Characteristics of our Church

The characteristics of the Evangelical Reformed Church can be summarized by these key words:

Christian. We declare ourselves to be part of the Body of Christ?the Christian church. We continue the witness to the reality and power of the crucified and risen Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

Reformed. Our denominations arose from the tradition of the Protestant Reformers: We confess the authority of one God. We affirm the primacy of the Scriptures, the doctrine of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the principle of Christian freedom. We celebrate two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper .

Evangelical. The primary task of the church is the proclamation of the Gospel or (in Greek) evangel. The Gospel literally means the ”Good News” of God’s love revealed with power in Jesus Christ. This proclamation is the heart of the daily and Sunday worship. We gather for the worship of God. In Europe, ”evangelical” did not suggest, as it does in the United States today, a kind of religious conservatism or fundamentalism, but simply ”of the Gospel”

Our Partners

We are a member church of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and World Council of Churches. Among our well established friends we have the Eglise Reformée de France, the Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church in the USA, the Dutch Uniting Protestant Churches, the Presbyterian Church of Canada and many others. In Poland we have traditional, cordial relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession, as well as with the Polish Methodist Church. We are devoted to ecumenism and dialogue, and we are proud to say that we were one of the founding members of the Polish Ecumenical Council.

Frequently Asked Questions

1) When were you founded?

The Polish Reformed church was founded in 1551 in Southern Poland. In the course of time it existed in three entities, sometimes simultaneously: The Greater Poland Brethren (till 1817), the Lesser Poland Brethren (till 1849), and the Lithuanian Brethren (till 1939). In 1849 the Warsaw Brethren was formed which continued the tradition of the first two above-mentioned Brethren. After World War II it was reorganized as the Polish Evangelical Reformed Church which continues to-day the rich tradition of Polish Reformed Christianity.

2) How many members do you have?

We lack precise statistics, but we normally speak of c. 4000 members grouped in 9 congregations and eight other places of worship. On an average Sunday there is c. 800 attendants in churches across Poland. The parishes vary greatly in size from Warsaw (c. 400 members), through Łódź (ca.120 members) to Pstrążna (14 members). We are a tiny minority in a population of 38 million Poles.