First Parish Transylvania 2015: Goodbye Cluj, Hello Deva

Before we left Cluj, we went to the Unitarian Center, which houses the high school as well as a trove of photos, books and documents about Unitarianism in Transylvania. Best of all, we met one of the first female Unitarian ministers who answered our questions and added to our knowledge not only about Unitarianism but about the Communist era in Romania.

We traveled by van to the Church of the Edict in Torda where Unitarianism and religious freedom was born. Our next stop was Alba Iulia/Gyulafehervar where we visited the 1000-year old church that contains the tombs of King Sigismund, the King who was converted to Unitarianism, and his mother. We had lunch inside a restored medieval castle.

When we arrived in Deva we were greeted by the local Unitarian minister, whose name was also Zoli (Koppani). We took the funicular up to the citadel where Francis David was imprisoned and died. Zoli #2 had the key to the iron door that opens to the spot that commemorates David's life. He read to us the words that David etched on the wall before he died:

Neither the sword of popes, nor the cross, nor the image of death — nothing will halt the march of truth. I wrote what I felt and that is what I preached with trusting spirit. I am convinced that after my destruction the teachings of false prophets will collapse.

A special moment ensued when both Zoli ministers sang a song that was written by David.

Zoli #2 then took us to his new church building, built with the help of their partner congregation in Appleton, Wisconsin. We were impressed with the wall of hand-embroidered artwork given to Deva from other congregations all around Transylvania.