The Methodist Church

Sobota, 7 Sierpien 1993

[ transcribed history of the church: ]

Przemysl used to be a large military community on Poland's eastern boarder. In 1915, religions other than Catholic were allowed to register as official churches.

The Przemysl Methodists started out meeting in homes until they had enough people to register as an official church, which they did in 1924. The Catholics didn't like it - they threw rocks and destroyed the church, so the people met outside... in 1931, the Methodist group finally began meeting outside the town, and at that point, they were left alone.

In 1850, a group of Swedes owned a building on this land. At some point in time it was a Swiss Evangelical Church. After World War I, it became an Augsburg Evangelical Church, and after World War II, that group gave the building to the Methodists.

During Russian occupation prior to 1941, the building was used for storage. In 1942 - 1945, the Germans held the country. After 1945, the Methodists were allowed to worship here. Under the Russian Communists, Polish Methodists were allowed to worship, but outsiders were not.

In 1964, the building was renovated with money from Swiss churches.

A building program has been underway - 270 families had saved up $35,000, which would have been enough to finish the project (an annex building), but inflation hit horribly, and they ran out of money. It would probably take $150,000 to finish the project now.

The minister is actually trained and ordained as a missionary - the nearest Methodist church is 80 km away, and it's a mission church started by the Przemysl group. The nearest independent Methodist church is 160 km away.

There are Methodists who live in the villages around Przemysl, but the busses don't run on Sundays, and the majority of people don't drive.


Maintained by: Charles Wolff
Updated: 3/23/98