H.E. Ambassador Katalin Kissné Hlatki bid farewell to the retiring Calvinist pastor Béla Zsold in a ceremony at the Ambassador's Residence on July 17, 2026. In her farewell address, she said: “There are services that are written in the history books, and there are those that are written in the hearts. Pastor Béla Zsold’s work in Bucharest left a deep mark on both. When he took over the leadership of the Calvineum Reformed Church in Bucharest on October 1, 2002, he not only received the keys to a church, but also a special mission.
During his service, Béla Zsold considered another key task close to his heart, in addition to the daily organization of the spiritual life of the Hungarian Reformed community in Bucharest: the preservation, cultivation and worthy presentation of the community’s rich history. He knew that knowing one’s roots could only give strength to live up the future. In recent decades, Béla Zsold has not only maintained but also made this community flourish, forming a bridge between the values of the past and the possibilities of the future.”
