Baptistic Theologies, 2009

ties. When Polish speakers formed the bulk of the population, and when barely two-thirds of the Polish speakers were officially literate, one arrives at the stark conclusion that literate Poles formed only 44 % of the society as a whole. 69 For Baptists the need for literature in the Polish language was critical, and in 1925 a Publishing House created the first edition of ‘Slowo Prawdy’. It spoke of the destruction which had occurred during World War I and which was still very much in the thoughts and lives of the people. Baptists wanted to face up to the difficult times by speaking out the truth and proclaiming 66 From the church in Lodz, Slowo Prawdy, No. 4, April, 1928, p. 6. 67 Silent before Service, Slowo Prawdy, February 1925, No. 1, p. 6. <,s Piotr Nazaruk, Choralistyka w Kosciele Chrzescijan Baptystow w Polsce, 1997 (Akademia Muzyczna w Warszawie), pp. 28-29. 69 Davies, God's Play Ground, p. 309. Between the Wars: Golden Years of Polish Baptists 99 70 hope. Reading ‘Slowo Prawdy’, people could ask themselves, ‘Am I a true Christian?’. Articles very often described the situation of a typical Polish person. However, ‘Slowo Prawdy’ did not target the Roman 71 Catholic Church directly. Three monthly newspapers, ‘Chrzescijanin’, ‘Nowe Drogi’ and ‘Slowo Prawdy’, began publication. In 1926 the printing house called ‘Kompas’ was set up. Later in 1927 the Slavic Union partnered with the Ukrainians and Russians to publish ‘Pislaniec Prawdy’ and ‘Majak’. 72 Because of the variety of nationalities within and outside the Baptist churches, and the range of languages required, the publication ‘Kompas’ faced many problems. To have an impact on Polish society, the publisher tried to cover all necessary language groups. The purpose of the educational ministry was to inform the churches and also share the evangelical message with every person in Poland. It did not matter whether the readers were Poles or Jews, Ukrainians or Germans - as Baptists saw it everyone needed to know Christ and this goal was achievable by using literature in different languages. In 1926 and 1927, at the request of Lukasz Dziekuc-Malej, ‘Kompas’ published the Four Gospels in the Belarussian language. Even the Roman Catholic Church, which rarely commended Baptists, spoke positively about this publication and encouraged people to buy it. 74 Another aspect of the emphasis on literature was the work of colporteurs. Karol Strzelec co-operated with Waldemar Gutsche, a director of the Tract Society, which had, on its Board, people from a variety of ethnic groups. There were five colporteurs: a Pole, a Ukrainian, a Belarussian, a Czech and a Jew (J. Perelmann). This was a remarkable mix in the Poland of that time. Gutsche wrote about this: ‘In October 1921 I came back from Russia to Lodz where I lived for seven years. At that time in Poland K.W. Strzelec was head of missions, this being possible thanks to help from the Northe