YMCA world history

George Williams, the founder of the YMCA was born in a small English village in 1821. As a young man he studied economics, and at the age of 19 came to London where he gained employment in the Hitchcock-Rogers Company. It was here that the lifestyle and morals of the other workers imprinted in his life a deep longing for spiritual purity. He organized a prayer fellowship in his room with other Christians.

Later in June 1844 at one of these prayer fellowships 12 young men put into words the basis of the YMCA. Binney, a preacher in London was a great help to them and encouraged them further in their work with testimonies of revival.

Shortly the YMCA spread throughout the whole city. From a moral and spiritual perspective, the rapid spread of the YMCA proved that the young people had a great need for such a movement.

After the founding of the organization in 1855, the greatest event happened, the Paris world exhibition and the first world society meeting. It was here that they accepted the YMCA ‘Paris basis’ which expressed the common purpose of the YMCA throughout the world.

IKE Transylvania: Past and Present   

In Transylvania the first IKE-YMCA group formed in 1902 in Cluj Napoca, (Kolozsvar) under the name of Gabor Bethlen Association. In February 1921.at the initiation of the students the IKE was formally formed. The war and following communist dictatorship curtailed the work of IKE, however in 1989 after the fall of communism the work of IKE began again.      

The IKE-YMCA Transylvania won its present form as a result of a church assembly in December 1993 and was initiated by a group of young students from the Reformed Church Theological College in Kolozsvar. IKE subsequently became a registered youth organization with its head office in Cluj Napoca, (Kolozsvar).

This was a very exciting time of transition for all the former communist countries. For the many Hungarians living in the North Western part of Romania, which is Transylvania, the new changes brought new opportunities for using their mother tongue and culture to reach its young people with the gospel of Christ.