Polish Reformed Church

The Polish Reformed Church, officially called the Evangelical

Evangelical Reformed
Reformed Church in the Republic of Poland (Polish: Kościół
Ewangelicko-Reformowany w RP) is a historic Calvinistic Church in the Republic of
Protestant church in Poland established in the 16th century, still in Poland
existence today. Kościół Ewangelicko-
Reformowany w RP
Structure and organisation
According to Poland's Central Statistical Office, the Polish
Reformed Church has 3,461 members (2015).[1] The majority of
church members live in central Poland; in 2014 out of a total
number of 3464 adherents, 1800 lived in Łódź Voivodeship and
1000 in the city of Warsaw.[2] There are eight congregations in
Poland:
Reformed church in Warsaw
Warsaw (Solidarności Avenue)
Łódź Classification Protestant
Zelów Orientation Calvinism
Bełchatów
Origin 16th century
Kleszczów
Congregations 8
Żychlin
Strzelin Members 3,461 (2015)
Pstrążna (part of the town of Kudowa-Zdrój)

Furthermore, emerging congregations exist in some other cities,

including Poznań, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. In 2003, the Church
ordained its first female minister and two more female students are
in training. The Polish Reformed Church is a minority church in
Poland, where roughly 90% of the people are Catholics.

History

16th-18th centuries
Locations of all eight congregations
The Polish Reformed movement goes back to the half of the 16th
century when the teachings of Swiss Reformers like Zwingli and
Calvin began to make their way to Poland. Earlier, Lutheranism had made way to Poland, especially in the
cities. A great boost to the Calvinist Reformation movement happened when in 1525, the devout Catholic
king Sigismund I the Old (1506–48) accepted as his vassal in Ducal Prussia, the Lutheran prince Albert I,
Duke of Prussia, thus creating the first Protestant country in the World. Though the king opposed "new
thought", humanists all across the Polish–Lithuanian union began studying Calvinist 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 grouping nobles, burghers, professors, priests. The first Calvinist
church service was held in 1550 in Pińczów, a little town nearby Kraków, where the local noble owner
converted to the Reformed Faith, expelled the monks, ’purging’ the city church. Other nobles soon
followed suit and the first Calvinist synod in Lesser Poland was held in 1564 in Słomniki, close to Kraków.
Thus, the Lesser Poland Brethren (Jednota Małopolska) was formed.

In the meantime, in the North of Poland, another Calvinist church was formed. The Czech Brethren,
persecuted by the Czech king Ferdinand I Habsburg fled to Greater Poland (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,
where they were settled under the patronage of the devotedly Reformed Leszczyński 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 (today's

Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine) 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 palace because of returned educated
Lithuanian Abraomas Kulvietis, 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
Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł
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 was sympathetic to the Calvinist cause,
he tried to write a confession that would be agreeable not only to all the three Calvinist 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 (1563). In the same year, the Second Helvetic Confession was translated to Polish and was
adopted by the Lithuanian and Lesser Poland Brethren.

In a posthumous tribute to John a Lasco, the Czech Brethren, the two Calvinist and Lutheran churches in
Poland agreed in 1570 to the Confession of Sandomir (Konfesja Sandomierska), which was an irenic
translation of the Second 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 Calvinists opened schools in Pińczów, Leszno, Kraków,
Vilnius, Kėdainiai and Słuck, printed the first complete Bible in
Polish, commissioned by Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł in 1563 in
Brest-Litovsk. Though grouping mainly nobles and aristocrats, it
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 Religions in the Polish–Lithuanian
more stringent methods of combating ‘heresy’. Religious riots Commonwealth in 1573
followed, which managed to expel Protestants from the main cities Reformed areas
of Poland (Kraków, Poznań, Lublin) with the important exception
of Wilno. The Unitarian split seriously weakened the church, and in
1595, the Calvinist–Lutheran Union fell apart.

The new staunchly Catholic king, Sigismund III Vasa, 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 (1632–48)
was followed by civil wars, wars with Sweden, Russia and Turkey which ravaged the country for latter
half 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 converted to Catholicism, and the last Protestant
in the Senate (a Lutheran) died in 1668. The rise of intolerance began in 1658, when Unitarians were
expelled from the country, and 1668 conversion from Catholic Christianity was punishable by death.
Finally, in 1717 the Protestant nobility were stripped of all their political rights, which 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 by 1591.

In 1768, under pressure from Orthodox Russia and Protestant Prussia, the Polish Diet reluctantly reinstated
political rights to the 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 (1764–95), the Calvinists 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, 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 Calvinists
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 (Kirchenprovinz Posen, i.e. ecclesiastical province of
Posen) but without any autonomy. Between 1829 and 1853, Bishop Carl Andreas Wilhelm Freymark
(1785–1855) led the Posen ecclesiastical province as general superintendent.[3] Under constant pressure
from the Prussian government by the mid-19th century, the United Church abandoned Polish in its liturgy
and most of the old Calvinist nobles chose to convert to Catholicism rather than to become Germans. In
Austria too, the parishes were incorporated to the Evangelical Church of Augsburg and Helvetian
Confession in Austria, but forming a seniorate of its own separate from those for the Lutherans.

During the 19th century the number of Polish Reformed parishes shrank from 4 to just one in Kraków.
There, the Calvinists shared the parish with Lutherans, and these became so dominant that from 1828, only
Lutheran pastors were called to the pulpit, though a handful of Calvinists survived.

Polish Calvinism 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.

The number of Reformed were growing too: in 1803, a colony of Czech settlers founded a town and
congregation of Zelów. Under the energetic Superintendent Karol Diehl (who died in 1831) in 1829
another administrative union was signed with Lutherans. The predominance of the more numerous
Lutherans in the new consistory of the Calvinists, as well as the unsuccessful November Uprising 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 Consistory 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 (1852), Seirijai (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 (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
settlers from Zelów. The church managed to avoid any nationalistic conflict between its Lithuanian peasant
members and the still predominant Polish nobles.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a number of Polish Calvinists from Żyrardów, Kuców, and Zelów
emigrated to the United States and in 1915, a Polish Presbyterian parish was formed in Baltimore,
Maryland; this parish existed until 1941.

Independent Poland (1918–39)

Immediately after Poland regained its
Congregations (examples)
independence, both the Warsaw and
Lithuanian Brethren expressed joy at the
occasion and a desire to unite into one
church. In 1918, the Warsaw Brethren
allowed women full voting rights in 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
Warsaw Zelów Pstrążna
Kraków. Due to missionary activity, a few
thousands of Ukrainians were converted to
Calvinism 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 they lost to Soviet Russia the old church centres such
as Słuck, Kojdanów, Minsk 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 and Belarusians. 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. 5,000 members.
Apart from these two churches, the United Evangelical Church in Poland (Kościół Ewangelicko-Unijny w
Polsce), which had assumed independence from the Church of the old-Prussian Union, had ca. 3,000
Calvinists, and the Evangelical Church of Augsburg and Helvetian Confession in Lesser Poland (Kościoł
Ewangelicki Augsburskiego i Helweckiego Wyznania w Małopolsce), having emerged from the Polish part
of the old united Austrian Church, had ca. 2,000,[4] thus bringing the total number of Reformed in Poland
to ca. 30,000 members. These included Poles of Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, German, Ukrainian,
Belarusian, and Jewish backgrounds.

World War II persecution (1939–45)

On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and on 17 September, so did the Soviet Union. After
a desperate fight, Poland was occupied 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 the Dachau concentration camp 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 leadership of General Superintendent Stefan Skierski, but, following
the Warsaw Uprising, it was dispersed. Deportations, executions and forced labor decimated the church.
Persecution persisted under the Soviet Union, with the Ukrainian Protestant population subject to
deportations 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 Communist regime (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 present-day 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, although 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 Calvinists were emigrating from Poland. Old Calvinist 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.

Notes
1. Concise Statistical Yearbook of Poland (http://www.stat.gov.pl/files/gfx/portalinformacyjny/pl/
defaultaktualnosci/5515/1/18/1/maly_rocznik_statystyczny_polski__2017_r.pdf) (PDF).
Warsaw: Central Statistical Office. 2017. p. 115. ISSN 1640-3630 (https://www.worldcat.org/i
ssn/1640-3630).
2. Wyznania religijne w Polsce 2012-2014 (http://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny/p
l/defaultaktualnosci/5500/5/1/1/oz_wyznania_religijne_stow_nar_i_etn_w_pol_2012-2014.p
df) (PDF). Warszawa: Główny Urząd Statystyczny. 2016. p. 60. ISBN 9788370276126.
3. "Freymark, Karl" (http://baza-nazwisk.de/erw-suche.php?data=40844&hits=1718&ds=457&ti
tle=Freymark,%20Karl), on: Baza osób polskich - polnische Personendatenbank (http://baza
-nazwisk.de/), retrieved on 6 May 2012.
4. The Lesser Polish Reformed Protestants were organised in four congregations. Cf.
Małgorzata Kośka: "Akta Gmin Kościoła Ewangelickiego Augsburskiego i Helweckiego
Wyznania 1786 — 1939" (http://www.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/pomoce/AKEAH427.xml)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110817004429/http://www.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/po
moce/AKEAH427.xml) 2011-08-17 at the Wayback Machine, Archiwum Główne Akt
Dawnych w Warszawie (AGAD; Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw) (http://w
ww.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120417201916/http://ww
w.agad.archiwa.gov.pl/) 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved on 6 May 2012.

External links
Official website of the Polish Reformed Church (http://www.reformowani.pl/)
Official website of the parish in Łódź (http://www.lodz.reformowani.net.pl/)
Official website of the church in Poznan (http://www.poznan.reformowani.net.pl/)
Official website of the church in Wroclaw (http://wroclawref.blox.pl/)
Official website of the 16th century parish in Zychlin (https://web.archive.org/web/200408181
90455/http://www.reformowani.pl/zychlin/)

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