Prayer to God has an exceptionally important role in the life of Transylvanian Unitarians. The following is the official statement of the Hungarian Unitarian Church translated from the Church’s web site (unitarius.org):
“The prayer is an activity when the human soul harmonizes with the divine truth. Prayers can be as many kinds as many kinds of feelings people can generate: it could be asking for something, it could be repentant or joyful. The essence of the prayer in all cases is to open up honestly before God. A supplication doesn’t only exist in words, and for that reason an elaborate formulation of the prayer is not necessary. It is a truthful prayer when we unburden our souls without using words before our Creator.
The important aspect of the prayer is to keep it a real part of our consciousness. We ought to pray with our entire being, and attempt to bring the forming thoughts and feelings to the conscious surface. We have to note here that according to our beliefs those who believe that prayer is a magic elixir, are in error. Those who expect that God will directly fulfill their prayer request will be discouraged when their prayers are not answered. God is not a machine who fulfills prayer requests, but He is the giver of the power, so those things that are truly essential for us will come true.
Because of the need for our conscious partaking, the machine-like murmur of constrained text is not considered prayer. It is our conviction that the daily practice of prayer assists people in the improvement of their living conditions.
Those occasions when the prayer becomes a part of a ritual, we call that ritual worship.”
There have been several collections of prayers published for the Unitarian believers; a few examples are listed here:
- Imádságos Könyv templomi szükségre by Koronka Antal; Kolozsvár 1844.
- Imakönyv templomi használatra by Albert János; Kolozsvár, 1873.
- Unitárius szószék, imádságok gyüjteménye. Edited by Sigmond József; Kolozsvár, 1932.
- Áhítat kis könyve by Szent-Iványi Sándor; Kolozsvár, 1934.
- Szívemet hozzád emelem by Boros György; Kolozsvár, 1943.
- Egy az Isten, Unitárius imák. Edited by Székely Kinga Réka; Székelyudvarhely, 2014.
In addition, many occasions of celebration (church consecration, baptism marriage ceremonies, and others) begin with a prayer.
To my knowledge, no prayer book has been translated into English.