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The Calvin Synod is an acting conference of the United Church of Christ, composed entirely of Reformed, or Calvinist congregations of Hungarian descent. Unlike much of the UCC, the Synod is strongly conservative on doctrinal and social matters, and many members of the "Faithful and Welcoming Movement," a renewal group acting to move the UCC in a more orthodox direction, belong to this body. [1]
Hungarians began to emigrate to the United States toward the end of the 19th century. Like other immigrants of Protestant faith, they brought their Bibles, catechisms and hymnals with them, in order to pray and worship in their native language. Some congregations were independent, and some become affiliated with the German Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The attempts to create an independent denomination failed at first.
However, the independent churches formed a Classis (the equivalent of a presbytery in Anglo-Saxon Presbyterian churches) in 1896, relating to the Reformed Church in Hungary. After the First World War, the Hungarian Reformed Church was no longer able to provide money to the American immigrant congregations. The Reformed Church in Hungary assigned its Classis churches to the German Reformed Church in the U.S, then known as the Reformed Church in the United States. The RCH and the Classis signed the Tiffin Agreement in 1921. Under the terms of the agreement, despite the formally presbyterian structure of the RCUS, the Classis congregations were given relative autonomy to practice their own traditions without outside interference. Several congregations, though, rejected this effort and created the free-standing Hungarian Reformed Church in America. [2]
The Classis churches were organized into a non-geographical separate RCUS synod, the Magyar, similar to those previously provided for German-speaking congregations in the Midwestern U.S. and urban areas in the Northeast. In 1934 the Evangelical Synod of North America and the RCUS united. The new group was known as the Evangelical and Reformed Church and incorporated Lutheran doctrine, as well as Reformed.
Although the Magyar Synod rejected the Lutheran doctrines brought from the ESNA and maintained its commitment to stricter, more dogmatically Calvinistic theology, the E&R Church continued to honor the Tiffin Agreement and opted to allow the Synod to keep its distinctive teachings within the general framework of the new denomination.
Even though the Synod was the sole E&R synod to disapprove of the merger of the Congregational Christian Churches with the E&R Church to become the UCC, officials of the new denomination chose to continue the RCUS and E&R arrangement and exempt the Synod from the mandated geographical realignments of CC conferences and E&R synods into UCC entities, in the early 1960s. The only change that occurred was the renaming of the Magyar Synod to the Calvin Synod. [3]
The Synod has consistently rejected the UCC's predominantly (if not exclusively) liberal theological and political stances, especially its recent acceptance of homosexuality as an acceptable Christian lifestyle. When the 2005 General Synod passed a resolution calling for the equality of same-sex couples with those of traditional male-female marriages, the few Synod congregations that were actively participating in UCC functions outside the Synod discontinued doing so and re-directed their loyalties, along with their sister churches, toward the North Carolina-based F&W organization. As of 2013, the Synod's future in the UCC is still uncertain.
In 2019, the Calvin Synod joined the Hungarian Reformed Church. [4]
The Synod has four classes, Classis East, Classis West, Classis Lakeside and Classis Central. [5] The Synod reported 33 churches and some 4,000 members in 2006. [6] According to the synod website there are 25 congregations in four classes. [7] The bishop is the Rev. Csaba Krasznai. [8]
In 2012 the Calvin Synod’s Conference Council the members of the Council established the Vision and Church Growth Committee. It was requested and approved by the Calvin Synod Conference. [9]
Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. It emphasizes the sovereignty of God and the authority of the Bible.
Presbyterianpolity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply. Groups of local churches are governed by a higher assembly of elders known as the presbytery or classis; presbyteries can be grouped into a synod, and presbyteries and synods nationwide often join together in a general assembly. Responsibility for conduct of church services is reserved to an ordained minister or pastor known as a teaching elder, or a minister of the word and sacrament.
Continental Reformed Protestantism is a part of the Calvinist tradition within Protestantism that traces its origin in the European continent. Prominent subgroups are the Dutch Reformed, the Swiss Reformed, the French Reformed (Huguenots), the Hungarian Reformed, and the Waldensian Church in Italy.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of 2021, it has approximately 3.04 million baptized members in 8,724 congregations.
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 152,317 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,700 churches and 745,230 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united on June 25, 1957, to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Lutheran, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014, the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members, primarily in the U.S. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent, or 1 million adult adherents, of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.
The Christian Reformed Church in North America is a Protestant Calvinist Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1857 and is theologically Calvinist.
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The United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) is a theologically conservative federation of Reformed churches founded in 1996. Many churches joined the URCNA after splitting from the Christian Reformed Church in North America denomination.
Mercersburg Theology was a German-American theological movement that began in the mid-19th century. It draws its name from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, home of Marshall College from 1836 until its merger with Franklin College in 1853, and also home to the seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) from 1837 until its relocation to Lancaster in 1871.
The Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. The present RCUS is a conservative, Calvinist denomination. It affirms the principles of the Reformation: Sola scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola gratia, Sola fide, and Soli Deo gloria. The RCUS has membership concentrated in the Midwest and California.
The Evangelical and Reformed Church (E&R) was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1934 by the merger of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) with the Evangelical Synod of North America (ESNA). A minority within the RCUS remained out of the merger in order to continue the name Reformed Church in the United States. In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the majority of the Congregational Christian Churches (CC) to form the United Church of Christ (UCC).
The Reformed Church in Hungary is the largest Protestant church in Hungary, with parishes among the Hungarian diaspora abroad. Today, it is made up of 1,249 congregations in 27 presbyteries and four church districts and has a membership of over 1.6 million, making it second only to the Catholic Church in terms of size. As a Continental Reformed church, its doctrines and practices reflect a Calvinist theology, for which the Hungarian term is református.
The Evangelical Synod of North America, before 1927 German Evangelical Synod of North America, in German (Deutsche) Evangelische Synode von Nord-Amerika, was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States existing from the mid-19th century until its 1934 merger with the Reformed Church in the United States to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. This church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to create the United Church of Christ.
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt)) are an orthodox Calvinist federation of churches. This church body arose in 1944 out of the so-called Liberation (Vrijmaking) from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, when many pastors and members refused to go along with the General Synod's demand to hold to "presumed regeneration of infants" at their baptism. Klaas Schilder played an important role in the Liberation. There are currently 270 affiliated local congregations with a total of about 120,000 members in 2016.
The Eureka Classis was part of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS). It existed from 1910 to 1985. From 1940 until in 1985 the Eureka Classis served as the continuing RCUS as the rest of the denomination had merged into the new denomination, the Evangelical and Reformed Church. On May 6, 1986, the Eureka Classis was called to order and immediately dissolved to form the Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States.
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A Formula of Agreement is an ecclesiastical agreement between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Reformed Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, establishing full communion with each other.