History
Project Harvest Hope was born with the felling of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent demise of the Ceausescu dictatorship in Romania. The region of Transylvania, home to ethnic Hungarians, Jews, Germans and Gypsies, was ceded to Romania twice, once by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I and again after World War II. The Hungarians make up the largest single ethnic minority within a national boundary in Europe.
Because of a unique twist in world history, Transylvania is also home to the world's oldest Unitarian churches, dating to the sixteenth century. When the Iron Curtain arose following World War II, Unitarians in this part of the world became oppressed as an ethnic and religious minority and were isolated from their international faith community. Ministers and other church leaders were imprisoned and silenced; villages and churches were destroyed, young people left behind their families and their heritage in search of a better life. There were so few chances for international dialogue that North American Unitarians were only barely aware of this suffering and loss. With the renewal of travel after the Berlin Wall's fall, North Americans began to visit the towns and villages where approximately one hundred of these churches had survived. There they found a broken economy as well as broken spirits.
In the midst of poverty, joblessness, ethnic violence and a general atmosphere of despair, there were some beacons of hope. A new, younger generation of ministers and lay leaders who had not been defeated by totalitarianism was reaching out in partnership to North Americans. Among these leaders were Levente and Éva Kelemen, he barely out of seminary and she still in college. Their ministry in Oklánd, in the Homoród Valley of eastern Transylvania, began in 1993. North American church leaders were quickly attracted to the village because of the young couple's reputation for bravery and vision.
Looking to precedents for cooperative agriculture from Transylvania's past the Kelemens dared to dream of a way to transform the despair into hope.
From Oakland to Oklánd
From 1993 to 1996, church leaders from Oklánd, Transylvania and Oakland, California-matched as sister congregations because of the similarity of their names-exchanged visits and developed plans for small-scale enterprises. The hope-to create an organization that would acheive the following goals:
- Promote sustainable agriculture in the region;
- Be appropriate in scale, in order to sustain cultural and religious traditions as well as the natural environment;
- Provide jobs and contribute to a thriving economy so that young people would not need to move to the cities, nor to emigrate;
- Be led by the local people, who would determine policy and direction for the projects;
- Provide technical support for similar projects between partner churches throughout Transylvania.
The project began in and has been sustained by the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, whose previous ministers, Rob and Janne Eller-Isaacs provided the essential leadership and inspiration. Beverly Smrha of that congregation (and Pacific Central District Co-Executive) has chaired with skill and tenacity the Transylvania Task Force of the Oakland church, out of which Project Harvest Hope was born.
Precedents
Francis Balázs was the great innovator of the pre-World War II generation of Transylvanian ministers. Balázs, educated at the Unitarian seminary in Berkeley (now Starr King) and assisted by his American wife whom he met in Berkeley, gave his life to his conviction that cooperative economic development could save Transylvanian villages and thus help revitalize the Unitarian church. (Balázs' vision and work are chronicled in the biography by his wife Christine Frederiksen Balázs Morgan, Alabaster Village.) In a way, Project Harvest Hope is a living memorial to the dedication and international partnership of Francis and Christine Balázs.
There was also a precedent in the Homoród Valley for agriculture that worked for the people. Starting in the 1930s, the prosperous Réka Cooperative was headquartered here. The cooperative was led by Imre and Borbola Kelemen, aunt and uncle of Levente Kelemen, who were also seminary graduates ministering in the village of Okland. When the communist government decided to close the Réka Cooperative and replace it with state collective farming, the Kelemens refused, and Imre went to prison. From this inspiration flowed the dreams that gave birth to Project Harvest Hope.
In addition to the example of his uncle and aunt, Levente Kelemen had another reason to hope. Less than a hundred miles away, a Swiss foundation connected with the Reformed Church was creating model farms and enterprises. The village of Illyefalva was being transformed by cooperative agriculture and small businesses, as well as innovative civic projects, such as a center for adoptive parents. Illyefalva provided a model of successful economic development in a village, with ideas and expertise that would give rise to big plans for Oklánd and the Homoród Valley.
Illyefalva's stunning success was made possible by Protestant churches in Western Europe in cooperation with the visionary village minister. It is a beacon to other Reformed (Calvinist) villages throughout Transylvania, a source of hope and clear proof that centuries-old village culture can thrive in the twenty-first century. It showed the value of partnership between a Transylvanian village and churches outside Translyvania. Out of such a partnership, came the seeds that grew into Project Harvest Hope.