Polish Union Conference
Established in 1921
Subfields: East Polish Conference, South Polish Conference, West Polish Conference
Churches: 115
Address: Foksal 8, 00-366 Warszawa, Poland
Website: adwent.pl
Email: [email protected]
The history of church in Poland
The Seventh-day Adventist message came to Poland in 1888, a very difficult time for the nation. Adventist beginnings in Poland were an indirect result of the mission of Michael Belina Czechowski, although he did not work in his native country, so far as the records indicate.
L R Conradi went to the Crimea in 1886. It was in 1888 that Herman Szkubowiec, the first Pole to become an Adventist, was converted. The same year he moved to Zarnovek, Volhynia, eastern Poland, where he established the first Adventist church. Pastor Jan Loubhan from the Crimea baptised a group of Polish believers there. From Zarnowek two Polish Adventists, Karol Fendel and Jozef Szlodzinski, went to Lodz in the Kingdom of Poland and converted the Baptist family of Wilhelm Lach and others. The first Adventist believers in Lodz worshipped in Lach’s house, and a church was organised in 1895. In 1903 Pastor Henry Loebsack from Russia held a series of meeting in Lodz and baptised many new believers.
In Poznan, western Poland, the Adventist church was organised by a German Pastor Gerhart Perk in 1895. One of the prominent converts there was Stanislaw Zielinski, who later became a successful minister and also brought his own brother into the ministry.
In 1903 in Silesia, south Poland, the first church was established in Bielsko Biala, Jan Peter’s hometown, who had accepted the message in Germany or Austria, and returned home to win the first believers. Other churches in Silesia followed (Cleszyn, Skoczow, Wisla, Brenna, and Jaworze), largely through the work of Pastors Jozef and Michal Niedoba. Many Polish ministers came from these churches. In 1912 at Opaca (now in Slovakia), Silesia, the Moravian-Silesian Mission was organised, embracing the Cieszynian-Moravian area, which was also part of southern Poland, with Leopold Mathe as president.
In central Poland, Pastor Herbert Schmitz began evangelistic work in the capital Warsaw. Since he could not speak Polish, he began his work going from house to house reading the names on the doors, he knocked wherever he found a German name, and when admitted presented Adventist beliefs. As a result of his missionary endeavours, after a few months, the first Adventist church in Warsaw was organised. In 1912 the churches in the Polish Kingdom were organised as the Warsaw Mission Conference led by Herbert Schmitz and in 1913 by Theodore Will from Volhynia. This conference was the nucleus of the future Polish Union.