President Novak: Hungarian nation fragmented but ‘together in spirit’

Novak acknowledged members of the local Hungarian community for fostering and enriching their Hungarian identity and Hungarian language, and for passing on that identity to their children in their church, communities and families.

The Hungarian community has held together to show, in Australia, too, that there is not only a Hungarian present, but a Hungarian future, she said.

While churches are being repurposed or demolished in Western Europe, some 3,200 churches have been renovated and 200 built in areas in which Hungarians live, she added.

Novak said Hungarians were bound together by their Hungarian identity, the Hungarian language and their shared Christian faith.

Bishop Zoltan Balog of the Reformed Church in Hungary, who delivered the sermon at the service on Sunday, said the new church was “built with the sacrifice of local Hungarians”, adding that they had financed 80 percent of the investment cost.

Novak also participated at the inauguration of the renovated Hungarian House in Marsden.