26.09.2002
Poland: UNESCO World Heritage List Church of Peace Marks 350th Anniversary
LWF President Krause: Joint Will to a Shared Profession of Faith Has GrownSWIDNICA, Poland/GENEVA, 26 September 2002 (LWI) – The 350th anniversary of the Holy Trinity Church of Peace and its inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List was celebrated during an ecumenical thanksgiving service in Swidnica, Poland.
In a September 8 sermon in the Church of Peace in Swidnica, the President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop emeritus Dr. Christian Krause, pointed out that although the 2001 inclusion of the church as a world cultural heritage came rather late, just as its first phase of renovation was being completed, the timing was particularly appropriate to the start of a new millennium.
The Churches of Peace in Jawor, Poland and in the historic region of Silesia are also on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Rev. Waldemar Pytel of Swidnica noted that the two churches are the first churches on the UNESCO list to be built by Protestant Christians for Protestant Christians. They have remained under Protestant ownership since their founding.
Rev. Janusz Jagucki, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland, said Krause’s participation in the celebrations was not only significant for the church’s position in the country, but also a great honor for the Lutheran church in Poland.
In his sermon Krause, said the history of Swidnica’s Church of Peace was also a history of uninhibited power and bitter suffering, a story of oppression and senseless destruction.” The building permits for the churches in Swidnica, Jawor, and a third church in Glogów, were issued on 13 August 1652, a few years after the end of the Thirty Years’ War.
Although permission to construct a building was subject to stringent conditions, there was nevertheless reason for Protestant Christians to have renewed hope, Krause said, “The persistent will to one’s confession and the loyalty to Protestantism inspired great effort and achievement in building and creating this church.” The building sites were restricted to locations outside the cities and churches could only be built from wood, straw and clay. A church spire and bells were forbidden, and the construction period was limited to only one year.
This is why the Church of Peace is Swidnica, with capacity for up to 7,000 people, has four wooden galleries arranged one above the other. The LWF president emphasized that history was irreversible, “but its consequences, which we are prepared to accept for the present day and for the future of our children, present us with a new challenge.” The former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Germany, said that even in recent history, the long path the city has taken from being Schweidnitz, a German city, to Swidnica, today’s Polish city, has even recently been no less plagued by the abuse of power, war, expulsion and ideological oppression.
It should be remembered with gratitude that after all the rejections and condemnations of the past, a joint will to a shared profession of faith has grown. In view of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification between the LWF and Roman Catholic Church on 31 October 1999 in Augsburg, Germany, Krause said that he hoped “for growing communion between our churches.”
The LWF president expressed deep gratitude for the enormous efforts by many people from Poland and Germany towards the churches’ restoration. The Swidnica church, where Krause’s father was baptized in 1891 and later confirmed, can now be used again by the congregation and serve its purpose—as a Church of Peace.
“If we wish to inherit the cultural achievements of our fathers and mothers, we must comprehend that the living witness of Christ and artistic creative power go hand in hand, as they do in the Church of Peace in Swidnica,” Krause said. He concluded his sermon: “This is the only way for a culture of peace and mercifulness to grow and emanate from us.”
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland has approximately 80,000 members. It has been an LWF member church since 1947.
If you want to edit this article yourself and adapt it to a given format, follow our editing information
