May 2, 2008
by Christine Yeres
The Reverend Attila Feher travels to the United States this week to visit four churches: two in Manhattan, one on Staten Island, and one here in New Castle, the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer on 120 King Street, just north of Horace Greeley House.
Leigh Pezet, Pastor, Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer
Reverend Feher will preach in English at the 9:30 a.m. service on Sunday, May 11, Mother’s Day. Afterwards, he will remain for a coffee hour during which he will talk about life in Romania and the role of religion and the church there. In particular, he will describe how he and other church leaders nurtured the role of religion and the Lutheran Church in Romania during Nicolae Ceausescu’s brutal communist dictatorship and the eventual fall of communism. The service and coffee hour are open to the general public.
One of the peculiarities of the Ceausescu regime, according to Reverend Leigh Pezet, pastor of Our Redeemer, “was Ceausescu’s policy of allowing only one student per year to enter the seminary system, which cut to a trickle the number of religious leaders, making the church leadership in Romania a very young one today.” Sunday’s visitor, Reverend Feher, is in his late 30’s.
The Romanian’s visit is the result of a partnership between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession of Transylvania, Hungary, and the New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which also maintains a partnership with the Lutheran Church in Tanzania.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org