Twinned with Romania

One of the great things about being part of the Church is the variety of links that brings, and it can be interesting in a particular way when those links are international. Over the past three years now, we, at The Cotteridge Church in Birmingham have had a link with a congregation of the Reformed Church in Timisoara in Romania. I first went to Timisoara in May 2005, returning in May 2006 and October 2007. We were also delighted to welcome my colleague from Romania, Pastor Sandor Balint, together with his wife and son, to our home and church in Birmingham in July 2006. The congregation there is engaged in a major rebuilding programme and our congregation has been able to offer some financial support. There is a lot to be learned from such relationships - and it is important to recognise how different churches need to adapt to their particular contexts. The Reformed Church in Romania is part of the Hungarian-speaking community. Timisoara, to the west of the country, near the Hungarian and Serbian borders, is in an area that has, geographically, switched countries and so this community has found itself in a different place without moving. It also operated, until 1989, under Communism. It was the current Bishop, then a young pastor at the central church in Timisoara (Laszlo Tokes) who played a key role in sparking off the Romanian revolution that made country's contribution to the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. Things have changed a lot, but it remains difficult to function as a minority church serving a minority community. The Hungarian Reformed Church of Temesvar-Ujkissoda, the congregation with which we have our link, takes as its motto "joyful past and hopeful future".