Initiative for the Establishment of the Evangelical Baptist Church in the Second Polish Republic

Abstract

The paper examines and analyzes the initiative to create the Evangelical Baptist Church by some of the communities of the Slavic and German Baptists, which were active in the Second Polish Republic in the 1930's.

In the history of the initiative to create the Evangelical Baptist Church, the author of the research has singled out several main stages. The distant one, during which the very idea of the initiative originated, and the direct one, when the work on the implementation of the initiative was started. The first stage of that initiative dated the first half of the 1930's. In particular, the paper briefly analyzes the first sporadic contacts and meetings between the leaders of German and Slavic Baptist communities and the leaders of the Evangelical Christians Mutual Aid Society.

In addition, the author attempts to analyze the reaction of other later Protestant denominations to the mentioned initiative of the Slavic and German Baptists during the interwar decades, in particular, on the basis of processed archival and journalistic materials (mainly the articles in confessional magazines «The Guest» and «The Messenger of Truth» of 1938), the author concludes that there was a negative, and sometimes even hostile attitude to such initiative of the Baptists of the Second Polish Republic, on the part of the closest, according to the ecclesiological model, theological doctrine and cult practices, communities of the Evangelical Christians and some of the Baptist communities, which after 1927 continued to operate in organizations, unions and associations, common with the Evangelical Christians. The paper analyzes the main stages of the establishment of the Evangelical Baptist Church Typicon. The main stages of the creation of the mentioned document are named and a brief analysis of the parts of the latter is made.

In addition, for the first time in Ukrainian historiography, the analysis of law drafts that determined the conditions for the creation and existence of the Evangelical Baptist Church in the case of positive decision by the Ministry of Religion and Public Education of the Second Polish Republic is carried out.