wfn.org | LWI 2009-035 European Christians Must Offer Alternative to Worship of Money

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European Christians Must Offer Alternative to Worship of Money
Lutheran Consultation Meets in Budapest 20 Years after the Fall
of Communism

BUDAPEST, Hungary/GENEVA, 9 July 2009 (LWI) – Two decades
after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, Christians are
now challenged to offer new values in a society governed by the
worship of money, Rev Marianna Szabo-Matrai told the
approximately 30 representatives from Lutheran World Federation
(LWF) member churches at the consultation "Church and State in
Societies in Transformation" in Budapest, Hungary.

Preaching at the opening worship of the 26-29 June LWF gathering
at the Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University, she described
how young Hungarians today believe they must "reach the top and
become rich." They have learned that they need to be first - to
see their peers as adversaries and triumph over them, she noted.

If necessary, "[this] fight must be hard and harsh," said
Szabo-Matrai, deputy bishop of the southern district of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary. Along with this goes "the
idol of the post-socialist times, the honor of money."

"This is what we have taught them," she said. "And in the
meantime we did not pass on our own values - friendship, the need
for fellowship, embracing each other and mercy."

Eastern Europeans feel that they need to run faster and worry
more than their northern or western counterparts, Szabo-Matrai
remarked. They are often tired and depressed. It is hard to
accept that "it is crazy to exploit ourselves excessively."

In a greeting on behalf of the Hungarian host church, Professor
Tibor Fabiny described how the global economic crisis had hit
Hungary hard. The downturn had led to the rise of an extremist
political party in the recent elections to the European
Parliament, he said.

"The experience of crisis, once again in modern history, has
resulted in the sudden emergence and strengthening of populist
and dangerous tendencies in the political discourse, the
intensification of right-wing radicalism," explained Fabiny, a
Lutheran and professor of English literature and hermeneutics at
Budapest's Karoli Gaspar University of the Hungarian Reformed
Church. "And this is not what we wanted 20 years ago."

In 1984, Budapest hosted the Seventh LWF Assembly, the first
time an LWF assembly had taken place behind the Iron Curtain,
Fabiny noted. "Then no one dared to dream that just in five short
years the totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe would collapse
as a pack of cards," he said. "Is this not a clear sign that not
human beings, but our creator, the Triune God is in charge of
history?" 

The Budapest consultation concluded a three-year study process
examining the relationships between church and state in the
Europe that has emerged since 1989. It followed workshops in
Moravske Toplice, Slovenia; Svaty Jr, Slovakia; St. Petersburg,
Russia; and Leeds, United Kingdom. The study was organized by the
Europe desk of the LWF Department for Mission and Development
(DMD).

The LWF has 43 member churches in Europe, to which approximately
37 million Christians belong. The Central and Eastern European
region comprises 15 member churches with 1.44 million members.
(506 words)

A contribution by Stephen Brown, managing editor of Ecumenical
News International, who reported on the consultation for LWI.

>*        *          *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
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of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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