16th day, July 24th: Two church services in one morning in two countries

Today, on Sunday, I had to wake up early and pack my things because I had to leave the youth cellar in time as it would be used for the children's worship service later. In the community kitchen, two volunteers were already busy preparing for the church café after the service (photo) and they invited me to stay a little longer. However, I had to decline because I wanted to bike over to Poland right after the last song of the 9 am service in the Czech Republic to attend the 10 am service at Christuskirche, which is only 6-7 minutes away by bike across the border. It's a bit of a shame, but I had decided on this somewhat hectic Sunday morning because Christuskirche is like the mother church of all Protestants in Poland (photo). I didn't want to miss experiencing a worship service there on my journey. But let's start from the beginning:

Before the 9 am worship service in Cesky Tesin, there was a communion for a small number of participants. It was an interesting variant. Then the church quickly filled up with worshipers. Right after the first song, the children went to the front and received a special children's sermon and then went to their children's worship service. All Bible texts were projected on the wall using a projector. After the psalm, prayer, and reading, the sermon followed immediately. Unfortunately, I didn't understand anything. I only caught a few words like Luther, mission, and Bonhoeffer. I left the worship service with the last song and biked over to Poland to arrive at the welcome of the 10 am worship service at Christuskirche in Cierzyn. There were an estimated 100 people present (photo). A very young Protestant pastor (photo) conducted the worship service. There was more singing here and the sermon was noticeably shorter, and communion was also celebrated. For communion - which I also participated in - the believers knelt in a semicircle and received the bread and an individual cup of wine. After the benediction, I approached the young pastor who spoke perfect English. With my limited English, I understood the following facts:

The Christusgemeinde in Cierzyn has approximately 6000 members in the city and in nearby villages. There are a total of 5 pastors. Protestant worship services are also offered in the larger villages. The church also houses the Reformation Museum on the history of Protestant Christians in Teschen. I found out that there is an extra "Sunday school" offered for children. The city also has a Protestant high school, kindergarten, Protestant cemetery, bookstore, and other Protestant institutions. Afterwards, he showed me the large community center where numerous offices and meeting rooms are located, including the specially equipped youth area with a youth hall (photo). There are various youth activities such as summer camps, youth trips, and weekly meetings on Friday evenings. I was quite impressed. Here in the Cierzyn region (Polish for Teschen), which is the smallest of the 6 Polish church districts in terms of area, but the largest in terms of membership, there are around 65,000 evangelical Poles in total, out of almost 40 million inhabitants. After the tour, I visited the Protestant Museum and biked back to Cesky Tesin, packed my four panniers, and headed back to Poland in the direction of the mining town of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, about 40 km away, where there is said to be a Polish Protestant community. In a village near the city, the Catholic and Protestant churches stood directly opposite each other. North of Jastrzebie-Zdroj, I found a spot for my tent by a quarry lake and was curious to see what the Polish Protestant churches and communities are like.