THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HUNGARIAN PENTECOSTAL CHURCH IN HUNGARY
In Hungary, the precursors of the Pentecostal movement were prisoners of war returning from World War I and emigrants returning from America. Among the Hungarian soldiers captured during World War I, some encountered believers blessed with the Holy Spirit while in captivity. For example, István Sipos from Mórichida was baptized and returned home from Russian captivity in 1918 as a believer with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. István Sipos already knew István Sebestyén from Kispest well from the battlefield, who was a member of the Living God congregation at home until he met Imre Mihók. From then on – from the summer of 1926 – his home in Kispest became the gathering place for Pentecostals. In 1919, János Horváth from Visznek also returned home from Russian captivity as a converted man who had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Among the Hungarians who emigrated to America, several came into contact with the American Pentecostal revival, converted, and some returned home to preach the Pentecostal teachings and the good news about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. József Szalai and his wife returned to the village of Darány in Somogy County in 1921 after becoming members of the Pentecostal community in the United States in 1919. Many relatives and friends visited the returning Szalai couple. The main topic of their conversations was the gospel of the God who bestows the Holy Spirit, calling for conversion. More and more people wanted to hear this, leading to regular meetings in Darány. The worship services were followed by significant spiritual movement and blessings. At the first baptism, 26 people received believer’s baptism. In 1923, the first Pentecostal prayer house in Hungary was built in Darány. Later, the pioneering Pentecostal preachers in Hungary almost all visited and worked there for longer or shorter periods.
The organized Pentecostal mission in Hungary was prepared by Imre Mihók’s work around the Bakony area. Imre Mihók, originally from Bakonycsernye, also came into contact with Pentecostals in America as an emigrant. After his conversion, he returned home from Detroit with his wife. They arrived in Bakonycsernye in the spring of 1926. They talked about the necessity of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, its signs, and their experiences among their relatives and Baptist acquaintances. The first gathering was on the second day of Easter 1926. News of Imre Mihók’s work, blessed with God’s special power, spread quickly in the area. In 1926, Mihók spent only a few months in Hungary, but during this short time, he visited many places. The effectiveness of his work is evidenced by the fact that several of the later leading figures of the Hungarian Pentecostal movement became suitable instruments of God for proclaiming the Pentecostal message through the blessings received through him. The first Pentecostal congregations were particularly blessed by God, growing both in number and in experiencing miraculous events. It was rare for someone to leave the prayer circle of the congregation without being healed. Imre Mihók also supported the spread of Pentecostal beliefs with significant literary activity, publishing tracts one after another. Based on information received about Imre Mihók, F. Dávid Rároha and his wife joined the Hungarian Pentecostal work. The Rároha couple arrived in Hungary from America on August 28, 1927. They bought a printing press and published the first newspaper of the Hungarian Pentecostal movement, the Apostolic Faith, every five weeks. They visited and established congregations, taking over the leadership of the Kispest congregation. Their main task became creating the church unity of Pentecostal congregations in Hungary. The first Pentecostal church organization was named: Congregations of God in Hungary.
The founding conference of the denomination took place from February 5-9, 1928, in the central prayer room at 6 Villany Street, Kispest. According to the minutes, a total of eight congregations accepted the bylaws (Kispest, Cegléd, Bakonycsernye, Bakonytamási, Darány, Csetény, Öskü, and Somogy in Baranya County), and officers were elected for one year. As a result of the election, F. Dávid Rároha became the president. After the founding conference of 1928, the Rárohas were not only the ideological leaders but also the democratically elected leaders of the Hungarian Pentecostal movement. At the annual conferences, more congregations joined the alliance, so in 1929 there were 15, in 1930 there were 20, and at the 5th Conference in 1932, when the alliance’s name was changed to “Alliance of Congregations of God in Hungary,” the church organization included 70 congregations. From 1932 onwards, István Siroky, József Tomi, and József Fábián were the leaders of the Hungarian Pentecostal movement for many years.
As early as the 1930s, the Pentecostal community had social institutions caring for the elderly and orphans. During the socialist era, these had to be “offered” to the state.
On December 2, 1939, the Hungarian Royal Minister of the Interior issued decree No. 363.500/1939. VII.a. “On the termination of the activities of sects endangering the interests of national defense.” Along with several other small churches, the worship services of the Pentecostal congregations were banned. From then until the end of World War II, Pentecostal congregations operated under the protection of the Lutheran, Baptist, and Methodist Churches. As a result of this period, after the war, Pentecostal congregations continued to operate in several denominations (Evangelical Pentecostal Church, Evangelical Christian Congregations, and Primitive Christian Denomination). In 1962, the Evangelical Pentecostal Community was formed from the merger of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church and the Evangelical Christians. The Primitive Christian Denomination continued to operate as an independent church.
From 1967, the Evangelical Pentecostal Community trained its pastors at the Free Churches’ Council’s Institute for Pastoral Training, and from 1991 at the Evangelical Pentecostal Community Bible College. Today, this school operates as the accredited higher education institution Pentecostal Theological College. Since the summer of 1985, the Pentecostal Church has operated a rehabilitation center in Dunaharaszti, and later in Budapest on Cserkesz Street. On October 31, 1987, the community opened its home for the elderly in Kadarkút. Utilizing the opportunities provided by the regime change, Pentecostal congregations were among the first to open elementary schools. In 1995, the Evangelical Free Churches’ Association was founded, with the Pentecostals as founding members. The church, changing its name, has been continuing its activities since 2011 under the name Hungarian Pentecostal Church. The Hungarian Pentecostal Church is a recognized established church by the Parliament. According to the 2011 census data, it is among the few churches whose membership has not decreased over ten years but has increased by 15%. It is also characteristic of the church’s congregations that many young people are present at their services and actively participate in church ministries.
Today, the Hungarian Pentecostal Church operates several church-maintained schools nationwide, providing daily social care to tens of thousands of people through its institutions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it built a school and provides food and medical supplies to more than a thousand residents of hospitals, leprosy colonies, and orphanages through its foreign mission. Domestically, the Pentecostal Church performs one of the most active works among churches serving Roma through its National Roma Mission, with strong ecumenical cooperation. The church is also a member of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Hungary, expressing its ecumenical commitment, as Jesus prayed for His followers to be one.
THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH IN THE WORLD
The Hungarian Pentecostal Church is part of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, which has approximately 500 million members worldwide. Theologically, the Pentecostal movement was significantly influenced by Methodism and the revival-holiness movements of the 19th century. In 1900, a young Methodist minister in the United States, Charles F. Parham, read the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles with particular attention. Comparing his own ministry to that of the apostles, he was astonished and questioned himself, “Where are the miracles, the healings?” He concluded that the early Christians had a secret that neither he nor his church knew. To uncover this secret, he opened a Bible school for volunteers in Topeka, Kansas. Parham was familiar with the second blessing of revival movements, the “sanctification,” which always centered on the encounter with the Holy Spirit. Thus, he searched for the unmistakable evidence of this central event, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The students studied the Acts of the Apostles and independently recognized that the sought evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues. They discovered that in three out of the five biblical cases of being filled with the Holy Spirit, this could be directly, and in two other cases indirectly, proven. They decided to pray from morning until evening for the outpouring of the Spirit. They did so the next day, and in the evening, a girl named Agnes N. Ozman asked Parham to pray for her with the laying on of hands. Parham complied, and the girl began to speak fluently in tongues that were not understood. This happened on New Year’s Eve of 1900. Within a few days, several others received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Parham’s disciple, W. J. Seymour, an African American minister, spoke about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a small church in Los Angeles. After his service, a woman invited him to preach at her house. Three days later, on April 9, 1906, the listeners were filled with the Holy Spirit during the sermon, praying and singing in tongues. Soon, they purchased a building to hold their worship services. The building at 312 Azusa Street became the most famous place in the Pentecostal movement. During the more than three years of revival, many people experienced the grace of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit here. Outside of America, the Pentecostal fire independently ignited in several other places around the world. The Armenian Presbyterian Church and India experienced renewal through the Holy Spirit. In Chile, a Pentecostal revival began within the Methodist Church with the help of Pastor W. C. Hoever. In Europe, a strong Pentecostal movement started in the Scandinavian countries, influencing the western part of the continent as well.
In the 1960s, Pentecostal renewal began within the Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. Pentecostal denominations maintained good relations with these renewal groups. These relationships provided a solid foundation for Pentecostals’ ecumenical collaboration with other Christian churches. In the last decades of the century, a new charismatic revival emerged, independent of both mainline church renewal and Pentecostal denominations. In the new millennium, there is an increasing desire and willingness for cooperation among mainline, Pentecostal, and charismatic communities representing the renewing work of the Holy Spirit.