Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia, ELCL) is a Lutheran church body comprising congregations in Lithuania. The ELCL is a member of the Porvoo Communion and the Lutheran World Federation.

In 2018 the ELCL reported having 19,000 active members. There are 52 congregations, and around 30 ordained clergy, including the bishop and two deacons. The current bishop () of the church is the Rt Revd Mindaugas Sabutis.

Around 0.56% of the population of Lithuania are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania.

The abbreviated name for the church is in Latin, Unitas Lithuaniae or in Polish, Jednota Litewska (Lithuanian church provincial union).

History

Lutheranism in the Grand Duchy

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania dates back to the Reformation, when Kaunas, a large town in Lithuania, accepted the Augsburg Confession in 1550. In the 16th century Lutheranism started to spread from the two German-controlled neighbouring states of Livonia to the north and the Protestant formerly monastic, Teutonic State of Prussia to its south.

A united reformed church organization in Lithuania's church province can be counted from the year 1557 at the Synod in Vilnius on December 14 of that year. From that year the Synod met regularly forming all the church provinces of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania, at first from two and later growing to six districts and representative district synods. It sent its representatives to the General Polish/Lithuanian Synods; however in its administration it was in fact a self-governing Church. The first Superintendent was Simonas Zacijus (Szymon Zacjusz, approx 1507–1591).

In 1565 the anti- Trinitarian Lithuanian Brotherhood who rejected the learning of the Trinity separated from the church.

The parish network covered nearly all of The Grand Duchy. Its district centers were Vilnius, Kedainai, Biržai, Slucke, Kojdanove and Zabludove later Izabeline.

Prussian Lithuania

Since 1945 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania has included Lutheran congregations in the formerly German Klaipėda Region, the northern part of Lithuania Minor, where Lutheranism dates back to 1525. The majority of Prussian Lithuanians living in East Prussia and in Memelland (what is now the Klaipėda Region of modern Lithuania) were members of the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union, and most of them were resettled in the Federal Republic of Germany along with the rest of the East Prussian German inhabitants after World War II.

Since 1525 Lutheranism started spreading among Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor, which comprised about a quarter of Ducal Prussia,Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: I. Das litauische Siedlungsgebiet in Ostpreussen; Angaben zur Bevölkerungsstatistik; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011. the first state to officially adopt Lutheranism as state religion. Ducal Prussia emerged from the Roman Catholic Teutonic Prussia, which, however, only had superficially missioned the rural, mostly Lithuanian population and thus only erected few churches.Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 2. Reformatorische Anfänge; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011.

The Prussian Lithuanians were only thoroughly Christianised starting with the Reformation in Prussia, the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Prussia by the Church Order decided on 10 December 1525. Already on 18 January 1524 Bishop George I of Pomesania (and Samland), who had converted to Lutheranism in 1523, ordered to only use native languages at baptisms. The widespread pagan worship of Perkūnas, symbolised by the goat buck, was forbidden in the same year, and repeated in 1540. The Church Order provided for visitations of the parishioners and pastors, first carried out by Bishop George I in 1538. The principal usage of the native language secured the survival of the Lithuanian language in Prussia.

In 1544 Albert, Duke of Prussia founded the Albertina University, Königsberg in Prussia/Karaliaučius, which became the principal educational establishment for Lutheran pastors and theologians of Lithuanian language. At the same time the Counter-Reformation reduced the number of Protestants in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Lithuania proper). Right in 1544 Duke Albert appointed Lutheran pastors, who had fled anti-Protestant oppression in the Grand Duchy, as professors at the Albertina, namely Stanislovas Rapolionis (who finished his doctorate at Wittenberg University with a ducal scholarship) and Abraomas Kulvietis (exiled 1542).Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 5. Die Pfarrer und ihre Ausbildung; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011.

More refugees from Lithuania proper followed and became pastors in various parishes, such as Martynas Mažvydas, who published the Lutheran '' Catechismusa Prasty Szadei'' in 1547. Among the first native Prussian Lithuanian pastors were Johannes Bretke/Jonas Bretkūnas (pastoring in Labiau/Labguva (Polessk) and later in Königsberg), who published a Lithuanian hymnal in 1589, and wrote the first Lithuanian translation of the Bible between 1590 and 1591.Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 6. Das Kirkliche Schrifttum; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011. Thus the Reformation brought to Lithuania Minor and Lithuania proper the first printed book in the Lithuanian language, the Lutheran Catechism (1547), and later (1591) the first Lithuanian Bible, which was not printed before the 18th century, however.

Counter Reformation and decline of the Church

With the dwindling of Protestantism in Lithuania proper after the 17th century, the Prussian Lithuanian Lutheran clergy consisted mostly of natives, many of German language, who had learned Lithuanian only as a second language.

In 1525, the Lutheran church had churches in only nine places in Lithuania Minor, to wit Gerdau/Girdava (Zheleznodorozhny), Insterburg/Įsrutis (Chernyakhovsk), Memel/Klaipėda (three churches, one of Lithuanian language), Puschdorf- Stablack/Stablaukis (Stabławki), Ragnit/Ragainė (Neman), Saalau/Želva (Kamenskoye), Tapiau/Tepliava (Gvardeysk), Tilsit/Tilžė (Sovetsk), and Wehlau/Vėluva (Znamensk). By 1531, more parishes had been founded; several of them were supervised by an archpriest (later called superintendent) on behalf of the bishop or the Pomesanian Consistory (est. in 1602 in Saalfeld in Prussia/Zaalfeld (Zalewo)), after giving up the episcopate in 1587).

Between 1529 and 1600, 31 Lutheran churches, mostly simple structures, were erected in Lithuania Minor.Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 3. Die Entwicklung des Kirchbaus; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011. By the end of the 17th century, the number of Lutheran parishes in Lithuania Minor reached 112, with 68 offering Lithuanian services before the great plague (1709–1711), which killed about half the population and reduced the parishes with Lithuanian services to 59.Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 4. Gemeinden und Kirchspiele; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011. In most parishes with services in Lithuanian and German, the same pastor served both language groups. Only in the cities of Königsberg ( Church of St. Nicholas, Steindamm; Lithuanian Church of St. Elisabeth, and Sackheim), Memel, and Tilsit were separate churches exclusively used for parishes of Lithuanian language. Between 1700 and 1918, another 51, usually more massive, churches were erected.

In order to restaff orphaned pastorates after the plague, King Frederick William I of Prussia established two departments: in 1718, the ''Lithuanian Seminary'' (german: Litauisches Seminar, lt, Lietuvių kalbos seminaras closed in 1944) at Albertina, and in 1727, another one ( Halės lietuvių kalbos seminaras) at the University of Halle upon Saale, closed in 1740. Johann Jakob Quandt, who also published a Lithuanian bible, a milestone in Lithuanian language standardization that was translated by him and a team of nine other theologians, was the first head of the seminary at Albertina.

The king established a fund granting scholarships for eight students at Albertina and free food for twelve students in Halle. Kristijonas Donelaitis, alumnus of Albertina Lithuanian Seminary and Lutheran pastor, became a famous poet who wrote a masterpiece of early Lithuanian literature. Daniel Klein, another Albertina alumni and pastor of Tilsit, wrote the first grammar book of the Lithuanian language and hymns, 36 of which are still in use in the Lithuanian Lutheran church today. Consistorial Councillor Ludwig Rhesa/Liudvikas Rėza, an Albertina alumni and professor leading the Lithuanian Seminary since 1810, distinguished himself as a collector and publisher of Lithuanian poems and re-editions of the Lithuanian bible in 1824.

The archpriests of Lithuania Minor were based in Tilsit (as of 1547), Ragnit (as of 1554), Insterburg (as of 1575), Schaaken in Prussia/Šakiai (Niekrasovo) (as of 1590), Memel (as of 1592), Wehlau (as of 1608), and Labiau (as of 1707). In 1751, the Pomesanian and Sambian consistories were merged in the Prussian Consistory in Königsberg, led by general superintendents since 1812. By the mid-1720s, the rising number of Lutheran parishes were organised in ''inspections'' (renamed Kirchenkreis in the 19th century; i.e. deaneries), such as in Stallupönen/Stalupėnai (Nesterov), Fischhausen/Žuvininkai (Primorsk), Schaaken in Prussia, Labiau, Insterburg, Tilsist, Ragnit and Memel.

The overall number of Prussian parishes with Lithuanian service rose to 92 in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries due to the ongoing establishment of new churches, while services in Lithuanian were given up in many parishes, rather in the south than in the north of Lithuania Minor, due to the assimilation of Lithuanian speakers to German.

After the plague, the depopulated areas were also resettled with Lutheran refugees of German language from Salzburg. So by the second half of the 19th century the number of parishes offering Lithuanian services had shrunk to 67 (116,998 parishioners), with an additional seven Roman Catholic parishes (3,395 faithful), mostly of immigrants from Lithuania proper, and five Baptist congregations of Lithuanian language (with 400 congregants).

By 1913 only 45 parishes offered Lutheran services in Lithuanian, in part a consequence of the banning of Lithuanian as a school language in Germany in 1873. So the Pietist laymen group called ''sakytojai'' (german: Stundenhalter, i.e. lay preacher traditionally holding prayer hours in private homes before the actual service in Lithuanian, during the prior German service would take place; cf. also Shtundists) kept the Lithuanian language from vanishing.Albertas Juška, ''Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje'', Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742-771, here after the German translatio
''Die Kirche in Klein Litauen''
(section: 7. Die litauische Gemeinschafsbewegung; ) on
''Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia''
retrieved on 28 August 2011.

Lithuanian Lutheranism between the wars

Before World War II there were 80 ''Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania'' congregations in Lithuania proper, and 72 pastors were serving about 25,000 members. Whereas in the Klaipėda Region (a Lithuanian autonomous region between 1924 and 1939) 40 pastors, many maintaining services in Lithuanian, served about 137,750 mostly Lutheran parishioners (among them 35,650 Prussian Lithuanians) in 1930.

However, the parishes in the Klaipėda Region remained members of the Ecclesiastical Province of East Prussia