A lot to be thankful for ...

November 2007 Newsletter

Hi All,

Each year the confirmation class learns about a lot of things, including the history of our church. In just over a year Hus Presbyterian Church will be celebrating its 120th anniversary. We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. In recognition of this I will be reprinting the history of Hus Church starting this month and continuing over the next year.

A History of Hus Memorial Presbyterian Church
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Adapted from a Historical Treatise Written by Charlotte Stelcik

Hus Memorial Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, began as one of two Protestant Czech churches in the city. The building that currently is home to the church is located between J Street SW and Bowling Street SW on 29th Avenue. The actual address is 2808 Schaeffer Drive SW. Why give a different location than the actual address? Because Schaeffer Drive SW is only about 3 blocks long making it difficult to find. To really understand the hardships and the prosperous times that this church has undergone, we must go back into history and trace the steps of the Czech Protestant people to this day.

European Beginnings

The religious situation among the Czechs has been unique, for among no other immigrants who have come to the United States, have there been so many people who professed religious liberalism. The origin of this liberalism may be traced back to fifteenth-century Bohemia where the followers of Jan Hus sought to correct the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church and to offset Austrian autocracy with Czech democracy. For two centuries following Jan Hus, Protestantism was the dominant religion of Bohemia; then came the defeat of the Czechs in the battle of White Mountain and the subsequent supremacy of Austria and the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Protestants fled to other countries or remained in Bohemia to worship in secret, still clinging to the motto of Jan Hus, “Seek the truth, hold the truth.”

Perhaps it would be well to say a few words here about Jan Hus and his beliefs. To Bohemia Jan Hus is more than a religious reformer; he is the national hero, the great prophet of the Czechs. In lofty idealism and courage as well as in dramatic details, and in his martyrdom, his life was not unlike that of the great prophets of the past, and is even today a source of inspiration to the Czechs. Also they consider the Hussite wars the most glorious periods of their history. Through the moral courage of his convictions and his ideals, and through the influence he exercised, Jan Hus merits a distinguished place among the forerunners of modern thinkers who advocated freedom of thought.

The direct causes of the Hussite movement were in nature religious, social, and national in character. Among the first causes was the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1419 the Hussites, radicals and moderates agreed on a common program called the Four Articles of Prague, stipulating first, that the Gospel should freely be preached; second, that all mortal sins and other misdemeanors against the laws of God should be prohibited and prosecuted; third, that Holy Communion under both kinds should be taken by all; and last, the priests should abandon all possession of worldly goods and should live up to the teachings of Christ. The Hussite wars are of great importance as the first significant effort made by a whole nation against the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and as the first attempt of its kind in asserting the modern principle of freedom of conscience and of democracy.

In spite of the Hussite movements, Catholicism soon became the prevailing religion in Bohemia, and ninety-six percent of the people professed the faith. After the Toleration Patent of 1781, issued by Joseph II of Austria, religious freedom was granted to Lutherans and Calvinists but not to the Bohemian (Moravian) Brethren. Protestants, Catholics, and Free-Thinkers, made up the Czech immigration to the United States.

In the nineteenth century when a liberal trend appeared in Bohemia, Charles Havlicek, with his anti-clerical ideas led a movement against the Roman church and some of the liberal-minded Czechs, who had fled from Bohemia during the revolution of 1848, renounced a religion which to them was associated with the Austrian autocracy. They gladly welcomed the American idea of the separation of church and state.

Because of Him ~ Terry

" Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Psalm 100 (NIV), A psalm. For giving thanks.