HISTORY OF THE BAPTIST MOVEMENT IN POLAND

In the year 1858, a town close to Warsaw called Adamów saw the beginning of the Baptist movement in Poland. A group of Bible readers decided to be baptized and create a church of believers after the style of the church in the New Testament. Baptisms were increasingly popular amongst believers, especially within the German population, through to the 1920's. After this date, more Polish people became interested in baptism - particularly those living in the eastern parts of Poland.

In the years between the wars, there were two Baptist Unions: the German and the Slavic. They had a total of almost 17,000 adult members creating a group of 35,000 believers before World War II. At the end of the 1930's, these groups decided to amalgamate together to form the Evangelical Baptist Church of Poland. There were at this time some 100 churches which were working together with the Baptist Publishing House "Kompas", a Hospital called "Betlejem" in Lódz, a foster home for children in Brzesc Litewsk, a nursing home in Narewka, a theological seminary in Lódz, and since 1925, a Baptist publishing body producing a monthly magazine called "Slowo Prawdy".

In the period before independence of Poland, the "legal" existence of Baptists was based on the rights granted within the various sectors of partitioned Poland. The Second World War saw many Polish Baptists casualties. The majority of Polish Baptists were killed or emigrated abroad. After the War, the number of believers living in the Polish territory was less than 1000 people. Many churches, chapels, church houses, church archives, libraries and books had been destroyed. During the occupation, the Baptists together with other Protestant denominations which were active in the General Gubernya were included in the Non-German Union of Free Evangelical Churches. After the War in 1946, the Baptist Union received official recognition from the government.

Vision and Stratergy, Statistical information, The Baptist Union of Poland , 1998, p 1, 2