Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession

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The Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession ( Ukrainian Українська Євангельська Церква Аугсбурзького Сповідання , Polish ukrainski kościół Ewangelicki Augsburgskiego wyznania ) was a Lutheran church of the Ukrainian population in Poland 1926-1939.

Structures

The church had parishes in Galicia and Volhynia with about 10,000 to 20,000 members.

The governing body was a council of the Ukrainian Church . The church had no bishop or other head.

practice

The Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession had been using a revised version of the Byzantine Orthodox liturgy for church services since 1933 at the latest . It was the first Lutheran church with the Byzantine rite .

The theology was Lutheran.

history

After 1920 there were Lutheran churches in the Second Polish Republic for the German and Polish population, but not for the Ukrainians.

In 1925 a council of the Ukrainian Church was created. In 1926 the Ukrainian Church of the Augsburg Confession emerged from this . The most important representative was Pastor Teodor Jartschuk in Stanisławów . He published several writings on Lutheran doctrine, translated the Augsburg Confession and the Small Catechism of Martin Luther into Ukrainian and in 1933 created a liturgy according to the Byzantine rite for the Evangelical Church in Ukrainian. He also edited three Lutheran magazines.

A merger of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession with the Reformed congregations did not succeed.

In 1939 the church was dissolved after the occupation of Galicia by the Soviet Union. The pastors were arrested and some died in custody.

The Ukrainian Lutheran Church was founded in 1996 and sees itself as its successor.

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