an answer today, because we know, we can distinguish between what is eternal and what needs to be renewed.
We know what is eternal; we are committed to upholding our identity.
We regard our national, linguistic, religious and gender identity as eternal. We do not discard and then replace these treasures with something else. Rather, we renew them again and again, while remaining who we have always been. 175 years ago, 103 years ago, 33 years ago, we had to renew ourselves while remaining who we have always been,too.
And you, who have found a new home here so far from Hungary, and those who live in the Carpathian Basin as members of our national communities in the regions torn away, you have the same task. Here in Australia, you have to be Australian while remaining Hungarian. You must remain Hungarian while becoming Australian.
You must renew while also remaining essentially the same. And I am convinced that the greatest help in doing this can be found in your communities, especially in your families.
Family is the greatest help in renewal and also in preserving and then handing down our heritage. Because family is the foundation of survival and renewal. When we listen to stories from our grandparents, our parents, when we pass on to our children and grandchildren the family stories we had listened to ourselves, when we look at our family tree, when we open the old or new photo albums of our family, when we say or write our family name, we are passing on what is eternal in our family.
This is what keeping the family together across the generations is all about. And those who have children – my husband and I have three children, two adolescents, aged 15 and 17, and a 20-year old grown-up. Those who have children, those who live in a family with children, know that children are not only the key to survival, but also the key to renewal.
It is children who make us constantly renew ourselves, and it is children who constantly renew the family. In this way, the family can be both a means of preserving our heritage and a means of renewal. And this is why we, as members and leaders of the Hungarian nation, see families as an everlasting value that can also be a guarantee of the survival and renewal of the Hungarian nation.
This is why we strengthen families and recognise every Hungarian child, regardless of where they are born around the world. And it is also why we have restored Hungarian citizenship to those to whom Hungarian citizenship is due.
This is why we have put Hungarian citizenship on a nationality basis, and why there are now 1.1 million Hungarians who can enjoy their Hungarian citizenship again. I trust that many of you are among them.
And I’d like to bring back a personal experience that I had in the first days of our stay, when I had the opportunity to meet the Hungarians living in the Árpád Retirement Home in Melbourne. Uncle Laci, who is already in his eighties, told me that the only thing missing for him to be happy, the only thing missing for him to be able to die happy, is if he could get his Hungarian citizenship back while he is still alive, if he could experience the joy of becoming a Hungarian citizen again. Because the restoration of Hungarian citizenship to those who are entitled to it means the renewal of Hungarian national unity and, along with its renewal, its survival.
Thank you for being here and thank you for the opportunity to celebrate together.
What this day and the Commemoration of the Reformation teaches me is that, while we appreciate and rejoice in what is ours, we should also learn to long for what is already ours. This remark by Simon Weil is particularly dear to my heart: let us learn to yearn for what is ours, let us learn to yearn for our Hungarian national identity.
Once again, thank you very much for the opportunity to celebrate together, to remember together, to affirm together what is eternal, and to seek renewal together.
Thank you very much for your attention!
Read also:
Excommunication of Martin Luther and his followers: Papal Bull ‘Decet Romanum Pontificem’
Christian Reformed Church-Henry Beets
Accra Confession of World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC)-2004