Correspondence, reports, proceedings, minutes, and printed material can be found in this small collection.

The Papers of John Torok consist primarily of correspondence with some legal or ecclesiastical documents. Torok’s correspondence centers largely on his own efforts to serve as an ordained person in the U.S. Episcopal Church. The material has value to understanding the complexity in ecumenical relationships in the inter-war period. The various legal, diplomatic, medical, and academic documents, including depositions, transcripts of an interrogation that Torok received at the hands of the Economic Warfare division in 1942, and the confession of William Emhardt of the National Council regarding his attempt to undermine Torok in 1924.

Torok’s writings in this collection are primarily ecclesiastical and relate to Count Michael Karolyi, who was briefly the leader of the First Hungarian People’s Republic, 1918-1919. Torok had served under him in the State Department.

The Emhardt papers consist primarily of correspondence and minutes and reports of organizations with which he was connected, specifically the Christian Unity Foundation and the Anglican and Eastern Association. Records from miscellaneous committees and organizations of which Emhardt was also associated, including the Committee for Church Work Among Foreign-Born Americans, round out the collection.

This is a small group of the Commission’s minutes and reports. Of note is a 1931 report by Frank Gavin on the condition of the Church in Europe and the Middle East, which was filed with the Committee on Ecclesiastical Relations as it was then known.