Published: 2024-12-28

Evangelical communities in eastern Poland during the inter-war period. Research postulate

Grzegorz Pełczyński
Studia Oecumenica
Section: Teologia protestancka
DOI https://doi.org/10.25167/so.5195

Abstract

The eastern areas of Poland were particularly diverse in terms of religion. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Church adherents, and followers of Judaism were present in the region. Smaller religious groups included representatives of various Protestant denominations. This article focuses on Evangelical Protestants, such as Baptists, Evangelical Christians, Methodists, and Pentecostals. Their small communities emerged in eastern Poland, which was under Russian occupation towards the end of the nineteenth century. Many of them arrived after Poland regained its independence in 1918. Evangelical Christians or Pentecostals were previously followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a consequence of the church's fall in Tsarist Russia, where it was the state denomination, while in Poland it remained only a religious minority. In inter-war Poland of the twentieth century, Evangelical minorities comprised 50 000 followers, with even two-thirds of them possibly located in the eastern territories of Poland. They generally enjoyed religious tolerance from the Polish authorities until 1939 when the Soviet Union occupied Poland.

Keywords:

evangelicalism, religion in Poland, eastern Poland

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Citation rules

Pełczyński, G. (2024). Evangelical communities in eastern Poland during the inter-war period. Research postulate. Studia Oecumenica, 24, 121–133. https://doi.org/10.25167/so.5195

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