Orthodox Church in Poland

The main principle determining the relations between the Orthodox Church and secular authorities is that of synergy, or cooperation. This means that the Church cooperates with the State with respect to the development of Christian morality and the enhancement of the spiritual advancement of the citizens. The Church supports the State wherever it promotes love, good and tolerance. However, if secular authorities turn anti-religious, the Church prays for their conversion, calls on them to reconsider their ways and leave the path of errors.

This type of co-existence ensures that the authorities which follow in their conduct Christian ethics and morality will find the Church as their ardent supporter and collaborator. Otherwise, the Church will be an indefatigable critic of those in power, despite their disapproval of or hostility to the Church’s activity (with the attendant legal and administrative sanctions).

Orthodox Christianity on Polish soil until the establishment of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church

Orthodoxy has been present in territories that belonged to Poland since the 9th c. Debates as to its origins focus on two main issues: the area of presence and the lasting effect of the missionary work of Cyril and Methodius on the lands of the state of the Vistulans tribe. Traces of worship in the Slavic rite can be found, among others, in Krakow, Wiślica and Przemyśl. These cities were not controlled by the Latin Church and remained under the impact of the Byzantine civilisation with Slavic liturgy and the Cirillic script. The Church founded by Methodius, operating in southern Poland, was practically non-existent already during the reign of Bolesław the Brave; because of the adoption of Christianity by Prince Mieszko I, Poland had already entered the Latin zone of influence.

When the Polish territories were adopting Christianity, Kievan Rus’ accepted baptism from Constantinople. The Orthodox Church developed fast in Kievan Rus’. When the borders of the Polish state moved eastwards, the population living in the new lands were Orthodox Christians. In 1303 the Patriarch of Constantinople agreed to establish a metropolis in Halych. In 1370 there were 3 Orthodox metropolises: in Kiev, Novogrodek and Halych, with bishop’s sees in Turov, Chełm, Vladimir, Luck, and Przemyśl.

In the joint Polish-Lithuanian state (The Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania) despite the various legal constraints, the Orthodox Church managed to retain relative stability. In the second half of the 16th c. the metropolis was located in Kiev, while episcopal sees were located in Polock, Smolensk, Turov, Chernihov, Chełm, Vladimir, Luck, Przemyśl, and Lviv.

When a division into two Churches was a fact in the world, in the Polish Republic successive rulers attempted on a number of occasions to establish a formal union between the Churches operating on Polish territory. Until the late 16th c. such attempts were to no avail, however. During the Synod of Brest in 1595 the Orthodox bishops in the Republic of Poland signed a union with the Roman Catholic Church, promulgated that same year in Rome. Opposing the union were two Orthodox bishops, church fraternities, the nobility, a large section of lower clergy and Prince Konstanty Ostrogski, who publicly expressed his opposition in Parliament, claiming that the action taken by the bishops were non-canonical. Konstanty Ostrogski, one of the most eminent magnates of Orthodox denomination, demanded a union with the participation of the patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow, retaining the jurisdiction structure of the Church, and its approval by the general council. Despite these protests, the union was approved by King Sigmund ІІІ. This changed the status of the Orthodox Church in the Polish Kingdom. All the previous privileges and the entire property were automatically re-assigned to the Uniate Church, and Orthodox bishops were no longer recognised by the state as representatives of a religious community.

The union in effect meant that the Orthodox Church became illegal in the Polish Kingdom. The next few decades of the 17th c. was a time of less or more intense persecution of the Church and the struggle of the faithful for their rights. The pressure proved so powerful, however, that ever new parishes and monasteries renounced Orthodoxy.

Without the king’s knowledge and consent, in 1620 the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophanes, on his way back from Moscow, where he consecrated Patriarch Philaret, protected by Cossack troops consecrated in Kiev the local Metropolitan Job Borecki and six bishops. The Orthodox hierarchy was not recognised by the authorities and the newly ordained bishops could not be installed in their cathedrals. Nevertheless, they performed their ministry residing in monasteries or in courts of Orthodox nobility. Ultimately, in 1633 the authorities of the Polish Kingdom approved the legal status of the Kievan Metropolis, recognising Peter Mohyla as the metropolitan in accordance with the right of succession and blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople. This difficult period for the Orthodox Church had its bright moments, too. It was marked by an intense activity of church fraternities, i.e. a greater commitment and involvement of the laity in the life of the Church. It was also a time of a reform of ecclesiastical life, ushered in by Metropolitan Peter Mohyla.

In 1676 Polish Parliament (Sejm) adopted following the motion of King John III Sobieski a constitution that forbade the Orthodox in the Polish Republic to have contacts with the patriarchate of Constantinople. As a result, the successor elected after the death of Metropolitan of Kiev Jerzy Tukalski, Prince Gedeon Czetwertyński-Światopełk, went to Moscow to obtain the blessing of a patriarch and his approval of the election (1685). This event is seen as the official assumption by the patriarchate of Moscow of supervision over the Church in the Polish Kingdom. The ecumenical patriarchate approved it officially the following year.

In the late 17th c. successive Orthodox bishops joined the Brest Union. The last Orthodox bishop in the Polish Kingdom, Bishop of Luck Dionizy Żabokrzycki, did that in 1702. Only in the last years before the partitions of Poland did the situation change for the better slightly, and the state officially recognised one Orthodox diocese (Byellorussian, with the episcopal see in Mogilev).

In the late 18th c. the Orthodox Church in the Polish Republic tried to gain autonomy. The clergy and lay delegates gathered at a congregation in Pinsk (convened on 15 June 1791) adopted a draft law for the operation of the Orthodox Church in Poland. The Church, headed by one metropolitan and three bishops, was to be completely autonomous. It recognised the authority of the ecumenical patriarch only in matters related to dogmas. The draft law was submitted to the Sejm and on 21 May 1792 approved as a constitution. The outbreak of a war in defence of the 3 May Constitution and the second and third partitions of Poland prevented the law from entering into force.

In the early 19th c., when the Congress Kingdom was established, joined by a personal union with the Russian Empire, the political conditions for the Orthodox Church changed; unified with the Russian Orthodox Church, it began to revive. In 1834 an Orthodox bishop’s see was established in Warsaw. The policy of unification with the Russian Orthodox Church meant a principal change of the system of the Church into that governed by a synod and consistory. As of the 1820s the Uniates began to return to the Orthodox Church. An additional political measure was the recognition of the unlawful nature of the Brest Union in the occupied territories by the tsarist authorities in 1839. In 1874 all the Uniates in the Polish Kingdom were made to accept Orthodoxy. From the perspective of the Orthodox Church, the return of the Uniates to Orthodoxy was treated as a natural return to the faith of the ancestors, but the Orthodox Bishop of Warsaw did not approve of the methods used by the regime. Therefore the liquidation of the Union took place without the active participation of Orthodox clergy.

A markedly different situation occurred in the Polish territories annexed by Austria, where the Uniate Church developed dynamically. Until 1700 all Orthodox bishops from this territory joined the Union of Brest. However, the last Orthodox monastery of Skit Maniawski survived in this area until 1785 and was closed down on the orders of Emperor Joseph II.

A network of parishes on Polish territory was developed within the Russian Orthodox Church between1863-1915. Orthodox churches were built in centres of many towns, e.g. the highest church in Warsaw of St. Alexander Nevsky, churches in Kalisz and in Radom, on what is now Plac Konstytucji 3 Maja, the Church of All Saints in Piotrków Trybunalski, and another one in Siedlce. World War I was a time of Беженство for the Orthodox Church on Polish territories. The term denotes a great exodus of Orthodox Christians into the Russian Empire and caused by World War I. Between1915-1917 the activity of the Orthodox Church was practically halted in the territories left by the local population. Orthodox clergy left together with the faithful. The Orthodox churches, left unattended, were pillaged and plundered. The refugees who between1915-1922 lived in Russia witnessed the decline of two authorities: of the tsar and of the Orthodox Church. On returning to their own homes, they encountered a new reality. The authorities of the reborn Polish state treated Orthodoxy as a remnant of the occupying regime and were not favourably disposed to the faithful of the Church. A period of repossession and a struggle for the right of the Orthodox Church to churches and monasteries followed; it was a period of trials and tribulations for the Orthodox Church and her faithful.

In 1918, the Polish state re-appeared on maps of Europe after many years of non-existence. Both the state and the local Orthodox Church were free again. During the partitions, the autonomous Kiev Metropolis – of the entire Orthodox Church in Poland – was subjected to the Patriarchate of Moscow. The independence of the state was coupled with the autonomy of the Orthodox Church. The biggest legal drawback was the indeterminate status of the Orthodox Church in Poland and the relation of the state towards it.

The internal status of the Church called for a speedy recognition. We left the time of partitions as part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Before the partitions the Polish territories were the metropolis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. No wonder, then, that the unity with the Ecumenical Patriarchate was stressed. This, however, did not guarantee complete freedom and equality of rights. A status of an autocephalous church was the only viable alternative.

Attempts to reach this status were made as early as 1920. The state supported these actions, which claimed a heavy toll; Metropolitan Jerzy Jaroszewski was assassinated in 1923 by an opponent of the independence of Polish Orthodoxy. This did not curtail work on the Church’s autonomy; the work was continued by the newly elected Metropolitan Dionizy Walendynski.

On 11 November 1924, following strenuous efforts, by the decree of the patriarch and synod in Constantinople, the Orthodox Church in Poland gained the status of an autocephalous church. It was promulgated in Warsaw Cathedral on 17 September 1925. This event was widely commented not only in Poland, but across Europe. The faithful had the full right to make decisions about their Church.

All the time Poland has been at an intersection of western and eastern Christian rites. Because of the territorial changes, the Polish state came to a greater or lesser contact with eastern Christianity, as the eastern frontier was moveable and often ran across areas inhabited by Christians of the eastern rite. There have been numerous marriages between representatives of both rites.

Structure of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church in Poland is composed of six dioceses: Warsaw and Bielsk, Białystok and Gdańsk, Łódź and Poznań, Przemyśl and Nowy Sącz, Wrocław and Szczecin, and Lublin and Chełm. The Church has a Military Ordinariate, whose bishop has the rank of a one-star general. There are ten bishops, six diocesan and four auxiliary ones. The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church has jurisdiction over overseas units in Brazil headed by two bishops – a diocesan and an auxiliary one. They are followed in the order of importance in the diocese by deaneries that gather neighbouring parishes.

Monastic life

At present there are such monasteries as the Stauropegic Monastery of St. Onuphrius in Jabłeczna, Monastery of the Annunciation of the Virgin in Supraśl, Monastery of the Visitation of the Virgin in Zwierki, Monastery of St. Maria and Martha on Holy Mount Grabarka, Monastery of St. St. Cyril and Methodius in Ujkowice and religious homes of St. Dimitry of Solunsk in Saki, of St. Catherine in Zaleszany, of the Protection of the Mother of God in Wojnów, of the Protection of the Mother of God in Wysowa, of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Saki and a newly established one in Turkowice.

Education and catechesis

Religious education in the Orthodox Church in Poland takes place in two basic directions: education at all levels and specialised education of future clergy. A logical conclusion is the correlation of general and specialised education. The moment Orthodox religion could be taught in schools, by the decree of Archbishop Sawa, then the Archbishop of Białystok and Gdańsk, the Diocesan Educational Institute was established at the Christian Academy of Theology. It helped R.E. teachers gain necessary pedagogical expertise. Methodologists and Visitors for catechesis were appointed.

At present the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church runs an Seminary of Orthodox Theology in Warsaw, a Study of Icon Writing in Bielsk Podlaski, a school of Psalmists and Church Directors in Hajnówka. Students of the Orthodox denomination learn at the Christian Academy of Theology and at the Chair of Orthodox Theology of Białystok University. Other forms of education take place in Culture Institutes of individual dioceses and at Supraśl Academy.

ed. Tomasz Tarasiuk, cerkiew.pl