Baptistic Theologies, 2009

blished in 1918. 52 A Baptist orphanage, named ‘Bethlehem’, had begun in 1908, and this later grew to accommodate thirty children. After World War I a new orphanage was opened in Brzesc, which remained in existence until World War II. The pressing needs of the time meant that mission could not operate simply at the level of verbal proclamation. Baptism One powerful aspect of the witness of the Baptist churches was the celebration of the baptism of believers. Nothing else so puzzled the average Polish-Catholic as this specific celebration. Some people saw baptism by immersion as a strange and totally alien ceremony; others were drawn by the personal testimonies of the people who were baptised. A person who 47 Miller, In The Midst Of Wolves, pp. 182-183. 48 Krzysztof Kossarzecki, Dzieje Baptystow Ostrodzkich, Slowo Prawdy, December 1998, No. 12, p. 32- 34. 49 Baptysci w Polsce, Gazeta Koscielna, 1938, p. 813. 50 Miller, In The Midst Of Wolves, p. 225. 51 E. Kupscha, Geschichte der Baptisten in Polen 1852-1932, pp. 463-464. 52 The Old Age People’s Home was open in Narewka and existed until September 1980 when the new ‘Nursing Home’ was opened in Bialystok and people living in Narewka were moved to the new place. The other Old Age People’s Home was started in Lodz, but was smaller. 52 The hospital existed until World War II. During the war the hospital was taken by the Nazis and was never recovered by Baptists. 96 Baptistic Theologies wanted to be baptised needed to be accepted first by the elders of the local Baptist church and then by the congregation. It was obligatory for the catechumen, who was a teenager or an adult, to stand before the church and give testimony about a change of life. 54 The procedure regarding children born to families in the churches was that they were blessed, not baptised. 55 During this period of Baptist growth a contemporary historian wrote that Baptists ‘gathered together at the special meetings. The authorities agreed with them on the matter of conversion and their testimony of Christian living, but disagreed on the topic of baptism and church.’ 56 Baptism was seen as an opportunity to give one’s testimony of faith. Most of the baptisms took place in lakes and rivers. Sometimes, as Jan Petrasz explained in 1926, ‘we had to walk two kilometers in our bare feet to reach the river, through swamps and with mud reaching our knees’. Not surprisingly, there were times when baptisms could not take CO place as planned because of unexpected problems. The candidates for baptism were dressed in white clothes. 59 At the baptismal service there was a prayer, a sermon on the meaning of baptism and on receiving the Saviour, and then the baptism. Often during the baptismal service a choir would sing the hymn ‘O cudny dzien’ (Oh Wonderful Day). 60 After the baptisms, the elders laid hands on the new members of the church, asking for God’s blessings on their new lives. 61