| Dates | Belief | Life | Liturgy | Catechism | Songs | Bishops and presidents
| Church Ceremonies | Church Holidays | Other activities |
| Purpose | Unitarian creed | Unitarian affirmation |
Church ceremonies: We have two ceremonies based upon Jesus' life:
| when the child became member of the Unitarian church. We give thanks to God for the life of this child and we pray for God's blessing upon this child's life. We urge the parents, godparents to raise this child in Unitarian faith. | |
| this we do in remembrance of Jesus' life, teachings and acts. "Then he took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Luke22,19. (see 1Corinthians 11,24). This urges us to became followers of Jesus. The symbols are the bread and the vine. We have four times communion: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and Thanksgiving. Beside this we have occasionally, like: confirmation, Synod, Church anniversary etc |
Beside these two, we have the following ceremonies:
| a child at the age of 14 confess his/her belief in front of the congregation. This has three moments: confession, the acceptance and communion for the first time. | |
| following the civil marriage, the new couple comes to the church to receive God's blessing and we all pray for their new life and express our good wishes. It is good to start a new life, now together from the church with God's blessing. | |
| a last far a well from a person who left this world for an other one: for the eternal life. We hand over to God his/her Soul to take care as God did in this earthly life. "We do not live for ourselves and we do not die for ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's (God's)" (Rome14,7-8.) |
| we celebrate the birth of Jesus, which is always on December 25th. | |
| Jesus' entrance in Jerusalem Matthew 25,1-9. | |
| the crucifixion and the death of Jesus | |
| we celebrate the eternity of the human soul, Spirit. Even if our body returns to the ground (it is made of dust and dust becomes), the soul, the Spirit lives its eternal life in the afterlife with God, in God (Romans 14,7-8). So Jesus bodily it is not with us, but it is here his Spirit of life. | |
| the victory of the disciple's soul, spirit too and the constitution of the first Christian congregation. The disciples were renewed and strengthened by the Spirit. | |
| our thanks and gratitude to God for the everyday bread, for our joys and sorrows, successes, goods, for life, for what God gave to us. | |
| - | remembering our forbears who started to renew the people' spiritual life and gave the Bible in people's hands. When in 31st October 1517. Luther Márton put his 95 points on the Wittenberg church's gate. |
| - remembrance day | we remember of the life and death of the founder and first bishop of the Unitarian Church, who diet at Deva dungeon on 15th November 1579. |
| respect, love and gratitude for mothers. | |
| - Every Sunday and occasionally weekdays | the day for the rest of the body and the spiritual renewal. The time for praying, going in the church, being loving humans. |
The Order of Service in our Unitarian churches are the following: Beginning Song, Main Song, Prayer, The Lord's Prayer, Song, Reading from the Bible, Sermon, Prayer, Silent Prayer or Lord's Prayer, Blessing, Closing Song.
There are other church events, activities, like: the Francis David Association organizing religious meetings with readings, poetry; the Women Association organizing tea afternoons, handworking, making embroideries, helping the older members and visiting them; the Francis David Youth Association having youth activities: in summer time having the youth conference, organizing summer camps for the children, etc.; many churches have choir; other churches have a group of people who are playing theatre, an other group forming a dance group. In summer time they meet with each other. Beside these the minister and the religious teachers during the year educating the children, this RE program starts in September and end in July. The children from the age of 7 until 12 learning the Bible, stories, Unitarian history, the children of 13-14 year olds learning our Unitarian catechism, this is the education time and preparing for confirmation.
- their purpose is to pay our attention to our duties and to do good.
- they are an educational instruments, a way leading us toward God, the Kingdom of God, toward perfection.
- their purpose is to express, to take care, create, build in people's heart the disciple, and discipleship, which helps us to become Jesus' followers.
- to remember us of Jesus, his example directing our attention to our duties and helps us to follow our teacher, Jesus.
- to the services and ceremonies we do not attribute miracle maker power and we don't think that through them we can change God's will; more, in ceremonies we give up our will to God's will.
The place of ceremonies and holidays is the Church. Although we express that "The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man hands,..." (Acts 17,24) and "God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4,24), we need a place, a church, to pray in peace, to be with God personally.
Our Unitarian Churches have white walls, big windows to let the light come in. There are no wall paintings and any ornaments on the walls. The components of a church are: the main building and the tower building, mostly built together, but you can find separate too, inside the church you find the banches, in the center is the pulpit, in front of it is the Lord table, the balcony where is usually the organ; in the bell tower are one or two bells.
The ceremonial and service accessories are: Bible, Prayerbook, Songbook, Organ, Communion chalice and bread plate, christening chalice, bells, minister's keip.
Bibliography:
1. Dr. Rezi Elek: Unitárius hit és erkölcstan (dr. Elek Rezi: Unitarian faith and ethics)
2. Négyszáz Év (Four Hundred Years)
3. Unitárius Káté (Unitarian catechism)
| I believe in One God, creator of life and providential Father. I believe in Jesus, the best son of God, our true teacher. I believe in the holy spirit. I believe in the mission of the Unitarian Church. I believe in forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Amen. |
Hiszek egy Istenben, az élet teremtöjében, gondviselö Atyánkban. Hiszek Jézusban, Isten legjobb fiában, a mi igaz tanitómesterünkben. Hiszem a szentlelket. Hiszek az Unitárius Egyház hivatásában. Hiszem a bünbocsánatot és az örök életet. Ámen! |
| I am Unitarian, I live and work in this faith. Jesus is my guide, And God is my help. We, humans, are all brothers and sisters, Our law is one: LOVE. The goal of our work is shared, Happy are those of God's Kingdom. |
Én unitárius vagyok, E hitben élek, dolgozom. Munkámban Jézus a vezérem, Isten a segitségem. Mi testvérek vagyunk mind, emberek, Törvényünk egy, a szeretet, Célunk is egy a munkában: Boldog föld, Isten országa. |
| Dates | Belief | Life | Liturgy | Catechism | Songs |