Exploring the ecclesiastical social history of forced collectivization, the study focuses on Szolnok County as a case study in the context of the Sovietization of rural parishes in the Great Hungarian Plain, and its indirect church policy impact on the religious life the region’s Catholic and Protestant parishes. Concerning the operation of the Clerical Peace Committees and the relationship between the State Office for Church Affairs and party organizations, the research analysed documents from the Propaganda Department of the Hungarian Workers’ Party, apparatus documents by county and district level party committees and the chief ecclesiastical officer of the County Council, as well as the contemporary press. The study presents the societal utilization of various advocacy techniques deployed by the Peace Priest Movement, traditionally depicted as the transmission belt of the state-socialist dictatorship, through the limited platforms of publicity provided by the state. It examines the effects of the relations between individual pastors and the local representatives of power on congregational life and changes in religious tendencies across this denominationally heterogeneous county. In addition to nuancing the historical canon about the tactics and motivational factors behind their cooperation, the study goes beyond the vertical relationship between state power and ecclesiastical society and sidesteps “oppression-suppression” dichotomy to investigate the advocacy capabilities of the middle and lower clergy through the lens of their interpersonal relationships and potential to advocate their interests. The findings are expected to expand our existing knowledge on the socio-historical effects of the waves of collectivization that began during the Rákosi era and offer a more complex approach to the historical evaluation of the Peace Priest Movement.