Timeline
1841
Scottish missionaries bound for Palestine turn back after one falls off his camel. On their way to Britain they travel through the Austrian Empire, where illness forces them to stay longer and gives them the opportunity to develop ties with the Protestant Archduchess Maria Dorothea. After helping them recover, she urges the creation of a mission station in Budapest where Scottish missionaries can encourage Hungarian Protestants while reaching out to the Jewish community. At her invitation, a new delegation is sent and upon their arrival they encounter Scots and English working on the Chain Bridge.
1841
As a Lutheran member of the mostly Catholic aristocracy, Archduchess Maria Dorothea enjoys religious freedom but all of her actions are observed and she is looked down upon. Longing for a more Pietistic community, and already familiar with Scottish evangelical literature, she promises to use her position to protect the Scottish Mission.
1841-1842
The Church of Scotland’s Jewish Committee appoints Rev. John “Rabbi” Duncan the first missionary in Budapest. Recognising the spiritual needs of English and Scottish bridge builders and their families, he gathers them into a congregation. This arrangement is made possible by his status as Assistant Pastor to the Minister of the RCH’s Pest Reformed Church. Rabbi Duncan started building relations with the Jewish community and its prominent members. He offers personal testimony and distributes Christian literature among Hungarians with the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
1842
John Duncan becomes friends with Israel Saphir, a rich merchant and friend of the Chief Rabbi in Pest, who was on the board of the Pest Jewish school. Through their friendship, Duncan makes acquaintances among the Jews of Pest. Israel’s son, Philip, is among the first baptisms. Due to illness, Philip returns from studies in Karlsruhe to Hungary, where he starts the first local YMCA group. From his sickbed, Philip teaches children, and these efforts later lead to the founding of the Mission School. With other relatives, Israel is baptised in 1842. His other son, Adolf, studies in Scotland and is later ordained as a Presbyterian Minister.
1843
With the Disruption of 1843, the ministers of the Scottish Mission join others in forming the Free Church of Scotland. In David Octavius Hill’s depiction of the first General Assembly of the Free Church, John Duncan can be seen as a man wearing a yarmulke and looking at an atlas. The young boy at the atlas is Adolf Saphir. The Reunion of 1929 resulted in the return of the Scottish Mission to the Church of Scotland.
1846
By 1846, the Sunday School work begun by Philip Saphir leads to the establishment of structured classes where Christian and Jewish boys and girls receive education in German without needing to pay tuition fees. Known as Philip’s school, it faces opposition from the government, Roman Catholics, Jews and many Protestants.
1847-1857
In 1852 the Scottish missionaries are expelled by the Austrian authorities for supporting the Hungarians’ fight for freedom, leaving the Mission to local leadership until 1857, when a new missionary could take up the leadership again. As soon as the war ends, the missionaries return to Pest. Because the Brits left during the war, the English worship services are less frequent, but the school’s attendance increases and colportage thrives. The Scottish Mission loses much support in the city, partly because of the removal and death (1855) of the Archduchess Maria Dorothea from Budapest.
1859
Rev. Adrian van Andel brings a new vigour to the Mission. He is convinced that the foundation of a congregation oriented towards biblically based diaconal work is an indispensable step. He and Theodor Biberauer initiate German language worship at the Széna tér Reformed Church and the school. Van Andel is not ordained, that is why he cannot be the minister of the congregation.
1863
Rev Rudolph König starts work as associate pastor to the minister of the Pest Reformed Church, but in fact he becomes the entirely independent leader of the newly formed German-speaking Affiliated Reformed Church that is to become the hub of Evangelical-Pietist revivalism in years to come. Because the German-speaking Church uses the school’s assembly hall for public service, the congregation becomes an integral part of the Mission, representing major progress towards the Mission’s goal of establishing a relationship with the Reformed Church of Hungary.
1865
After years of discussion in Hungary and Scotland, the Jewish Committee launches a Bursary program for Hungarians and Czech students. The Committee hopes not only to revive the RCH but also to involve the church into the Jewish Mission. The Bursary Scheme for Hungarians is approved in 1863. The first student, Ferenc Balogh goes to Scotland just two years later from Debrecen. He also attends the GA and after his speech money starts to be raised for the next years’ scholarships.
1866
Bethesda Hospital is established and maintained by the German-speaking Affiliated Congregation. It was started by the Scottish Mission with the aim of carrying out diaconal work on a biblical basis. Twenty-two years later, in 1888 the German-speaking Congregation and the Scottish Mission separate from each other officially and this way the Congregation is responsible for the Hospital and the School stays in the care of the Mission.
1868
A plot of land is purchased at Hold Street 17, where a permanent school can be built to replace classrooms used on an ad hoc basis. The school is coeducational until 1904, in which it becomes a school only for girls.
1872
Andrew Thom is sent to Pest to assist Rudolph König with the school. Sensing that the Mission should move out of Pest’s German subculture into the larger culture of Hungary, he puts bigger emphasis on the Hungarian language. The “First Awakening of Home Missions” begins with the Hungarian Sunday School network, the YMCA and YWCA, and other home mission agencies.
1895
With its wide range of activities, the mission begins to outgrow the Hold Street property used since 1869. Rev. Webster recommends selling that building and starts collecting money to build a new home for the Mission. Over the years, he will be recognised with honorary doctorates from Hungarian Reformed Institutions in Debrecen, Budapest, Sárospatak and Pápa. The hall in which St. Columba’s worships today was named after him in 1935.