On behalf of the Reformed Church in Hungary, I greet and welcome all the participants of the 23rd general council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

We are pleased the World Alliance accepted our invitation and chose to hold the 23rd general council in Hungary. During this meeting you will discuss issues that call for action and standing firm on the part of all those who experience and live out their Christian faith according to the Reformed tradition. This is especially important at the turn of the millennium as we are called to experience and proclaim the Reformed Christian faith authentically.

I am pleased that all of you have received the book, Our Church: The Reformed Church in Hungary, which describes our life, history, present structure and the most important areas of our ministry. Therefore, I need not give you statistics and you need not listen to such a list.

We are aware from the New Testament that faith the size of a mustard seed is able to move mountains. To my knowledge, there has never been an event held in the Great Church of Debrecen that would have been able to move the chair of Lajos Kosuth from the area around the Lord's table. The World Alliance is the first body to achieve this. The chair reminds us that in this place Kosuth and the Hungarian Parliament proclaimed Hungarian independence on April 14 1849. Even though this symbol of ambition for Hungarian independence has been moved, I hope that its spirit helps to ensure that our biblical and Reformed heritages are embodied in the results of this meeting.

Let me add one idea to the theme of the general council, I hope that while you are discussing the problems and tensions which delegates have brought here and that while you are considering the context of each member church as well as the situation of Reformed Christians all over the world, that you are truly able to "Break the Chains of Injustice". In this context I would like to quote Lásló Ravasz who is perhaps the most important Hungarian Reformed bishop of the twentieth century. The motto of his volume of sermons reads, "I do not want to solve problems, but to solve and release chains". I trust that nobody will misunderstand this sentence. Ravasz does not encourage us to conceal problems under the veil of false unity and false peace nor does he mean that it is not fitting for Christians to engage in debate. Concerning debates, I will quote another outstanding Hungarian Reformed theologian, István Török, who says, "The problem is not that we are arguing, but how we are arguing". I wish you an exchange of views and deliberations which does not brood over artificial problems but in which you will consider issues and questions that help to reveal the absolute truth of God in our world. Where the Spirit of God is present, chains are really broken by themselves. So, let God's Spirit assist us, so that we are able to observe what is expressed in the Bible - that truth makes us free and therefore that which does not make us free is not really truth.

During worship last Sunday, together with the local congregation, the Geneva staff of the World Alliance and the stewards participated in the Lord's supper. I was distributing bread and it was interesting to observe that some partook in the Lord's supper by reaching out to take the bread while others held their hands open to receive it. I believe this general council will have the blessing of God as long as these two attitudes, seen in the gestures of conscientious taking and of acceptance, complement one another so as to express the experience of the community of the beggars of grace and of those whose actions are inspired by that very grace. May God bless the work of the general council.