Polish Reformed Church
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
established in the 16th century, still in existence today.
Structure and organisation
An internal censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
showed that in 2004 the Polish Reformed Church had ca. 3500 members. These were spread over eight congregations in Poland:
- WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
- Łódź
- ZelówZelówZelów is a town in Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 8,307 inhabitants .- Jews in Zelow :2,000 Jews lived in Zelow before the 2nd world war. Most of them were executed in Chełmno, and others were deported to Łódź Ghetto and from there to the death camps....
- Bełchatów
- KleszczówKleszczówKleszczów may refer to the following places:*Kleszczów, Lesser Poland Voivodeship *Kleszczów, Łódź Voivodeship *Kleszczów, Silesian Voivodeship...
- ŻychlinZychlinŻychlin is a town in Kutno County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, about 50 north of Łódź and 90 km west of Warsaw. It has 9,021 inhabitants .-History:...
- StrzelinStrzelinStrzelin is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is located on the Oława river, a tributary of the Oder, about south of the region's capital Wrocław. The town is the seat of Strzelin County and also of the smaller municipality of Strzelin...
- PstrążnaPstraznaPstrążna is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Lyski, within Rybnik County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately west of Rybnik and west of the regional capital Katowice.-References:...
Furthermore, emerging congregations exist in some other cities, including Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, Wrocław, and Gdańsk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
. In 2003 the Church ordained its first woman minister and two more female students are in training.
The Polish Reformed Church is a minority church in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, where the majority (some 90%) are Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. One of Poland's other religious minorities is the larger Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland
Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland , the largest Protestant body in Poland, is rooted in the Reformation. The first Lutheran sermons were held in 1518, and in 1523 the first Lutheran dean, Johann Heß, was called to the city of Breslau, whence Lutheranism was spread into the...
, a Lutheran Protestant church with around 80,000 members.
The church is administered by a consistory elected every three years, and chaired by a layperson. The official representative of the church is its Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
, elected for a ten year term. The highest ecclesiastical governing body is the synod, which convenes every year and has lay and clergy delegates from all of its congregations.
Sixteenth – eighteenth centuries
The Polish Reformed movement goes back to the half of the 16th century when the teachings of Swiss Reformers like Zwingli and CalvinJohn Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
began to make their way to Poland. Earlier, Lutheranism had made way to Poland, especially in the cities. A great boost to the Reformation movement happened when in 1525 the devotedly Roman Catholic king Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I of Poland , of the Jagiellon dynasty, reigned as King of Poland and also as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until 1548...
(1506–48) accepted as his vassal in Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, the Lutheran prince Albert I, Duke of Prussia
Albert I, Duke of Prussia
Albert of Prussia was the 37th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, the first duke of the Duchy of Prussia, which was the first state to adopt the Lutheran faith and Protestantism as the official state religion...
, thus creating the first Protestant country in the World. Though the king opposed "new thought", humanists all across Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
began studying Reformed theology. The most celebrated and influential group was found in the country's capital Kraków, where they flocked around the book printer and vendor Jan Trzecielski (Jan Trecy) grouping nobles, burgher
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
s, professors, priests. The first Reformed church service was held in 1550 in Pińczów, a little town nearby Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, where the local noble owner converted to the Reformed Faith, expelled the monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s, ’purging’ the city church. Other nobles soon followed suit and the first Reformed synod in Lesser Poland was held in 1564 in Słomniki, close to Kraków. Thus the Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland is one of the historical regions of Poland, with its capital in the city of Kraków. It forms the southeastern corner of the country, and should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only a small, southern part of Lesser Poland...
Brethren (Jednota Małopolska) was formed.
In the meantime in the North of Poland another Reformed church was formed. The Czech Brethren, persecuted by the Czech king Ferdinand I Habsburg
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...
fled to Greater Poland
Greater Poland
Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...
(1548), where they settled in the estates of the local aristocrats whom they very quickly converted to their faith. The number of their congregations quickly swelled from 20 in 1555 to 64 in 1570. Their main centre was the city of Leszno
Leszno
Leszno is a town in central Poland with 63,955 inhabitants . Situated in the southern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously the capital of the Leszno Voivodeship . The town has county status.-History:...
, where they were settled under the patronage of the devotedly Reformed Leszczyński
Leszczynski
Leszczyński , plural: Leszczyńscy is the surname of a Polish noble family. Some Polish surnames have different forms for the genders, Leszczyńska is the form for a female family member.-History:...
family. Thus the Greater Poland Brethren (Jednota Wielkopolska) also called the Czech Brethren, was formed. The Greater Poland and the Lesser Poland Brethren did try to cooperate more closely and even signed in 1555 a Union agreement but the Lesser Poland's Reformed nobles who formed the bulwark of the church members found the Czechs to be too hierarchical and undemocratic, and in the end the Lesser Poland Brethren became a strongly synodal structure, while the Greater Poland church became more Presbyterian.
The Reformation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
(today's Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) date to 1552 when the local aristocrat Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł received a Reformed preacher, although some of Reformation ideas were known in Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...
palace because of returned educated Lithuanian Abraomas Kulvietis
Abraomas Kulvietis
Abraomas Kulvietis was a jurist and a professor at Königsberg Albertina University, as well as a reformer of the church....
, who had founded school and taught children in Lutheran manner. He was generally unpopular among the Catholic hierarchy because of his Lutheran beliefs, and when the queen was away in 1542 Abraomas was forced to leave the country.
Soon he (Radziwiłł "The Black") was followed by his cousin Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł and other aristocrats. The first synod was held in 1557, and two years later the Lithuanians signed a Union agreement with the Lesser Poland Brethren. A huge number of converts were attracted from Orthodox nobility. While the nobles used Polish in church services, an effort was made to convert the Lithuanian-speaking peasants and serfs, but since Lithuanian did not have a written form till the second half of the 19th century, Polish stayed as the official church language. Thus the Lithuanian Brethren (Jednota Litewska) came into being.
In 1556 John a Lasco (Jan Łaski) returned from Western Europe to help with the organisation of the Polish Reformed church. Seeing that the new king Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...
was sympathetic to the Reformed cause, he tried to write a Confession that would be agreeable not only to all the three Reformed churches but to the Lutherans as well. Unfortunately, exhausted from overwork, he died in 1560, having achieved only the consolidation of the Lesser Reformed Brethren, which shortly afterwards was weakened by the split of the Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
(1563). In the same year, the Second Helvetic Confession was translated to Polish and was adopted by the Lithuanian and Lesser Poland Brethren. Finally, in a posthumous tribute to John a Lasco, the Czech Brethren, the two Reformed and the Lutheran churches in Poland agreed in 1570 to the Confession of Sandomir (Konfesja Sandomierska), which was an irenic translation of the II Helvetic Confession and in theory formed one, united, Protestant church. The strength of the Polish Protestants was shown when in 1573 a law was passed foreboding any persecution based on religion, an act unprecedented in Europe of that time. The Protestants formed also over 65% members of the Lower and just about a half of the Upper Houses of Parliament.
The Reformed opened excellent schools in Pińczów
Pinczów
Pińczów is a town in Poland, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, about 40 km south of Kielce. It is the capital of Pińczów County. Population is 12,304 .-History:...
, Leszno
Leszno
Leszno is a town in central Poland with 63,955 inhabitants . Situated in the southern part of the Greater Poland Voivodeship since 1999, it was previously the capital of the Leszno Voivodeship . The town has county status.-History:...
, Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, Kėdainiai
Kedainiai
Kėdainiai is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania. It is located on the Nevėžis River. First mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, its population as of 2008 was 30,214. Its old town dates to the 17th century....
and Słuck, printed the first complete Bible in Polish, commissioned by Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł. Though grouping mainly nobles and aristocrats, in managed to have some following among the peasantry as well. In some regions the number of Reformed parishes completely outnumbered the Roman Catholic ones, though in proportion the movement probably never exceeded 20% of the total population and 45% of nobility.
At the same time the movement was rising in strength, there were signs of Catholic revival. Jesuits were invited to Poland by the clergy in 1565, and these friars soon advocated more stringent methods of combating ‘heresy’. Religious riots followed, which managed to expel Protestants form the main cities of Poland (Kraków, Poznań, Lublin) with the important exception of Wilno. The Unitarian split seriously weakened the church, and in 1595 the Reformed–Lutheran Union fell apart. The new strongly Catholic king, Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
, refused to promote any Protestants and from the beginning of the 17th century the church found itself in a serious defensive, with all three Brethren losing churches and followers. The brief respite they got during the reign of king Wladyslaw IV Vasa
Wladyslaw IV Vasa
Władysław IV Vasa was a Polish and Swedish prince from the House of Vasa. He reigned as King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 8 November 1632 to his death in 1648....
(1632–48) was followed by the disastrous civil wars, wars with Sweden, Russia and Turkey which ravaged the country for the end of the century. By then, only a handful of faithful remained in all three Brethren, with the Lithuanian one now leading the other three. Nearly all the aristocrats have converted to Catholicism, and the last Protestant in the Senate (a Lutheran) died in 1668. The rise of intolerance began in 1660, when Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
were expelled from the country, and 1668 conversion from Catholicism was punishable by death. Finally, in 1717 the Protestant nobility were stripped of all their political rights, with were only reinstated to them in 1768. Though a small number of Huguenots settled in Poland at the end of the 17th century (Gdańsk, Warsaw), the numbers dwindled. By 1768 the number of Reformed churches has dwindled to 40 from 500 in 1591.
In 1768 under pressure from Orthodox Russia and Protestant Prussia the Polish Diet reluctantly reinstated political rights to Polish nobility, as well as granting nearly full freedom of worship and religion — only the prohibition of abjuring from Catholicism was maintained. Under the enlightened king Stanisław August Poniatowski (1766–95), the Reformed quickly began to rebuild themselves from ruins. New churches in Poznań, Piaski etc. were constructed. In the capital Warsaw, a new congregation organised itself and erected a new church (1776). This congregation had a multicultural outlook, as apart from Polish nobles it consisted of merchants of Scottish, English, Swiss, Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
, Dutch and German origin. Services were held in Polish, German and French.
Church organisation also consolidated and in 1777, in the Lesser Poland's congregation of Sielec, a union was signed between the Polish Reformed and Lutherans, and the Union of Sandomir was once again reaffirmed. A common Consistory was established with six members, in equal number from the Reformed and Lutherans, two being clergy, two being burghers and two being nobles. Though this union was short-lived (dissolved in 1782) the Protestants in Poland continued to grow and expand, especially in Warsaw, whose congregation soon overshadowed any other church centre. This optimistic period was cut short by the Three Partitions of Poland by Prussia, Russia and Austria (1772, 1793, 1795) which led to the disappearance of Poland for over a century from the map of Europe.
The Polish Reformed without Poland (1795–1918)
The beginnings were not easy. The Greater Poland Brethren was incorporated in 1817 to the Prussian Evangelical Union Church as a separate district but without any autonomyAutonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
. Under constant pressure from the German government by the mid 19th century the United Church abandoned Polish in its liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
and most of old Reformed nobles chose to convert to Roman Catholicism rather than to become Germans. In Austria too, the parishes were incorporated to the Austrian United Reformed and Lutheran Church. During the 19th century the number of Polish Reformed parishes shrank from 4 to just one in Kraków. There the Reformed shared the parish with Lutherans, and these became so dominant that from 1828 only Lutheran pastors were called to the pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
, though a handful of Reformed survived.
Polish Reformed Christianity was maintained in land taken by Russia. The Warsaw congregation led by outstanding members dominated the rump Lesser Poland Brethren and became a leader of the denomination. The Lithuanian Brethren maintained its synodal structure and Polish outlook, and in the beginning of the 19th century erected a monumental church in Vilnius
Vilnius
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
.
The number of Reformed were growing too: in 1803 a colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of Czech settlers founded a town and congregation of Zelów
Zelów
Zelów is a town in Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 8,307 inhabitants .- Jews in Zelow :2,000 Jews lived in Zelow before the 2nd world war. Most of them were executed in Chełmno, and others were deported to Łódź Ghetto and from there to the death camps....
. Under the energetic Superintendent
Superintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the head of an administrative division of a Protestant church, largely historical but still in use in Germany.- Superintendents in Sweden :...
Karol Diehl (who died in 1831) in 1829 another administrative union was signed with Lutherans. Unfortunately, the predominance of the more numerous Lutherans in the new Consistory of the Reformed, as well as the unsuccessful November Uprising
November Uprising
The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...
in 1830 led the Tsar Nicolas I of Russia to dissolve the Union in 1849. Under the new decree separate Lutheran and Reformed churches were formed. The Lesser Poland Brethren was dissolved its six parishes merged into one (in Sielec) and now put under the charge of the Conisistory in Warsaw. This new church was called (unofficially) the Warsaw Brethren. The Lithuanian Brethren was spared dissolution, though its schools were taken away by the Russian state.
The rest of the 19th century saw a slow growth of the Reformed movement in Poland, though proportionally to the rest of the Polish population their percentage declined. New congregations were established in Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
(1852), Seirijai
Seirijai
Seirijai is a small town in Alytus County in southern Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 933.-References:*This article was initially translated from the Lithuanian Wikipedia....
(1852), Suwałki (1852). The Czechs from Zelów migrated to other parts of Poland and there they formed new congregations: in Kuców (1852), Żyrardów (1852) and Łódź (1904). Despite severe Russian repression after the January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
(1863) in which many Reformed nobles were implicated and active, the church remained Polish and slowly absorbed and Polonised new immigrant groups that settled in the country. The growth of the church would have been more impressive, had it not suffered from an acute shortage of ministers: for example in the 1880 there were just 5 pastors serving 10 congregations.
Things were not going so well for the Lithuanian Brethren. Its estates were confiscated in 1841 and after 1866 the church was forced to conduct its administrative business and synods in Russian. The number of congregations went down to 12, though 2 new were founded in the course of the 19th century by Czech settles from Zelów. The church managed to avoid any nationalistic conflict between its Lithuanian peasant members and the still predominant Polish nobles.
In the beginning of the 20th century a number of Polish Reformed from Żyrardów
Zyrardów
Żyrardów is a town in central Poland with 41,400 inhabitants . It is situated in the Masovian Voivodship ; previously, it was in Skierniewice Voivodship 45 km West of Warsaw. It is the capital of Żyrardów County...
, Kuców, and Zelów
Zelów
Zelów is a town in Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland, with 8,307 inhabitants .- Jews in Zelow :2,000 Jews lived in Zelow before the 2nd world war. Most of them were executed in Chełmno, and others were deported to Łódź Ghetto and from there to the death camps....
emigrated to the United States, where in 1915 a Polish Presbyterian Parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
was formed in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. This parish existed until 1941.
In independent Poland (1918–39)
Immediately after Poland regained its independence both the Warsaw and Lithuanian Brethren expressed joy at the occasion and a desire to unite in once church. Also, the Warsaw Brethren allowed in 1918 women full voting rights in the church assemblies, congregations and synods. Until the 1930s both churches grew rapidly.The Warsaw Brethren organised new congregations in Toruń, Poznań, Lwów (today Lviv in Ukraine) and Kraków. Due to missionary activity a few thousands of Ukrainians were converted to Reformed Christianity from Eastern Orthodoxy and organised into a semi-independent synod within the Warsaw Brethren. In 1926 the church started to publish a two-weekly church newspaper "Jednota" (Brethren) which still exists today.
The Lithuanian Brethren suffered huge loses, when the Lithuanian parishes formed themselves into a separate church in independent Lithuania, as well as the lost to Soviet Russia the old church centres such as Słuck, Kojdanów, Mińsk etc. The Brethren, now left with only 4 congregations (Wilno, Izabellin, Niepokojczyce, Michajłówka) rebuilt itself by incorporating Polish Anglicans (mainly converts from Judaism) into a separate synod, as well as by mission to Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
.
Despite repeated attempt to unite themselves, the two churches remained separate, and in the 1930s even hostile, after the Wilno Consistory engaged itself into a lucrative yet dubious business of granting easy divorces. Union talks were resumed in 1939 but were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.
By 1939 the Warsaw Brethren had over 20 000 members, and the Lithuanian Brethren ca. 5000 members. Apart from these two churches, the old Prussian United Church had ca. 3000 Reformed, and the old Austrian United Church ca. 2000, thus bringing the total number of Reformed in Poland to ca. 30 000 members. These included Poles, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Jews.
World War II persecution (1939–45)
On September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland and on September 17 so did the Soviet Union. After a desperate fight, Poland was annexed by Russia and Germany and the Government went into exile by the end of the month. Both the Nazis and Soviets instigated a true reign of terror in the conquered territory. These measures affected also the Reformed.In the Nazi sector the entire Anglican Synod of the Wilno Brethren (ca. 1000 members) was wiped out. In Łódź, the pastor was first forbidden to preach in Polish. When he started to do so in Czech, was arrested by the Gestapo after the Christmas Eve service in 1940, deported to Dachau where he was murdered. The congregation was suppressed and services ceased. The same happened to congregations in Toruń, Poznań and Lublin. The Warsaw parish survived under the courageous leadership of the General Superintendent Stefan Skierski (died 1948) but following the Warsaw Rising (1944), it was completely dispersed. Deportations, executions and forced labour decimated the church.
Under the "progressive" Soviets things were not better: the Ukrainian Protestants were deported and nearly completely wiped out. The Wilno congregation was first subjected to the Lithuanian synod, and then Polish services were ordered to cease. The nobility and intelligentsia were hunted down and either executed or deported to Siberia. By 1945 the Wilno Brethren ceased to exist.
Under Communism (1945–89)
It took the Polish Reformed two years before they met in a Synod (1947). The old Rev. Skierski was chosen again as superintendent but he died exhausted and broken by the atrocities of the war.The situation of the church was dramatic: only three ministers were in Poland; the churches in Lithuania and Belarus were lost to Soviets; the church in Sielec, and Tabor were seized as "German" by the Catholic population; Warsaw was completely destroyed by the Germans, though the church managed to survive. The number of members was estimated to be at 5000, or nearly 1/6 the 1939 number. Still, it was dropping even more, as the German and Czech Reformed were emigrating from Poland. Old Reformed churches in West Poland were taken over by the Catholics who refused to give them back; the lack of pastors was acute till the end of the 1950s. Some Polish Reformed stayed in the West rather than come back to a Communist regime and formed the London Reformed Polish Church, that existed till 1991.