Partner Church

Our Partner Church - Abásfalva/Aldea, Romania

In 1993, the First Parish in Bedford joined the Unitarian Universalist Association's Partner Church movement. We were assigned the Unitarian church of Abásfalva, Transylvania, Romania as our partner. Predictably, all that most of us knew about Transylvania was that Dracula lived there. At first, we couldn't even find the village on any map. “Now what?” we wondered. “Well, let's find out what they need and send it. Maybe some warm hats and mittens…?”

Early on, we introduced Transylvania - at least the little we'd gleaned from reference books at the Bedford Library - to the children in our Religious Education program. In a “Story for All Ages” during a Sunday morning service, the question was posed:

Suppose you met a person - another kid - from a foreign country, and you found out they didn't speak any English. What is the first word in their language that you'd want to know?

The answers were practical:

I'd want to learn how to say “Hello.”

I'd want to learn how to say “Please” and “Thank you.”

I'd want to learn how to say “Where's the bathroom?”

And then a blessed child piped up with the most basic and most vital suggestion of all:

I'd want to learn how to say “Do you wanna play?”

Over the years, some of us have learned a bit of Hungarian, and some of the Abásfalvans have learned a bit of English. We have found a fluency in mime previously unimagined. More important, we have located the whereabouts of a few translators on both sides who can ease our communication. And a partnership - a true friendship - has evolved.

We have had to learn a lot about each other along the way. For instance, we sent that big box of warm hats and mittens, only to find out that the Romanian customs officials charged a $100 duty on it. Now we take the gifts ourselves - medicine, school supplies, eyeglasses. We have raised money for things like scholarships, a three day long camp experience for village kids, a rebuild and extension of the water system, and of course plane tickets for several Abásfalvans to visit Bedford.

They have brought or sent beautiful handmade gifts: needlework and lace, woodcarvings, wall hangings and pottery. They have also taught us of their history - a Unitarianism that goes back to more than 200 years before Channing and Emerson, a courage and endurance that has seen them through decades of Communist rule, and a strength that endures through poverty and persecution.

We have learned and shared new words, new stories, new histories and a new geography. We have developed a taste for Hungarian goulash and gypsy music. We have welcomed Transylvanian friends into our homes and our hearts. More than 60 First Parishioners have traveled on one or another of the six pilgrimages to Transylvania. We have found that, despite the confusions of time and distance and language, we can make the church bells of Abásfalva and Bedford ring simultaneously. Both Bedfordians and Abásfalvans find themselves, more than ever before, citizens of a larger world.