Jan Szarek (13 February 1936 – 8 October 2020) was a Polish bishop of the

Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Republic of Poland ( pl, Kościół Ewangelicko-Augsburski w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Lutheran denomination and the largest Protestant body in Poland with about 61,000 members and ...

. He was also the head of the

Polish Ecumenical Council Polish Ecumenical Council ( pl, Polska Rada Ekumeniczna) founded in 1946 to promote interchurch cooperation includes nearly all churches except the Polish Roman Catholic Church. In 1989 member churches included the Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, B ...

from 1993 to 2001. He held an honorary doctorate from the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw.

Biography

Szarek was born in

Bielsko Bielsko (german: Bielitz, cs, Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that tow ...

and raised in the Lutheran faith. From 1956 to 1960 he studied theology at the Christian Theological Academy, which he completed with the defense of the thesis entitled "The life and activity of Tomasz Muenzer and his attitude to the reformation of Martin Luther." He was ordained a priest by Bishop Andrzej Wantuła on 25 September 1960 in the Church of the Savior in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...

. After his ordination Szarek became the vicar of the parish in Nawiady from 1960 to 1962. From 1962 to 1970 he was the head of the Lutheran parish in

Giżycko Giżycko (former pl, Lec or ''Łuczany''; ; lt, Leičių pilis) is a town in northeastern Poland with 28,597 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated between Lake Kisajno and Lake Niegocin in the region of Masuria, and has been within ...

, and later from 1970 to 1975 he served as the diocesan vicar in Bielsko-Biała, where in 1975 he was elected as the second parish priest. In 1979 he was entrusted with the function of the Consignor of the Cieszyn Diocese, and in December 1980 he was elected the bishop of the Diocese. In this position, he established the first Evangelical bookstore "Logos" in

Cieszyn Cieszyn ( , ; cs, Těšín ; german: Teschen; la, Tessin; szl, Ćeszyn) is a border town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has 33,500 inhabitant ...

and contributed to the construction of the Augustana Publishing Center, which opened in 1992. On 6 January 1991, the Synod of the Church elected him the Bishop of the Church. On 3 May 1991 at the Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw he was consecrated as the bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland, he was consecrated by his predecessor Bishop Janusz Narzyński. In 1993 Szarek was elected president of the

for a five-year term. In 1996 he was re-elected to this position. He met three times with

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

: in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

in 1991, in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

in 1997, and in

Drohiczyn Drohiczyn () ( lt, Drohičinas/Drogičinas, be, Дарагічын, ua, Дорогочин, Дорогичин, ''Dorohochyn'', ''Dorohychyn'') is a town in Siemiatycze County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland. The town has a population of 2,110 ...

in 1999. As a representative of the Church in Poland, he participated in the General Assemblies of the

World Lutheran Federation The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...

and the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...

. Throughout his life Szarek was associated with the so-called social movement in Polish Evangelicalism, following in the example of Karol Kulisz. In March 2000, the Synod elected him the first president of the Polish Diakonia. He held this position until 2005, when he was replaced by Bishop

Ryszard Bogusz Ryszard Bogusz (born 2 March 1951 in Bielsko-Biała) is a Lutheran theologian and bishop of the ''diocese Wroclaw'' of the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland. In 1976 he entered as vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, ...

. In 2001, he received an honorary doctorate from the Christian Academy of Theology in Warsaw. Szarek was married to Aniela, an economist who worked as the head of a department of the

National Bank of Poland The Narodowy Bank Polski (; the National Bank of Poland), often abbreviated to NBP, is the central bank of Poland, founded in 1945. It controls the issuing of Poland's currency, the Polish złoty. The bank is headquartered in Warsaw, and has bran ...

. Aniela was also the author of articles in the pages of the Evangelical Herald and the Evangelical Calendar. The couple had two children, a son Piotr and a daughter Ewa. Piotr is also a Lutheran priest like his father. Aniela died on 5 January 2019. Szarek died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on 8 October 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Poland The COVID-19 pandemic in Poland is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). In February and March 2020, health authorities in Poland carried out laborato ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szarek, Jan 1936 births 2020 deaths People from Bielsko Polish Lutheran bishops 20th-century Lutheran bishops 21st-century Lutheran bishops Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland