INDEPENDENT VERSION
Byelorussian
Orthodox Church (of Russian Orthodox Church)
Within
the territory of the Republic of Poland there were five eparchies:
Warsaw-Kholm, Volyn, Polyessye,
Grodno and Vilno.
They used to give access to Holy
Liturgy to about five million native Orthodox population of all Poland,
and formed the Autocefalous Orthodox Church of Poland. Its autocefaly was
granted in 1924 by Grigory III, the Constantinople Patriarch, at the application
of the Episcopate and the government. But the only legal document, allegedly,
regulating the status of the Orthodox Church in this republic, was the
so-called "Provisional rules of government’s relation towards the
Orthodox Church in Poland", signed by the minister of education and
belief" in 1922.
One can judge about the significance
of this docu ment by the fact, that it did not prevent the slow destruction
of a unique church in Warsaw (comparable with the Christ the Saviour Church
in Moscow ). The church, dedicated to Saint Alexander Nevski - the Great
Prince, was a gift from Russia to the Orthodox people of Poland and of
its capital. In 1925 the Polish government and the Pope of Rome signed
the Concordat which declared Catholicism the dominant religion of Poland.
A bacchanalia began – of destroying
everything Orthodox: half of the 1.500 churches belonging to the Orthodox
Church of Poland were taken away from believers; 140 churches were destroyed
in 1938 only, and 150 churches and homes for prayer were destroyed in addition,
before the beginning of World War II.
Alongside this, almost all Byelorussian
and Ukrainian national schools were closed. Total Polonization of Byelorussians
began under the government program, since 1934. Since then, teaching the
Law of God, and priests’ sermons were to be in Polish, only.
Alongside this, it was only on
November 18, 1938 that the president of the Polish republic and the minister
for religious beliefs signed «The Inner Statutes of the Holy Polish
Autocefalous Church», and the president’s decree on the legal existence
of the Orthodox Church in the country was published.
go
back
TEAM
ll GENERAL
ll SEARCH EAST BLOCK ll
SEARCH RUSSIA ll HOME ll
CHURCH ll SPONSORS
ll INVESTMENT PROPOSITION ll
BUSINESS&ECONOMICS ll GALLERY
ll INDEX
(c)
1996 V&S < Minsk Belarus >
Click Here
to Return Back
Webmasters,
contact Belarus.net support
Click Here
to visit Belarus.net
