Can you find place where the Golgota Budapest church meets? It’s a down town church so it is just on the street. It is not one of the historic church denominations so there is no “church” building. But there is a state of the art coffee shop on the ground floor in front of an old theater area which where the church comes together in three gatherings on Sunday and again two or three times during the week. Still haven’t found it? It’s the round awning to the right of the table umbrella. Once you have experienced it, I don’t think you’ll miss it again. The view below is what you see as you round the corner.
This is inside during a service. It looked pretty much like this for the conference.
My morning session was on women in leadership – a MOST controversial issue, though not as much here. The range in Evangelicalism is from Egalitarian (all offices and ministries open – gender is not an issue) to Male Elder (Elders are men, but all offices and ministries open to non-elders may be filled by men or women) to Male Teacher (women must not teach or have authority over men in the gatherings of the church). The church here is mostly Male Elder, which I am happy about since that’s my position. The discussion was intensely biblical and followed raptly. Pam Markey, a legend in the Calvary world, followed with practical suggestions and then we did the Q & A together.
I went back to our flat to fetch Sherry for the afternoon session. Fortunely the bus system here is easy to navigate – all busses along the main road so we just get on any of them. She joined for the sessions on handling discouragement and depression. In her gentle pastoral way, she quickly connected with many of the women who wanted her to stay longer!
As the sessions finished, Janni, the pastor of the church told everyone that Wednesday night meant regular church service so be sure to keep close tabs on all your personal belongings. If you close your eyes to pray, please hang onto your purse. It is an announcement I have never heard done that specifically. It says a lot about the range of people who come to this gospel based church.
As we walked back from our lunch, we saw this street painting of the famous TIME Man of the Year from January, 1957. It is the Hungarian Freedom Fighter, people who rebelled against the Communist regime that took over the country at the end of World War II. That occupation would continue after the rebellion was crushed violently, but the memory lives on.