The congregation in Jablonec is the third-oldest Baptist congregation in the Czech lands, after Prague and Brno. Following their baptism in Vienna in 1869, the Fridrich couple moved to Jablonec, where they ran a shop. This gave them contact with many residents of Jablonec, a town that was then almost 90% German. Among those who came to faith through their influence was sister Tischerová and her daughter, who cared for this small group of believers after the Fridrichs‘ deaths. In 1907 the Vienna Baptist congregation sent pastor Bernard Peters to Jablonec, but in 1914 he was drafted into the war and died in 1918 from his wounds. Between the two world wars the Baptists in Jablonec had no pastor of their own and became a mission station, first of the Broumov congregation and later of the Görlitz congregation. Only in 1939 did pastor Reinhold Nischik come to Jablonec, but the events of 1914 nearly repeated themselves: in 1941 he too was sent to the front, and after the post-war expulsion of Germans from the Sudetenland, only six members — mostly sisters — remained of what had been a congregation of sixty-nine.
After the war ended, Czechs began returning to their homeland from the Polish town of Zelów (a Czech settlement near Łódź) and from Volhynia in Ukraine. In 1948, 67-year-old Václav Horák, a Czech pastor who had returned as a re-emigrant from Yugoslavia, began preaching in Jablonec. In 1952 the Jablonec congregation was administratively dissolved and attached to the congregation in Liberec.
Brother Horák, however, continued to preach in Jablonec as a lay (that is, unpaid) pastor until 1959. After his retirement, pastor Tuček began serving full-time and, together with Liberec, founded a tamburitza band1, which brought new life to the congregation’s work — almost everyone who attended the church, from age six to forty, played in it, friends included. The energetic lay preacher brother J. Kaufman also became involved in the congregation’s work, devoting much of his time outside of preaching to youth work. He organized summer camping trips attended by junior youth, youth, and young families. In 1967 the band traveled to visit Polish Baptist congregations in Zelów, Łódź, and Warsaw, and in the summer of 1968 the band, together with the one from Liberec, made a two-week trip to Yugoslavia, where they played in ten congregations and also visited the seaside. In 1969, as preparation for building our own prayer house, we spent two weeks helping build the prayer house in Pustá Rybná. From 1969–71 the Liberec pastor was brother Miloš Šolc Sr., who managed to invite many visitors from abroad, and from 1970–1976 we built our prayer house in Jablonec. During that time we were served by pastors brothers Průša and Šperl. During their ministry, unauthorized children’s summer camps began, organized by the youth and especially by sister E. Rezlerová. These were held in Brniště, Kunratice near Cvikov, and Dubičná for more than twenty-five years. This tradition was later continued by a new generation of youth, who began organizing Christian camps again from 2009.
In 1992 the Jablonec congregation became independent again. Our first pastor of this modern era was brother Vl. Donát Sr., who among other things began work with the junior youth of the time. Under brother D. Kuc the congregation grew somewhat in number and, alongside the children’s camps mentioned above, also began hosting a scout troop. Our current pastor, brother Peter Bača, joined our congregation in 2011, while still a student, and completed his theological education at the M. Bel Theological Faculty in Banská Bystrica in 2016.
Where We Have Met
The Baptists in Jablonec met in a number of different places. At first only in family homes, later in rented rooms on Lesní Street, at Údolní Street 38 (today 5. května Street) in the function room of the „U papouška“ inn, and in a former wallpaper workshop on Květinová Street. After the war they began meeting on Soukenná Street No. 5, in the 1960s in a former workshop on E. Floriánové Street No. 19, then, while the prayer house was being built, as tenants of the Seventh-day Adventist brethren on Bezručova Street No. 61, and from 5 December 1976 in the prayer house at Máchova Park 39b.
Pastors in Jablonec
- Bernard Peters (1907–1914)
- Reinhold Nischik (1939–1941)
- Václav Horák Sr. (1948–1959)
- Josef Teofil Tuček (1959–1966) (Liberec congregation)
- Miloš Šolc Sr. (1969–1971) (Liberec congregation)
- Daniel Průša (1972–1977) (Liberec congregation)
- Jiří Šperl (1977–1992) (Liberec congregation)
- Vladislav Donát (1993–1998)
- Daniel Kuc (2002–2010)
- Peter Bača (2011–2024)
Leaving the Baptist Union
To this brief hundred-year history of the Jablonec congregation, at least a partial explanation should be added as to why we left the Baptist Union (Bratrská jednota baptistů, BJB). We still consider ourselves Baptists, even though we are probably too conservative for both progressives and traditional Baptists alike. We were not aware of this process of separation for a long time. But in 2001, when the by-then-independent congregations of Liberec and Jablonec were considering a jointly-paid pastor, the candidate was elected in Liberec but not in Jablonec. The reason was his „diplomatic“ tolerance of homosexual practice (that is, his partial view of biblical authority), which Liberec accepted. Our own awakening from the „soft“ liberalism common at the time was also gradual, since positions of this kind were being pushed through ever more often at the delegate assemblies. Jablonec, too, did not escape misunderstandings and disagreements during our history (for example, during the building of the prayer house), but these were due mainly to personal disputes and human weakness. The reason for our leaving the BJB, however, is theological. (More in the Joint Statement of Five Congregations).
And when, at the delegate assemblies from 2013 to 2020, our proposals to bring BJB practice closer to the principles of the early church failed to succeed, after years of this effort we concluded that we were not „in the same boat“ as the tolerant and pragmatic majority of congregations — that is, chiefly their representatives. This division (and not only within the BJB) stems from differing answers to Pilate’s question: „What is truth?“ After spiritualizing or questioning the Bible, many Christians are then left with the follow-up question: „So what part of it is still fully binding?“ After our unsuccessful efforts, we resolved this by leaving to become an independent registered religious society, even though we know that within the BJB congregations there are still many brothers and sisters with whom we are in full biblical agreement. Our withdrawal was completed in March 2022, and our congregation became fully independent.
1 A tamburitza is a folk orchestra of stringed instruments originating from Yugoslavia. It consists of „brač“ instruments (1–4), which play the parts of human voices — soprano, alto, tenor, bass. There are also „bugarija“ instruments, stringed instruments that keep the rhythm, somewhat like simple guitars, and the „berde,“ a variant of the double bass. These instruments are played with a plectrum, and because they have frets, they do not require as fine a musical ear as, for example, the violin. With a bit of effort, almost anyone could learn to strum the plectrum and press the strings at the right frets according to the notes.
