Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

and of Poland, their presence well marked in Polish history and culture. Both Polish Brethren and Anabaptists appealed ' Author unknown. Saying from the period of the founding of the Baptist Church in Poland. ? Adam Piekarski, The Church in Poland: Facts, Figures, Information (Warsaw: Interpress Publishers, 1978), p. 38. > Janusz Tazbir, Reformacja, Kontrreformacja, Tolerancja (Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Dolnos- laskie, 1996), p. 59. 165 for reforms and abolition of serfdom, and the ideologies of these radical reformers exerted direct and indirect influences on the Baptist Church in Poland, the roots of which can be found among the German people. Therefore, a study of worship in the Polish Baptist Church best begins with examination of the worship of these foreign congregations, which brought the “Good News’ to the land of the Poles. However, the German-speaking movement failed to significantly influence the non-German people, espe- cially in the regions of Poland in which the Roman Catholic Church predominated. German colonist Gotfryd Fryderic [Gottfried Friedrich] Alf (1831- 1898) began Baptist work in the Russian part of Poland, near Warsaw, in the 1850s, while the Baptist mission in the Baltic region of Poland is associ- ated primarily with the name of Johann Gerhard Oncken. The founder of the Baptist church in Germany, Oncken shared his faith not only through preaching and inspiration, but also by distribution of Bibles and tracts. The Baptist movement began in Poland in 1858 with the baptism of nine people by Gotfryd Alf. No one suspected that this small group of people, after just a few years, would grow to a group of a thousand members.’ Baptist churches were founded from Rawa Ruska to Zotkiew, Lwéw and Tarnopol, deeply influencing the local communities. State and Orthodox Church authorities hindered the spread of the Baptist faith, yet persecuted pastors did all they could, serving as mission- aries, teaching Sunday Schools and directing church choirs and orchestras.° At the first church in Adaméw (established in 1858), for example, believers taught the fundamentals of the faith, as well as reading, writing and music. Gotfryd Alf organised and directed a choir. The controversial Baptist doctrine expressed through a new style of worship became prevalent in this area, causing problems for the Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) Church and the state government. The Secretary of State wrote that the new group was growing and had become very dangerous to the community. Nonethe- less, the leaders of this “sect” did not give up, and their influence on local residents was positive as they shared the doctrines and principles of their faith. But the early Baptist movement in the Polish lands continued to face persecution from both the state church and the government. Local clergy * “Historia sie powtérzyla’, Slowo Prawdy, no. 1 (January 1983), p. 3. > Krzysztof Bednarczyk, “Prezbiter W. Peretiatko’, Sto