Baptists in Latvia

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Surname
Latvijas Baptistu Draudžu savienība Union of Baptist Congregations of
Latvia
Basic data
Spiritual direction: Bishop Pēteris Sproģis
Communities
 86 independent municipalities
Baptized members : 6593 (Dec. 31, 2007)
Pastor training: Riga Theological Seminary
Addresses: Office:
Latvijas Baptistu Draudžu Savienība
Lāčplēša 37, Riga, LV
Official Website: Federation of Baptist Congregations of Latvia

There is evidence that Baptists in Latvia have existed since 1860 . The vast majority of Latvian Baptists are united in the Federation of Baptist Congregations of Latvia ( Latvian Latvijas Baptistu Draudžu savienība ; abbreviated LBDS). Its foundation goes back to the year 1881, when the Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian congregations broke away from the Prussian Association of the German Baptist Union and brought the Baltic Baptist Association into being. Some Baptist congregations, mostly Russian-style, are not affiliated with the federation and act as so-called free congregations .

history

Baptism service at Ushawa in August 2010. The first Baptist baptism of Latvia took place here in 1861.
Matthew Church of the Riga Baptist Congregation (built in 1902)

The nucleus of Latvian Baptism was in Memel . A small Baptist congregation was established here in October 1841, which in the following years grew into what was then the largest continental European Baptist church. Ten years after its foundation, it built a house of worship with 2000 seats. The Latvian Fricis Jekabsons was baptized here on September 1, 1855.

Beginnings

Jekabsons was a young ship's carpenter who came to Memel as a job seeker and made contact with the Baptists there. Shortly after his baptism he moved to Kurland and founded a prayer and Bible group in Liebau , the participants of which soon found themselves in the basic Baptist convictions. This circle also belonged Adam gardener (Latvian: Adams Gertners) and his wife, who traveled with nine other Latvians in 1860 to Memel to let there also baptized. This baptism is now regarded as the official founding act of the Baptist movement in Latvia, which was then under Russian rule. Six months later, another fourteen Latvians were baptized in Memel and a few months later another seven people. The first Baptist baptism in Latvian territory took place only a year later. Adam Gärtner baptized 72 believers in a river near Ushawa on October 5, 1861. Just four years later there were over a thousand Baptists in Latvia.

Persecutions

As the movement grew, so did the persecutions, which were primarily initiated by the Evangelical Lutheran church authorities. The third trip to Memel earned each of the newly baptized fifteen strokes of the rod and heavy fines. Later, the visitors to the banned Baptist church services were handcuffed and handed over to the court and sentenced there to prison terms of several weeks. Adam Gärtner was in prison for over a year because of a completed baptism.

Leading personalities from Memel and German Baptists intervened in the Russian government offices in Mitau , Riga and Saint Petersburg . The Russian Tsar Alexander II was even handed a petition by two envoys from the Memel community. At the end of 1864 Johann Gerhard Oncken visited Petersburg to intercede for the persecuted Latvian Baptists. On August 8, 1863, the Russian tsar issued an imperial decree that prohibited the persecution of Baptists and granted them religious freedom within a certain framework. One of the reasons given was that Baptist teaching was not forbidden in the Russian Empire. Adam Gärtner was released immediately from prison, but the persecution continued for several years. It was not until 1865 that a turning point occurred that also took place in Poland , southern Russia and other areas of the Russian Empire. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia expressly regretted the freedom of religion granted to the Baptists.

Further developments

Baptist Church in Windau (Latvian: Ventspils ), built in 1895

Until the 1870s, the Latvian Baptist congregations were largely dependent on the Memel mother congregation. The congregation in Riga was constituted in 1876 and only two years later it was able to inaugurate a church with 1,500 seats. In 1881 the Libau parish became independent; the communities in Windau , Hasau, Goldingen and Hasenpoth followed . In addition to Latvian, German- and Russian-speaking congregations also emerged.

In 1881 the Latvian congregations broke away from the Union of German Baptists and merged to form the Baltic Association , the forerunner organization of today's Latvian Baptist Union .

The first decades of the 20th century saw strong growth. In a report from 1934 it says: "In the Latvian people, not quite two million strong, there are over 10,000 Baptists with 180 preachers and preachers in 120 congregations and stations, plus 8,000 Sunday school children and 65 places of worship ." In 1938, 12,000 members were added and counted 109 churches. With the help of American and English Baptists, a multi-storey building was acquired in the city center of Riga, in which (with interruption) the training center of the Latvian Baptist pastors and the book publishing house are still located today.

organization

The Latvian Baptist Union has a congregational organizational structure. The municipalities are largely autonomous and delegate tasks that they cannot carry out alone to the national association. Each local congregation sends delegates according to its size to the annual congress of the Baptist Union. The Congress decides on all common matters and elects the Presidium and the head of the Federation.

Episcopal Baptist Church

Bishop Pēteris Sproģis

Until 1944, the respective heads of the Latvian Baptist Union carried the official titles of head , chairman and president (Latvian: priekšnieks , priekšsēdētājs , prezidents ), since 1944 the name of the head of the Latvian Baptist Union has been bishop ( bīskaps ). This makes the Latvian Baptists one of the few episcopocal communities of this free church .

List of Latvian Baptist Bishops since 1944

  • Kārlis Lāceklis (1944 to 1946)
  • August's Corps (1946 to 1948)
  • Andrejs Rēdlihs (1949 to 1952)
  • Fricis Hūns (1953–1959)
  • Pēteris Egle (1966–1977)
  • Jānis Tervits (1977–1990)
  • Jānis Eisāns (1990–1996)
  • Andrejs Šterns (1996-2002)
  • Dr. Jānis Alfrēds Šmits (2002-2006)
  • Pēteris Sproģis (since 2006, reaffirmed by the Baptist Congress on August 28, 2010 in Ventspils)

collaboration

The Latvian Baptists belong to the European Baptist Federation and the World Baptist Federation . There are good ecumenical relations with the Evangelical Lutheran , Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in Latvia . The bishops of the three churches mentioned were present at the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Latvian Baptist Union as specially invited guests and conveyed greetings from their church communities.

The Latvian Baptists also belong to the World Council of Churches and work in the Evangelical Alliance .

Latvian Baptist Churches outside Latvia

The emigration of Latvian Baptists gave rise to Latvian-speaking congregations in the USA , Canada and Brazil , which are organized in independent leagues. The Latvian Baptists in the USA and Canada have come together to form the Union of Latvian Baptists in America (Latvian: Amerikas latviešu baptistu apvienība ; German: Union of Latvian Baptists in America ). The Latvian congregations in Brazil belong to the Associação Batista Leta do Brasil (Latvian: BRAZĪLIJAS LATVIEŠU BAPTISTU APVIENĪBA ; German: Association of Latvian Baptists in Brazil )

In the United States, there are Latvian Baptist churches in Boston and Chicago , among others . There is also a Latvian-speaking community in Toronto , Canada . There has been a Baptist colony in Vārpa / Brazil since the 1930s.

literature

  • Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe , Schwarzenfeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-937896-78-6 .
  • Latvijas Baptistu Draudzū Savienība (ed.): Festschrift baptistu 150 gadu jubilejas izdevums , Rīga, August 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe , Schwarzenfeld 2009, p. 104.
  2. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work . Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849-1909), Kassel 1960, p. 132.
  3. ↑ See the detailed description in Rudolf Donat: The growing work . Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849-1909), Kassel 1960, pp. 132-136.
  4. ↑ Johannes Pritzkau: History of the Baptists in Southern Russia , Situation 1999, ISBN 3-927767-52-2 , p. 34 ff.
  5. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work . Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849-1909), Kassel 1960, p. 136.
  6. ↑ Quoted from Rudolf Donat: The growing work . Expansion of the German Baptist congregations over 60 years (1849-1909), Kassel 1960, p. 138.
  7. ↑ Latvijas Baptistu Draudzū Savienība (ed.): Festschrift baptistu 150 gadu jubilejas izdevums , Rīga, August 2010, p. 2.
  8. ↑ Latvijas Baptistu Draudzū Savienība (ed.): Festschrift baptistu 150 gadu jubilejas izdevums , Rīga, August 2010, p. 3.
  9. ^ Gregor Helms, Klaus Rösler: 150 Years of Baptists in Latvia: A baptism celebration as the highlight of the anniversary. In: Die Gemeinde , September 15, 2010.
  10. ^ Official website of the Latvian Baptists in North America ; Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  11. ^ Official website of the Latvian Baptists in Brazil ( Memento of June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  12. ^ Official website of the Latvian Baptists in America ; Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  13. ↑ John P. Augelli: The Latvians of Varpa: A Foreign Colony on the Brazilian Pioneer Fringe (Geographical Review, Vol. 38, No. 3, July 1958, pp. 365-387), accessed September 20, 2010.