Meeting of the Polish Ecumenical Council

Michal Karski, translation: Magdalena Ignaciuk 

The General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan and the ecumenical activity in the regions were two main topics of discussion at the Annual Conference of Branches and the Commission of Polish Ecumenical Council.


The conference was held on 24 November in the Orthodox Culture Center in Warsaw. It was attended by the representatives of the regional offices and the committees of the Polish Ecumenical Council, PEC authorities with its head  Archbishop  Jeremiah, and two participants of last year's General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in the Korean Busan.



The first part of the conference was devoted to the General Assembly of WCC . The delegates from the Assembly (Marta Całpińska - the Orthodox Church and  Father Piotr Gaś) told about their impressions from Buson. The meeting in Korea had changed horizons and encouraged to take action. I was impressed by how the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches both pay attention to the persecution of Christians in Egypt and Syria – said Marta Całpińska. She pointed out, that young people were often admitted to the General Meeting for discussion, but in most cases they were not  the delegates. She also cited the statement of Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church, which criticized Western civilization for changes in the sphere of family life, and warned against religious fundamentalism, especially radical Islamism.


Father  Peter Gaś presented photos of the Congregation in Busan.  - What captivated me was the atmosphere of the Word and prayer - he said. Lutheran clergyman drew attention to the diversity of the problems which members of churches around the world have to face. Some of the participants talked about the painful consequences of the economic crisis, while others have talked about AIDS and their personal struggles with the disease.


Polish ecumenical initiatives


The second part of the conference in Warsaw was devoted to the national ecumenical life in the past year. Polish Ecumenical Council’s director  Father Ireneusz Lukas said  Reported that recently a Kaliski PRE Regional Branch has been created. He said, that for the first time the central service of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be held outside Warsaw, namely in Opole. In January, the State Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church will sign an appeal about the day of celebration. While speaking about the PEC foreign relations, Father Lukas emphasized the importance of the project "Reconciliation in Europe - the task of the Churches in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Germany." – Today, this project is needed even more - said the director of the Council considering the current international situation. When it comes to the contacts of the PEC with the government, the most important themes are new headquarters of the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw and the issue of teaching religion classes minority churches.


During the next part of the session, the representatives of regional offices and committees of the PEC reported their activities. In the regions not only religious services during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity are taken but also various ecumenical initiatives. Father  Joseph Bartos from Krakow was speaking about a Bible Marathon, Father  Andrew Gontarek from Lublin about the ecumenical Way of the Cross through the city, Father  Janusz Olszański from the Pomorsko-Kujawskie Department in Bydgoszcz about Bliny, Father  Marcin Undas from the Department of Lodz about participation in the anniversary celebration of the ghetto and ecumenical broadcast on Radio Lodz. Father Adam Stelmach  from the Silesian branch was speaking about the conference on the different churches, which took place in one of renowned high schools, Father  Janusz Daszuta from Świętokrzyskie  branch about  the international ecumenical organizations within Europeada in Kielce, Father  Henryk Dabrowski from Warsaw branch about the Ecumenical University of the Third Age, and Archbishop Jeremiah from the Lower Silesian about the Department of Mutual Respect in Wroclaw. Father  Kopiński Julian was talking about the creation of the Kaliski Regional Branch, his immediate plans, and the ecumenical choir.


Was also presented the activities of the two Polish Ecumenical Council  committees. Biruta Przewłocka-Pachnik, the head of the committee, spoke about organized training and workshops. She also announced, that they will be continued next year. The chairman of the dialogue Tadeusz J. Zielinski told about ecclesiological conferences organized by the committee. He also suggested that it would be good to organize a conference on violence in the context of a family, society and the Church. 

The Orthodox Church of Poland

When Poland was restored as an independent nation in the wake of World War I, a large number of Orthodox Christians were included within its boundaries. According to the 1931 census, there were over 3.5 million Orthodox in the country, or 11.8% of the population. Most of these were ethnic Belarusans and Ukrainians in eastern Poland who had been under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Soon after the nation’s independence, however, Orthodox bishop Jerzy Jaroszewski of Warsaw and others in the hierarchy began to promote autocephaly for their church. The Polish government also supported the project. It was opposed, however, by a pro-Russian faction in the church leadership, who insisted on maintaining the historical links with Moscow. In spite of these divisions, a local church council proclaimed the church’s autocephaly in 1922. In response, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow granted a certain level of autonomy to the Polish Church and raised Bishop Jerzy to the rank of Metropolitan, but refused to grant autocephaly.

The controversy turned violent in 1923 when Metropolitan Jerzy was assassinated by a Russian monk who opposed his policies. But the movement towards independence continued to gain strength. The church then turned to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which agreed to grant autocephaly to the Polish Orthodox Church on November 13, 1924, headed by Metropolitan Dionizy Waledynski, the successor of Metropolitan Jerzy. In 1927 Constantinople also granted the Metropolitan of Warsaw the title of “Beatitude.” The Moscow Patriarchate, however, protested these actions as interference in its affairs and refused to recognize the Polish church’s autocephalous status.

During the interwar period there was some tension within the Polish Orthodox Church between its ethnic Russian bishops and the faithful, who were mostly Ukrainian, Belarusan and Ruthenian. In view of the rising nationalistic feelings in the region, efforts to invigorate the Polish Church inevitably led to tensions between these groups, especially regarding the language to be used in church administration and the liturgy. During this period there were five dioceses, two seminaries (at Vilnius and Krzemieniec) with 500 students, a Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Warsaw with 150 students, 1,624 parishes, and 16 monasteries.

In the 1930s there were also conflicts between Catholics and Orthodox in Poland, mostly over former Catholic churches that had been turned over to the Orthodox during the period of Russian domination. In eastern Poland local Catholics seized a large number of churches claimed by both groups and many were destroyed in the process. Metropolitan Dionizy formally protested these anti-Orthodox incidents, and Ukrainian Catholic Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky expressed his support for Dionizy in a pastoral letter to his faithful. In November 1938 the Polish government issued a decree defining the structure of the country’s Orthodox Church and its relationship to the state authorities. According to its terms, the Orthodox clergy now enjoyed the same rights as the clergy of other religions recognized by the government.

Location: Poland
Head: Metropolitan Sawa (born 1938, elected 1998)
Title: Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland
Residence: Warsaw, Poland
Membership: 600,000
Website: www.orthodox.pl

Orthodoxy in Poland

The Feast in Jableczna Monastery, Poland author jarek (source: orthphoto.net)

The Holy Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Polish Orthodox Church) gained its autocephalous status from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1924, however, the Orthodox Church has been indigenous to Poland and its border regions  since the IXth century when Saints Cyril and Methodios as missionaries were sent to evangelize the Slavs.

At present the Polish Orthodox Church represents about half a million Orthodox Christians in Poland – according to Central Statistical Office almost 510 000 worshippers. The Polish Orthodox Church is thus the second largest confession in Poland (after the Roman Catholic Church).  Although today Orthodoxy in Poland is a minority it’s mainly concentrated in the eastern part of the country – it remains the inheritor of a very rich tradition formed at the meeting place of two grate cultures – Latin and Eastern.

The primate of the Polish Orthodox Church is His Beatitude, the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All of Poland.  The Polish Orthodox Church has seven dioceses in Poland, including one diocese providing chaplaincy for the Polish Military Services.  There are eight Orthodox monasteries (5 male and 3 female) in Polish with over a hundred monks and nuns. Furthermore, the Polish Orthodox Church maintains several dioceses and parishes outside of Poland, in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Italy.

The structure of Polish Orthodox Church is  very developed with schools, many centers of social care and old age homes, as well as,  Centers of Orthodox Culture and Fellowship of Orthodox Youth with complex organizational structure.

Situated at the cultural frontier, the Polish Orthodox Church, has constantly carried on a dialogue with different confessions and proved that variety is enriching. Today it is an active participant of ecumenical and  international initiatives as a member of the World Council of Churches, the European Council of Churches, the Polish Council of Churches, Theobalt, the Baltic Ecumenical Council, and the Theological Dialogue Commissions with the Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran and other churches.

Anna Radziukiewicz "Prawosławie w Polsce"

Source:  www.orthodox.pl