Moldovan, Vilhelm (1927–1989)

Vilhelm Moldovan worked as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, evangelist and teacher in Romania.¹

Early Life and Ministry Firsts

Vilhelm Moldovan was born in January 1927 into a Greek-Catholic family. He was baptized in March 1944, and two months later the Transilvania North Conference (based in Cluj) hired him as an accountant. A few months later, he was sent to Târgu Mureș, and subsequently to Oradea, to work as a missionary pastor. In April 1946, Moldovan started a two-year correspondence course with the theological seminary.

Ministry

After the 1951 conference constituency, Moldovan returned to Cluj and was put in charge of pastoral and music ministry. In 1954, Moldovan was ordained as a pastor.

Between 1976 and1980, he studied theology at the Faculty of Reformed Theology in Cluj, with a B.A. thesis titled “A Theological Evaluation of Johann Sebastian Bach Music.” This was in line with his well-known interest in, and deep knowledge of music.² During his studies, he befriended many theology professors with whom he had long conversations on current issues. In 1981, at the end of his studies, he was called to teach at the Adventist seminary.³ But after only a few years, he was sent back to Cluj, being seen as an inconvenient person by both the communist regime and the church leaders.

Caught by the spell of being notorious and with a thirst for knowledge, Moldovan spent his time in the libraries. In his relations with the authorities, he always expressed his discontent with the interference of the state in church affairs. He rejected the idea of any kind of collaboration with the security services, showing his disapproval toward all those who were trying to reach higher positions in this way.

Evangelistic Efforts and Death

Besides the group of Adventist students of whom he was in charge, Moldovan was in contact with a group of non-Adventist students as well. Among the students of the latter group, there was a girl whose father was a security officer in Cluj. When her father found out about the meetings with the professor, he angrily told Vilhelm that, if he did not stop, he would end up badly. Not long after that, when Moldovan was returning from an evangelistic meeting late in the night, he had an automobile accident and died.⁴ At the time, he had his passport ready to leave Romania and settle in Germany where his children were living. Staging car accidents was a common practice used by security services in such situations. Moldovan “did evangelistic meetings almost every day.”⁵ From 1988 to 1989, the year he died, he carried out 343 evenings of evangelistic meetings, and on that fateful February night, he was returning from meetings in the city of Miercurea Nirajului.

Contribution

Vilhelm Moldovan was constantly involved in the formation of young people for ministry. He organized numerous occasions for training young people for doing mission, and he taught theological courses to young people in Cluj, together with Alexandru Timiș, then president of the Cluj Conference in the 1980s.

Moldovan delivered courses about Seventh-day Adventist history, the history of Christianity, homiletics, and Hebrew. In the 1980s, Moldovan ran a second unofficial theological seminary attended by over 100 young people from across Transylvania. For many, this training represented a reference standard for erudition and spirituality.

Sources

Modoran, Gheorghe. Biserica prin pustiul rosu. Rezistenta si compromis in adventismul din Romania in perioada comunista (1944-1965) [The Church Through the Red Desert: Resistance and Compromise in Adventism in Romania during the Communist Period (1944-1965)]. Pantelimon: Viata si Sanatate, 2013.

___________. “The Romanian Adventist Church under the Communist Regime.” In Contours of European Adventism: Issues in the History of the Denomination on the Old Continent, eds., Stefan Höschele and Chigemezi N. Wogu. Möckern-Friedensau: Institute of Adventist Studies, Friedensau Adventist University, 2020.

Notes

1. Gheorghe Modoran, Biserica prin pustiul rosu. Rezistenta si compromis in adventismul din Romania in perioada comunista (1944-1965) [The Church Through the Red Desert: Resistance and Compromise in Adventism in Romania during the Communist Period (1944-1965)](Pantelimon: Viata si Sanatate, 2013), 559-561.↩

2.  Professors from the Music Conservatory used to borrow from Vilhelm Moldovan vinyl plates to keep up with musical updates. He corresponded with great musicians, in particular with Albert Schweitzer. Many vinyl plates have been copied, thus becoming part of the Conservatory collection of records. Moreover, Vilhelm Moldovan repeatedly lectured at the University House about Albert Schweitzer; he enjoyed engaging in extensive discussions about music, which proved his vast musical culture. Adalbert Orban, interview by author, personal archives.↩

3.  Pastor Adalbert Orban mentioned in an interview about Vilhelm Moldovan: “I met him when I was a student in Cluj. He was an excellent preacher. His lectures were amazing, filled with biblical content. He would always take time to interact with us, students, communicating to us what he had learned new in the field of theology and music.” Interview by author, personal archives.↩

4. Gheorghe Modoran, “The Romanian Adventist Church under the Communist Regime,” in Contours of European Adventism: Issues in the History of the Denomination on the Old Continent, eds., Stefan Höschele and Chigemezi N. Wogu (Möckern-Friedensau: Institute of Adventist Studies, Friedensau Adventist University, 2020), 224.↩

5. Adalbert Orban, interview by author, personal archives.↩