Results found: 1

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

Światowe dziedzictwo kultury z punktu widzenia zarządcy na przykładzie ewangelickiego Kościoła Pokoju w Jaworze

100%

STAWIAK T.

Ochrona Zabytków

2017

issue Dodatek Specjalny. Dziedzictwo w Polsce.

177-181

When I came to Jawor as a 26-year-old vicar in May 2004, I was perfectly aware of the challenges that awaited a young pastor in so special a place. Trying to remember my feelings at the moment when I received information on being delegated to Jawor, I need to admit that I was probably more anxious than happy. From a formal point of view, I was entrusted with the parish as a vicar subordinate to the parish-priest from Świdnica, however, in practice, it quickly turned out that he allowed me great liberty and only made sure that the required administrative formalities were dealt with. From the very beginning, I had to forget about the ordinary parish work of an Evangelical minister; instead, I had to take an intensive course in art history, Silesian Baroque history, historic monument protection law, and construction law. What put me in a slightly privileged situation was that due to my origins — I am a native Silesian, or rather Lower-Silesian, as my family have lived in Wrocław since at least 1750 — I was familiar with the heritage of the Church of Peace. For various reasons, my grandparents remained in the city after 1945 and nothing has changed since then. Thus, I had been familiar with Jawor and the Church of Peace before: the history of Silesia had been important in my family home and dear to my heart. Very soon, 13 years will have passed since those days. In 2007, I was appointed parish administrator, and in 2009, the Parishioner Council appointed me as the first post-war parish-priest of the parish and the Church of Peace. Nearly everything has changed since then, just as Poland has changed. However, invariably, every Sunday and on every holiday, saying a prayer in the sacristy before a service — a prayer written by Martin Luther, starting with the word: “Lord, I am unworthy of the office and service...”, I realise that in this place, this prayer has a special meaning attached to it. During these nearly 13 years, I have also learnt to live with certain inherent problems of the Church of Peace, but I have also understood that many things are easier for me due to the fact that this is my place of service. What makes it easier to administer the parish and the church? Undoubtedly, the church, especially after it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has become a recognisable building, and this recognisability is growing every year. Obviously, we can always say that it is still insufficient, however, as a parish, we make considerable efforts to increase this recognisability and we are to a large degree pleased with the progress in this respect. Thanks to this, for several years now, our cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has been smooth and constructive. Nearly every year the Ministry participates or co-participates in conservation and renovation works both in terms of the financing and the programme. The same goes for Regional Monument Inspectors. They do not provide us with any financial support, however we can always count on immediate and sympathetic help, either formal or related to the subject-matter. In all its post-war misfortune (as opposed to Świdnica, the Jawor Parish was only re-established in… 1991), the Church of Peace in Jawor was lucky in some respects. Until 2005, when the state of preservation was so run-down that the church was at risk of collapsing and the Ministry of Culture was reluctant to provide funds, the church had many private patrons and a group of local activists in places like Jawor, Legnica, and Wrocław, as well as across the border, which is why it was possible to overcome the most severe crisis and then nearly “raise from the dead” a number of invaluable fittings, such as the pipe organ, the pulpit, the altar, and the bells. The 350th anniversary of the existence of the church, held in September 2005, was of great help here. It became a natural turning point, a deadline that had to be met “so that everything will be ready for the anniversary”. It ended in success. Many things changed with the change of the General Monuments Inspector in 2006, then a voice, which we could understand and which also understood us started to flow from Warsaw. Despite this, the most difficult problem that I identify and am confronted with is invariably the heritage of the Churches of Peace. More specifically — their Silesian heritage. Due to political circumstances, the Churches of Peace, undeniably at home, remain slightly strange. They are not the heritage of the vast majority of people who came to Silesia after 1945; there are fewer and fewer people living across the western border who remember them as their own; and nobody remembers about their Czech or Austrian roots any longer. I do realize that this problem is a bit of a taboo, but maybe it is time it was discussed openly? It is a great shame that the regulations concerning funds from the so-called EU-programmes are not more perfectly adapted. The required own contribution and the fact that such programmes are handled by many people basically exclude all “small” administrators who have no wealthy local government patrons. An easy solution would be to consider the support granted by the Ministry as the beneficiary’s own contribution... Financial aspects are not the only administrative problems. What bothers me far more is the lack of empathy and of any involvement on the part of decision- makers. And here, again, the nearer to home, the worse it is. Frequently, members of the Parish Council (in the Evangelical Church — the body that actually governs a parish, consisting of a minister and several or a dozen-or-so members) have the impression that in the eyes of the local government, the World Cultural Heritage Site in Jawor, Lower Silesia, is not an asset, but rather a problem, as it causes thousands of tourists from the whole world to come here and demand car parks, toilets, the whole infrastructure, and to ask the local authorities: why is all that missing from here? Every year, diplomats to the rank of ambassador visit this place and expect an appropriate reception, not only on the part of the church administrators, but also the local authorities. I frequently get the impression that the existence of the church disturbs the peace and carefreeness of the local government, even if they are aware of the status of the historic monument. Posing for an obligatory photograph with a minister or ambassador, at least some of them feel that something is wrong, asking themselves whether they have ever done anything for this place. The answer is painful most of the time. Another challenge is the issue of the conservation works themselves. When it comes to saving a monument, everything is clear. At first, we do everything to save it, but then what? HOW can we preserve it? And here a problem arose in 2010. Works on the murals, the ceiling and the wall decoration, and the paintings were being commenced. “How” was related to the history of the renovation works. The church was built in 1655 and was fitted out over the next one hundred years. In 1855, it underwent full-scale renovations — the effect was so satisfactory that it was renovated completely again as soon as in 1905. Questions were asked. What should we go back to? By what method? We knew that works, once commenced, would have a decisive impact on our decisions for many years to come. Following discussions among the representatives of many institutions and experts, it was decided that the principal focus should be given to preservation, paying regard to the nearly 360-year history of the church. The preservation of historic features is not simple and it generates additional costs, however, we decided that the long history of the building should not be ignored in the conservation works. It was very pleasant to hear the words of representative authorities, who on the day of commissioning the first stage of the works in 2015 said: “Pastor, thank you — and please keep up the good work”. Today, when further stages of the works have been completed and we can see that “after” is radically different from “before” in terms of the state of preservation and maintenance, but only slightly different in terms of the general visual perception, we know that it was the right way to preserve the originality and uniqueness of the Church of Peace in Jawor and to pay tribute to its 361-year history. To conclude, I would like to bring up an issue which is, after all, the most important to an Evangelical pastor. I do not forget, and all of us must not forget, regardless of our religions and views, that this building, erected many years ago, today a World Cultural Heritage site — was built for a specific purpose. When Christian Hoppe was dedicating the wattle-and-daub church to the Holy Spirit in front of the Złotoryjska Gate in Jawor on 23 December 1655 and thousands of parishioners were singing to thank God, their joy did not come from several hundred boards with clay infill, but from the fact that, from then on, the church was to be a place where they would bring they children to be baptised, where they would bid farewell to those who passed away, and where they would hear incessant words of consolation about the Good Shepherd and words of liberty, directed at everyone who needed them. We must not forget about this role of the Church of Peace. As Evangelicals, we lost hundreds of churches in Lower Silesia. Those which are now used by Roman Catholic or Orthodox parishes, saved and preserved, make us happy; those which are decaying as ruins or storehouses make us sad. However, it is important that the two Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica, due to their history and the circumstances accompanying their foundation, are still Evangelical. This is precisely why they are able to, and do, play a special cultural and educational role and are proof that no times are so bad and no situation is so hopeless to make it impossible to do something exceptional, good, and wonderful. Thus, we have consistently imparted wisdom derived from the history of the Church of Peace, which has produced measurable and socially important effects, not only in Jawor. We have not seen acts of vandalism for practically ten years; the minors who tried to set fire to the church several years ago were looked for by half the town and although they received only symbolic sentences, they still suffer the social consequences of their act. After these many years, the locals have started to use words like “our Church of Peace” or “our gem”, regardless of whether the church really is their parish church. This is what I believe to be the greatest success of the Church of Peace in the last 10 years.

Refine search results

1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 STAWIAK T.

1 2017

Search results

Światowe dziedzictwo kultury z punktu widzenia zarządcy na przykładzie ewangelickiego Kościoła Pokoju w Jaworze