History of Wejsuny and the Evangelical Church in Wejsuny
Wejsuny was founded in 1763. A school was established in Wejsuny in 1848. In 1900 the
village of Wejsuny had 372 inhabitants, and in 1939 Wejsuny had 434 inhabitants. Just before
the Red Army entered Wejsuny on 16.07.1945 the inhabitants were evacuated. At that time
most of the village was destroyed as a result of fierce resistance of the German Army to the
Red Army. After the Second World War many indigenous inhabitants remained in Wejsuny,
their lives were extremely difficult and complicated. Not many of the native inhabitants of
Wejsuny live to this day. Most of them remained with their evangelical faith and they attend
the local evangelical church.
The country church in Wejsuny was built in the years 1908 – 1910; it is a brick church, not
rendered, in the neo-gothic style. The tower rises from the east side; the church also has
capped columns. The interior of the church with the side pulpit is in a simple style. The
church has two bells. The chancel is a special curiosity, which is unusually in the church
tower. The antique clockwork and the belfry are located over the chancel.
The church in Wejsuny is the only church which remains evangelical among thirteen
evangelical churches of the Pisz County. The inscription in the German language above the
entrance door is still visible to this day "A Mighty Fortress is Our God"; these are the first
words of the Lutheran hymn sung all over the world, the words of the song, which was
written by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther on the basis of the Psalm 46, and the inspiration for writing
this song was the view of the walls around the castle in Heidelberg. The interior of the church
has the plaque commemorating the parishioners of Wejsuny who were killed in the First
World War, and the plaque commemorating people who were killed in the Second World
War.
The parish in Wejsuny has existed since 1895. The first clergyman was Rev. Friedrich Karl
Mitzka (1895 – 1896). The next priest was Rev. Heinrich Kull, who started building the
church a year before leaving Wejsuny. From the moment of consecration, until today, it has
been an evangelical church and serves Christians of the Evangelical faith, and Lutherans. The
church in Wejsuny was solemnly consecrated on 27.11.1910 during the ministry of Rev.
Rudolf Wisniewski. The successors of Rev. Wisniewski were in turn: Rev. Paul Melzer (1922
– 1930), Rev. Enst Siedler (1932 – 1934), and until the end of the Second World War Rev.
Erich Albert August Tiedtke (1938 – 1945). Other local municipalities belonged to the parish
in Wejsuny; in 1925 the parish had 1200 parishioners.
The interior of the church is kept in a simple style, the pulpit is on the left side of the chancel.
The pulpit is wooden, low, with characteristic ornaments on it; unfortunately, they have been
painted and are awaiting renovation and restoration. The altar is in the central part of the
chancel. The cross is in the centre of the altar. Unfortunately, the altar has also been painted,
so the ornaments and ornamentation, which is characteristic for the church, have also been
painted. In later years the fragments of the Holy Scripture were added, which are not original.
The altar awaits renovation and restoration of its original appearance. The only original
stained-glass window is over the altar. The stone baptismal font is on the right side of the
chancel. The church was built of bricks fired in Wejsuny, the brick floor in the chancel is also
interesting.
In 1918 two bells from the church tower were dismantled and destined to be recast for
ammunition during the First World War. The events of the Second World War did not destroy
the church in Wejsuny and since 1945 the church still serves local evangelicals. After the war,
the fate of the church and the parish in Wejsuny was very difficult. Most of the churches of
the territory of the present Pisz County (12 churches) were taken by force by Catholics. A
similar situation might have happened also to the church in Wejsuny. However, due to the
evangelicals of Wejsuny, this church is evangelical to this day. There were two attempts to
take the church back from evangelicals by newly arrived inhabitants (mostly Catholics) in
1950 and 1979. The parishioners, armed with scythes and sickles, stayed overnight in the
church in Wejsuny guarding their church.
The following clergymen served in the post-war years in Wejsuny: Deacon Edward Spendel
(1946 – 1954), Rev. Ryszard Małłek (1954 – 1959), Rev. Jan Gogółka (1959 – 1967), Rev.
Edmund Schmidt and Rev. Henryk Sikora until 1970.
The church in Wejsuny until 1970 was officially attached to the Evangelical-Augsburg Parish
in Pisz, of which the pastor was Rev. Krzysztof Rej. The 75 th anniversary of the founding of
the parish was celebrated in 1973 in the church in Wejsuny. The Bishop Andrzej Wantuła
participated in celebrations. In the following years churches were repaired, in which the
friends of the parish from Germany were engaged. Among other things, Mr Gerhard Bosk
assisted in repairing the broken windows in the church, in the connection of the permanent
power supply, in repairing the lightning protection, and in the renovation of the monument to
those killed during the First World War, which is in front of the church.
In 2004, after the departure of Rev. Krzysztof Rej from the evangelical parish of Pisz, Rev.
Paweł Szwedo was appointed as the new parish priest and administrator, who fulfilled this
function until 31.07.2007. At that time the chapel with the adjacent plot in Ruciane-Nida were
sold, so the parishioners from Ruciane-Nida began to attend the church in Wejsuny. Since
then the church in Wejsuny has served all evangelicals from the territory of Ruciane-Nida
Municipality, excluding the village of Ukta, where the chapel was built near the nursing
home, and the local evangelicals attend, and the village of Ukta was administratively
subordinated to the evangelical parish in Mikołajki.
Rev. Marcin Pysz – the chaplain of the Border Guard – began the service on 01.08.2007 in the
Evangelical-Augsburg Parish. Since then the Parish Council, together with the clergymen, has
initiated efforts to carry out the necessary repairs in the church in Wejsuny, in order to
preserve the traditional substance of the last historical evangelical church in Pisz County.
Solar heating has been already installed in the church in Wejsuny this year, in order to
increase the comfort of experiencing winter church services. Church services take place every
Sunday at 9:00 a.m. The church in Wejsuny is slowly becoming one of the most important
places of the spiritual live of evangelicals in Pisz County. The basic assumption of Rev.
Marcin Pysz was to restore the first historical appearance of the church. Unfortunately, many
renovations have been made during the post-war years, which due to lack of funds and the
lack of experience were made with defects, so return to the original substance became very
difficult and very expensive. Organising choral concerts began in the church. In 2010 the roof
of the church and the church tower were generally repaired also due to the great support of
foreign partners and funds from the European Union, and the tiled roof was replaced by the
ceramic roof tiles of the Dutch type (pantile). These works ended with the jubilee celebrations
of the 480 th anniversary of the evangelical parish in Pisz, which has existed continuously since
1530. Many distinguished guests, representatives of the Provincial Office, local self-
governments, and foreign partners participated in the celebrations. The Bishop Jerzy Samiec
(Head of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in the Republic of Poland), who gave a sermon on
the occasion, and the Bishop Rudolf Bażanowski (Head of the Masuria Diocese of the
Evangelical-Augsburg Church in the Republic of Poland) participated in the solemn church
service, which was connected with the parish picnic. The Jubilee of Confirmation was
celebrated during this church service; this tradition has survived to this day. The next stage of
the renovation works in the church was the renovation of the clock on the church tower in
2011, which began serving the inhabitants of Wejsuny once again after many years.
Electronic barrel-and- pin mechanisms were also installed, which strike individual hours and,
and the church organ was generally renovated and it sounded again after 40 years. Further
renovation and maintenance works have been carried out in the subsequent years, such as:
cleaning the elevation of the church, changing the fence, making farmyard and car parks of a
granite sett, replacing windows and doors in the church, replacing shutters on the church
tower, developing the garden adjacent to the church, installing the sound system in the
church. The next maintenance works were carried out in 2014 under the supervision of the
conservator Magdalena Schneider. The original look of the interior of the church was restored
by: restoring the original ornamentation of the chancel and matroneums, restoring original
colours of walls and ceiling. The brick floor of the church was renovated. The electrical
installation of the church was changed during the works. It is planned to reproduce the
original appearance of wooden elements of the church, such as the altar and the pulpit, in the
next years.