Palangos liuteronų bendruomenė nuo jos ištakų XIX a. pradžioje iki sovietinės okupacijos

LTStraipsnyje aprašoma Palangos liuteronų bendruomenės raida nuo jos susiformavimo XIX a. pradžioje iki pirmųjų pokario metų, kai jos veiklą uždraudė sovietų valdžia. Aptariamas filijos gyvenimas Rucavos parapijos sudėtyje, jos siekis Palangoje pasistatyti bažnyčią. Bendruomenės gyvenimas ypač suaktyvėjo miestą ir valsčių 1921 m. grąžinus Lietuvai. Tapusi Kretingos liuteronų parapijos dalimi, jos ir Gustav-Adolf-Werk fondo remiama, 1928 m. bendruomenė įsigijo savo maldos namus. Straipsnyje aprašomas filijos gyvenimas šiuo laikotarpiu, maldos namų netektis per 1938 m. gaisrą ir iššūkiai, su kuriais bendruomenė susidūrė pirmaisiais sovietinės okupacijos metais. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Palanga, liuteronų bendruomenė. [Iš leidinio]

ENThe origins of the Palanga Lutheran congregation date back to the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, it was a group of believers that had neither a permanent place of worship nor the status of an affiliate congregation in a larger parish. It consisted of German merchants, indigenous Curonians who lived in the countryside, and residents who had moved to the nearby countryside from Courland and the Klaipėda region. After the incorporation of Palanga and its rural area into the Courland governmental district in 1819, the Palanga Lutherans became an affiliate congregation of the parish of Rucava. In the second half of the 19th century, it consisted of about 150 members, of German, Latvian and Lithuanian ethnicity. The affiliation of Palanga Lutherans with the Rucava parish did not bring much benefit, since after becoming part of the large Courland parish it lost the status of a diaspora community. The congregations of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania which still belonged to the diaspora Diocese of Vilnius benefited from the Mutual Support Fund of the Lutheran Church in the Russian Empire, and towards the end of the 19th century built their own churches. In 1867 and 1902, the Rucava clergy also planned to build a church in Palanga, but it did not materialise. After the reunification of Palanga with the Republic of Lithuania in 1921, the Lutheran community of Palanga became an affiliate of the Kretinga parish. Its activities were revitalised. With financial aid from the Gustav-AdolfWerk, the congregation purchased a house and turned it into a prayer house. Unfortunately, it burned down along with many buildings in the northern part of the city in the great fire of 1938. Although the congregation intended to rebuild its prayer house, the plans were interrupted by the Second World War and the Soviet occupation.Having lost its permanent place of worship, the Lutheran congregation was unable to register with the Commissioner for Religious Affairs in Vilnius, and therefore from 1 January 1949 it was outlawed. Lutherans still continued to gather for worship in private houses, but the Bolshevik authorities traced down their places of worship and warned the owners of their criminal liability for illegal religious activities. Keywords: Palanga, Lutheran congregation. [From the publication]