Londono lietuvių katalikų bendruomenė ir marijonai 1940–1990 m.

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Londono lietuvių šv. Kazimiero parapija; Marijonų kongregacija; Parapinė savivalda; Congregation of the Marian Fathers; Lithuanian St. Casimir parrish in London; London Lithuanian St. Casimir parish; Marian congregation; Parish self-government tradition; Parrish administration.

ENDuring the years of World War II the Lithuanian parish experienced a split. When the love affair of Konstantinas Zajančkauskas- Zanis (rector from 1939 to 1941) became public, some parishioners did not see any great evil in this; but he was removed from his duties and the Marian congregation. Yet he refused to recognize this; and had the support of some members of the parish. After the war the Catholic community was joined by new arrivals who for a time were not allowed to assume leadership positions in Lithuanian associations. Their integration into leadership structures began in the early 1950s after it became clear that a majority of thechildren of the early emigrantchose not to participate in the life of the Lithuanian community. This new wave of arrivals was the reason why the priests of London began to minister to the Lithuanians in the middle and south of England, a tendency which is still actual. On the other hand, their influence on the new arrivals was limited due to the effect of secularization, as a result of which the societies of the new immigrants no longer needed the patronage of the priests. In any case the new immigrants did take over the self-government traditions of the St. Casimir parish together with the conviction that they are the real proprietors of the parish who hire the priest. That view of things was upheld by the fact that from the beginning of the 1960s about half of the parish board members were children of the early immigrants. But the self-government tradition was challenged in 1967, when the pastor Juozapas Budzeika (1965-1968) attempted to move the Lithuanian parish to another location; he was fired. The life of the parish society was suffused by a conservative spirit. An aging community was reluctant to accept the liturgical changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council. Women were allowed into the board only from the late 1970s onwards and this only because there was a shortage of men.That changes were disliked was also reflected in the fact the principle of leadership change was not adhered to – from 1958 to 2005 the parish community had a single leader, Stasys Kasparas. The Marian Fathers from 1948 onwards managed to make sure that a then-growing Lithuanian community be served by two priests. Almost all of them enjoyed amicable relations with the core parishioners, but Antanas Kazlauskas (1948-1962) and Pranas Dauknys (1954-1962) were especially popular. From the late 1970s onwards church began to be irregularly attended by only about 50 Lithuanians, so there was no longer much of a need to have two priests in service. Thus, Jonas Sakevičius, who was older than the members of the parish board, served alone from 1976 to 1999. [From the publication]