Historically, Transylvania was part of Hungary - save for a brief period of time as an independent kingdom in the sixteenth century. After the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, Transylvania was awarded to Romania. Almost all of the surviving Unitarian churches (which at one time had numbered over 500 and now is about 160) in East Central Europe thus became not only a religious but also an ethnic minority in the vastly enlarged Romanian state. In the nineteen twenties the old American Unitarian Association instituted a "Sister Church Program" to match American with Transylvanian churches because for a time it looked as if the persecution of our co-religionists would entirely wipe out Unitarianism. After some time the "Sister Church Program" was nearly forgotten. The problem was finances, nor the expertise to adequately supervise the rapidly expanding program. It had never really had "foreign missions" and therefore had little experience in dealing with people with different cultures and histories than our own. The UUA decided to work with Dr. Judit Gellerd. Judit was the daughter of a famous Transylvanian Unitarian minister, Imre Gellerd, and had been living for some time in the United States. She was passionately committed to the cause of saving Transylvanian Unitarianism and had the knowledge and contacts in Transylvania the program desperately needed.