Baptists in Poland

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Basic data
Official name:
Kościoł Chrześcijan
Baptystów w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
Spiritual direction: Chairman: Mateusz Wichary
Membership: World Baptist Federation ,
European Baptist Federation ,
World Ecumenical Council of Churches
Local communities: 83
Parishioners: 5204 baptized (2014) (without children,
relatives and friends)
Address: Kościoł Chrześcijan Baptystów
w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej ,
ul.Waliców, PL 00-865 Warszawa
Training center for
pastors:		 u. a .: Biblical-Theological Seminary in Breslau
Official Website: [1]

The history of the Baptists in Poland dates back to 1844. The majority of the Polish Baptist congregations are now part of the Christian Baptist Union of the Polish Republic (Polish: Kościoł Chrześcijan Baptystów w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej ). Alongside this covenant there are a small community of Seventh-day Baptists and some free Baptist churches.

history

Wilhelm Weist

Only a few years after Johann Gerhard Oncken founded the first continental European Baptist congregation , emissaries of the young free church began extensive missionary work in East and West Prussia as well as in Poland. The first Baptist baptisms can be found here as early as 1844. On November 28 and 29, 1858, the elementary school teacher Gottfried Alf and the Baptist missionary Wilhelm Weist baptized a total of 25 people near Elbing / West Prussia (today: Elbląg). From this an independent congregation developed three years later, which was constituted on August 4, 1861 in Adamow under the chairmanship of the Baptist preacher Johann Andreas Gülzau . Only a few weeks later a second church was founded in Kicin . Here it was Mennonites who, under the influence of Alf, had turned to the Baptist doctrine. The Kicin Baptists first worked among the Polish population, the first Polish-speaking congregation was established in Zelow in 1872. In 1922 the Slavic Baptists united at a conference to form a national association. Six years later (1928) the German-speaking Baptists formed the Union of Baptists with German Tongue in Poland . Both leagues existed side by side until the beginning of the Second World War .

During the occupation of Poland by German troops, the German-speaking Baptists united with the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches, which was founded in 1942 from Baptists and two other free church communities . The Polish-speaking Baptists formed a Polish Free Church Federation with other confessional congregations, from which they separated again in 1947. Since then, most of the Polish Baptists have belonged to the Kościoł Chrześcijan Baptystów w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej .

statistics

In 2006, the Polish Baptist Union had about 4871 members who gather in 83 local congregations.

organization

Baptist Chapel in Poznan

The autonomous local communities are grouped together in the following regional associations:

  • Okręg Śląski
  • Okręg Lubelski
  • Okręg Gdański
  • Okręg Białostocki
  • Okręg Centralny
  • Okręg Mazurski
  • Okręg Południowy
  • Okręg Dolnośląski
  • Okręg Pomorski

These regional associations each send a representative to the so-called Federal Council of Baptists. This forms the governing body of this free church and elects the four-member presidium of the council from among its members for four years.

The pastors of the Polish Baptists are trained at the Biblical-Theological Seminary in Wroclaw , founded in 1990 . Since 2000 this ecclesiastical university has also been supported by other denominational free churches.

International Relations and Ecumenism

Baptist Chapel in Lodz

The Polish Baptist Union belongs to the European Baptist Federation and through it to the Baptist World Federation . He is a member of the World Council of Churches . Many parishioners work together with Christians from other Protestant denominations as part of the Evangelical Alliance .

literature

  • Gottfried Liebert: History of the Baptists in Russian Poland. 1854-1874 . Oncken, Hamburg 1875.
  • Eduard Kupsch: The history of the Baptists in Poland. 1852-1932 . Self-published, Zduńska-Wola 1932.
  • Robert L. Kluttig: History of the German Baptists in Poland 1858-1945 . Christian Press, Winnipeg MB 1973.
  • Albert W. Wardin, Jr .: Baptists Around the World. A comprehensive handbook . Broadman & Holman, Nashville TN 1995, ISBN 0-8054-1076-7 .
  • Albert W. Wardin: Gottfried F. Alf. Pioneer of the Baptist Movement in Poland . Fields et al., Nashville TN et al. 2003, ISBN 1-57843-021-6 .
  • Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe , Schwarzenfeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-937896-78-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Compare Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe , Schwarzenfeld 2009, pp. 117–121
  2. ^ Homepage of the European Baptist Federation: Member information ; accessed on November 3, 2010