{"id":2393,"date":"2019-02-04T19:35:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2019\/02\/04\/polish-adventists-meet-with-president-andrzej-duda\/"},"modified":"2019-02-04T19:35:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:35:00","slug":"polish-adventists-meet-with-president-andrzej-duda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/polish-adventists-meet-with-president-andrzej-duda\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish Adventists meet with President Andrzej Duda"},"content":{"rendered":"

4 February 2019 | Warsaw, Poland [Daniel Kluska\/tedNEWS]
<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite differences in faith and ethnicity, we create a national community of people on Polish soil,\u201d emphasized Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland during a meeting with representatives of all major churches, religious associations and ethnic and national minorities present in Poland.<\/p>\n

Four leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Poland were among the invitees who met at the Presidential Place on Friday, 18 January 2019.\"PUC<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Andrzej Sici\u0144ski, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the Polish Adventist Church, this demonstrates recognition at the highest state level for religious pluralism within the country.  \u201cFrom the perspective of a religious minority this is extremely valuable,\u201d he stated.  While the Adventist representatives did not have the opportunity to speak in the public forum, the event did give them a chance to share Adventist values during the more informal discussions surrounding the meeting.<\/p>\n

This annual event has given Sici\u0144ski the opportunity to meet with four presidents over the years, and to note the way perceptions have changed.<\/p>\n

Those perceptions are valuable for President Duda.  \u201cI am very happy because our meeting is an important element within the existence of the Polish community,\u201d he stated, noting that it was a \u201cbeautiful show\u201d of how the citizens of the Republic, those who live on Polish soil, and those who live in a tradition shaped here for centuries, can live harmoniously together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New Year’s meeting of the President of the Republic of Poland with representatives of various churches is an important event in our country,\u201d states Pastor Ryszard Jankowski, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Poland.  \u201cIt has a special character. The President expresses his thanks to the churches for their activities and stresses the importance of tolerance and proper relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jankowski also appreciated the emphasis that in Poland, according to President Duda, there is full openness to Christian values.<\/p>\n

According to Index Mundi<\/a>, 87.2 percent of the population regard themselves as Catholic, while only 0.4 percent are Protestant, mainly Evangelical or Pentecostal.  The 5,796 Adventists fall within that 0.4 percent<\/em>.*  Despite being such a small group with the 38.5 million population of the country, Adventists are recognised for the positive impact they make on society.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing invited to the meeting,\u201d according to Jankowski, \u201cindicates that as a religious community we are noticed and appreciated. Our contribution to health, social and charity programmes is noticed.\u201d\"PUC<\/a><\/p>\n

However, the meeting is more than just a nice get-together.  \u201cAs a church called to preach a special message, we have a lot to offer,\u201d Jankowski adds. \u201cWe should share more with the message of Jesus, in which there is a message of love, forgiveness and building good interpersonal relations. We Adventists should serve as an example and be above any political and social divisions. However, we should never forget that building unity should not be at the expense of fidelity to God’s principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of this year\u2019s witness was the opportunity to share a copy of the book Desire of Ages<\/em> with the President and his wife during a short conversation.  The Adventist delegation also presented them with a CD compilation of 100 Adventist programmes, a reference to the recent 100th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations of Polish independence.<\/p>\n

There are those who are critical of church leaders meeting with politicians.  Marek Che\u0142mi\u0144ski, who serves in the Polish Union\u2019s Western Conference responds, positively to such criticism. \u201cWe Adventists have two homelands – the most important and eternal \u2013 heavenly one, as well as the temporary, present community of people in which we live. Not attending such meetings leads to a kind of self-alienation and misses opportunities for positive dialogue.\u201d  He notes that the Bible shares many instances of such dialogue.<\/p>\n

Jankowski is aware of the differences but appreciates the opportunities.  \u201cWe must be fully aware that we are a religious community that underlines the importance of the decalogue in the lives of believers,\u201d he states.  \u201cIt is not enough to know God’s commandments, but to observe them every day. They are an expression of God’s love and care for the wellbeing of every human being. As the Church, we still have a lot to do so that the extraordinary beauty of the love, goodness and mercy of Jesus will be strongly portrayed in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Membership statistics as of December 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Sajitha Forde-Ralph, associate editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted.adventist.org<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Website: www.ted.adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. Readers are free to republish or share this article with appropriate credit including an active hyperlink to the original article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 February 2019 | Warsaw, Poland [Daniel Kluska\/tedNEWS]
<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite differences in faith and ethnicity, we create a national community of people on Polish soil,\u201d emphasized Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland during a meeting with representatives of all major churches, religious associations and ethnic and national minorities present in Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577,1591],"tags":[63,82],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates","category-poland","tag-parl","tag-poland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}