Tuesday, January 26

Lehigh Presbytery

Pennsylvania

When its forty-year-old printing press failed, the Hungarian Reformed Church of Romania found itself without Bibles and hymnbooks. Photo by Janos Antal

Imagine an entire nation of churches whose Bibles and hymnals are so old they are held together by string. This was the case in Romania between the years after World War II and the fall of the dictator Nicolae Ceau¸sescu in 1989.

The Word of God literally dried up. In 1990 the Oradea diocese of the Hungarian Reformed Church bought a printing press and the Word began to flow again. But in 2007 the forty-year-old printing press failed. The Word of God dried up once more, leaving 350,000 believers without any new Bibles or hymnbooks. A new printing press would have cost $80,000.

Romania is the only European Union member without a national ecumenical council, and a much needed consultation series to establish an ecumenical council would have cost $30,000.

The Worldwide Ministries Care Team (WMCT) of Lehigh Presbytery has partnerships with both the Oradea and Cluj-Napoca dioceses in Romania, which together serve about one million believers. The WMCT provided a grant of over $18,000, most of which was used as a down payment toward restarting the printing press operation. The balance funded the first two meetings to advance the creation of the proposed Ecumenical Council of Romania, which will represent fifteen denominations.

The WMCT primed the pump. Other partners have contributed matching funds for the printing press. The ecumenical council is being established. It began with one idea, one small committee, and one act of generous giving. It ended in one act of love that will impact millions of people.

Lehigh Presbytery is composed of 35 worshiping communities with 10,884 members and is home to Brainerd Presbyterian Center.

Let us join in prayer for
Jefferson K. Aiken, Jr., member, GAMC

Presbytery Staff
Rev. Dr. Steven H. Shussett, teaching presbyter
Elder Robert R. D. Nickels, stated clerk
Elder David Boltz, treasurer
Robin Mathias, office manager
Christina Conrad, administrative secretary/bookkeeper
Jen Henshue, camp director
Jay B. Durco, site manager, Brainerd Presbyterian Center
Cindy Schrick, camp secretary

PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Whitney Blair, GAMC
Elder Ben Blake, PILP
Betsy Blocker, PILP

Prayer
Heavenly Father, let us release what is in our hands, planting seeds that when watered will bring forth new rivers of life and hope where tragedy and despair formerly reigned. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Daily Lectionary
Ps. 54, 146 and Ps. 28, 99
Gen. 15:1–11, 17–21
Heb. 9:1–14; John 5:1–18