The Year of Reformation 2017 has begun!

Every year is special, even if it is not strengthened with emotional value, but we, people, are used to symbols, anniversaries and numbers. There is nothing strange about it – this desire of commemorating, recollecting and celebrating can be also found in the Scripture and in the history of the Church, both before and after the year 1517.

For the Lutherans, but also for those Christians, for whom the heritage of the Reformation is an inseparable part of their spiritual identity, the Year of the Reformation has a special meaning. The inauguration of the anniversary took place in our Church and parishes on October 31st, 2016, and the global ones – in the cathedral in Lund (Sweden).

Reformation is the renewal, re-forming, therefore reshaping. Reformation does not mean to abandon everything that makes us special (and what consists not only of our virtues and talents but also of weaknesses and imperfections) but it means that we return to the fundament of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In the liturgical tradition of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran), the beginning of the new year is the celebration of giving the Savior the name Jesus.

The Year of Reformation is for the whole community of our Church, and for all our Sisters and Brothers from other communities, another chance to reform. This is the time of conversion and change; not change for change’s sake but the real renewal that is given by the Holy Spirit in Christ.

Dioceses and parishes of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland engage in the global celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We would like to thank God for our Mothers and Fathers in faith, reformers, both those known and those unknown, and to ask the Holy Spirit that the Reformation does not become a closed chapter for us.

The Year of the Reformation means also new possibilities, including those of counselling character. According to the decision of the Church Synod, from now on all the deacons of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession are authorized to lead services with the Holy Communion. Due to this change, the Church will be able to rejoice in His unique presence in Bread and Wine more often. May this Year of the Reformation become an invitation for all of us, so that faith, hope and love could increase through the community of baptized believers in the proclaimed Word and the Sacrament of Lord’s Flesh and Blood.

We wish you all the Re-Formed.

The Biblical verse for this year: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you” (Ez 36:26)