Celebrating 450 years from the Edict of Torda (1568)
The 450 year old historical event Edict of Torda (1568) was remembered in Brussels. On January 23 MEPs Csaba Sógor, Gyula Winkler and László Tőkés, together with the Hungarian Unitarian Church, organized a conference and opened an exhibition in the European Parliament.
The speakers of the conference were: Emőd Farkas, chief administrator of the Hungarian Unitarian Church; Lehel Molnár, archivist; Dávid Gyerő, town clerk, president of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists; Enikő Fogarasi-Rüsz, university professor from Cluj-Napoca; Norbert Zsolt Rácz, Unitarian minister from Cluj-Napoca. The invited persons presented 16th century Transylvania from different perspectives, describing power constellations and religious wars of the time.
“The purpose of the conference and exhibition is to show good example coming from Transylvania about free practice of religion, given the fact that Transylvania was almost a century ahead of Europe in this matter” - said Csaba Sógor. The RMDSZ MEP considers it is important to remember the Edict of Torda and the decree on the freedom of religion having European importance.
The exhibition with the same title was opened following the conference by Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness, vice-president of the European Parliament and Zoltán Róbert Bálint, administrative councilor of the Unitarian church. The representatives of the Hungarian Unitarian Church handed the vice-president - also responsible for religious affairs - an initiative drafted by Transylvanian churches that aims to gain acknowledgement of the Edict of Torda in the European Parliament and asks for the EP to declare January 13 as the Memorial Day of the Freedom of Religion.
