Died Bishop Janusz Narzyński

Bishop Janusz Narzyński died on his 92nd birthday, on 14 March 2020 in Warsaw.

In 1975-1991 he was the head of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland and in 1983-1986 he presided over the Polish Ecumenical Council.

The funeral was organized for family only. A memorial service with ecumenical and international guests will be held after the danger of the corona virus spreading has passed. The date will be announced one month in advance

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Bishop Janusz Narzyński was born on 14 March 1928 in Warsaw as the son of Teofil and Elżbieta née Orivo. Between 1949 and 1953 he studied at the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of the University of Warsaw.

On 6 May 1956 he was ordained as pastor by Bishop Karol Kotula. Until 1958 he worked as a vicar at the Lutheran parish in Mrągowo, then thanks to a scholarship of the Lutheran World Federation went to study in Göttingen. After his return to Poland he taught religious education at the Church of the Ascension in Warsaw, and from 1965 was a vicar to the Leading Bishop of the Church Andrzej Wantuła.

On 23 February 1975 the Electoral College of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland elected him as Leading Bishop of the Church. On April 6, 1975, he was consecrated at the Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw; he replaced Bishop Andrzej Wantuła in this office. From 22 March 1983 to 18 December 1986 he presided over the Polish Ecumenical Council.

He was one of three church observers of the Round Table Talks (the other two were Fr. Bronisław Dembowski and Fr. Alojzy Orszulik). In 1991 he asked the Synod of the Church to be retired. The ceremonial farewell took place on 2 May 1991.

A day later, the new head of the Church, Bishop Jan Szarek, was consecrated.

Bishop Janusz Narzyński is considered to have been one of the most prominent experts on the history and theology of Martin Luther and the Reformation in Poland. He headed the Organising Committee for the year-round celebration of Luther's 500th birthday anniversary.

From 1949 to 1993 he was a research fellow at the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of the University of Warsaw and then at the Christian Academy of Theology in Warsaw. For his scientific and ecumenical activities, the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of the University of Bratislava awarded him an honorary doctorate.

He was married to Barbara Enholc (died July 2019), who until 2003 was director of the British and International Bible Society in Poland.

His brother was Rev. Tadeusz Narzyński, a long-time pastor of the Lutheran parish in Bydgoszcz, who died in 2014. The third brother, Juliusz Narzyński, is a painter.