According to the information of Bertalan Havasi, the Deputy State Secretary heading the Press Office of the Prime Minister, the meeting was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén and Reformed Church pastor-appointee of the Prime Minister Zoltán Balog.
The Prime Minister spoke in words of praise about the Evangelical Church’s educational and social activities, and highlighted that in these areas the parties are traditionally good partners.
At the Tuesday meeting, they reviewed the already negotiated agreement between the Hungarian Government and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hungary about to be signed which will replace the agreement concluded at the end of 1998, with regard to the social and legal changes that have taken place since, Mr Havasi said.
Mr Orbán welcomed the fact that the agreement satisfactorily takes care of the funding of religious and moral education of children in small groups in state schools, and guarantees the financial conditions for the operation of the Evangelical-Lutheran Theological University as well as for the extension of its educational programme portfolio. The government will support the establishment of a church-operated hospital in Budapest, the refurbishment of some fifty parish churches, the renovation of 30 congregational facilities, the extension of nursery schools, and the preservation and wider popularisation of the Evangelical heritage, the press chief informed the press.
