ABOUT US

We are part of the Brethren church, one of the Protestant churches,that is rooted in the Czech Reformation. We want to be a church that responds to the burning questions of faith and life of the contemporary man using contemporary language.

ABOUT OUR CHURCh

We are part of the Brethren Church, one of the Protestant churches, which is rooted in the Czech Reformation, the Unity of the Brethren and belongs to evangelical churches. It strives for contemporary, practical Christianity in the spirit of The Bible: unity in essential issues, freedom in other matters, and love in everything. It consists of a fellowship of nearly 80 churches with a wealth of different spiritual traditions. The churches are administered by pastors and elders. Church members are led to live out a personal Christian faith, fidelity to God's Word, love for God and people, manifested in everyday life. We share our everyday joys and struggles and strive to be a community open to everyone who comes. It is very important for us that our Christianity is understandable to those who seek their way to God, and we are glad that both believers and seekers find their way among us.

church leadership

1st pastor    rndr. mgr. jaroslav pokorný

He comes from Ostrava from a partially Catholic family. He studied nuclear physics and also Catholic theology after the Velvet Revolution. Afterwards he became a Catholic clergyman. For eight years he was a priest in various places in Moravian Wallachia, Slovakia, and Ireland. He served on a mission in the Philippines for ten months. After leaving the Catholic Church, he worked for 9 years as a high school mathematics and physics teacher. At that time he was a member of the Apostolic Church for several years. In the year of 2008 he became a member of the Brethren Church in Český Těšín, and in 2014 he was ordained and became the second pastor in the same church. He has a wife and three adult daughters, all already married.

2nd pastor    ONDŘEJ KYML

Ondřej Kyml has been the second pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Český Těšín since July 2022. Before that, he was the pastor of the congregation in Písek in South Bohemia for almost 15 years and the congregation in Nové Město pod Smrkem for 5 years. He and his wife Tereza are both from Liberec and have two wonderful sons, Jonáš and Julián. Their common desire is to see the church grow in different places and to see people set free to live the full life God has prepared for us in Jesus. Their interests include meeting people, traveling, reading, writing, and music.

The elders

The church is led and administered not only by the pastor but also by the elders who are elected every four years by the members of the church. The eldership consists of eight elders, each of whom is in charge of a particular area. On the right, there are the current elders and their responsibilities.

Czudek Tadeuszmission, evangelization
Boszczyk Danielworship, singing
Boszczyk marcelsunday services
Filipek Tadeáš ing.deputy chairman of the eldership
Rajca David Bc.education
Ručka Danielmanager (treasurer)
Hlawiczka Marekbuilding management, camp base
Supik tomášsmall groups
kaleta vladislavdiakonia ministry
czudek Janchildren and youth
czudek Jakubcommunication and PR

History

One of the main initiators of our missionary community was Karol Kaleta, a pastor of the church in Hrádek. The first service took place on 20 September 1964, and the ceremonial opening of the Český Těšín station of the Ostrava church took place on 11 October 1964. The same building was rented by the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Český Těšín in 1964. In 1971, construction of the church house with a pastor's apartment on Studentská Street (later Fučíková) began. Thanks to the political changes initiated by the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the possibility of acquiring the church building in the possession of our church appeared. After several years of effort, the church building was purchased from the ČCE Na Rozvoji church in 2002. In 2008, the Adventist Church moved to its own premises,and the church building remained only in our possession and use.

The church has always tried to preserve its missionary character and to be open to all. The original sermons were mostly in Polish, the language of the sermons gradually switched to Czech for better clarity. US missionaries who are primarily active among young people have also beeninvited to cooperate.

In 1999the Civic Association Klub mladých Filadelfia was founded to support missionary activities for children and youth. In 2002, an independent mission station of the Český Těšín church was established in Karviná-Fryštát, under the leadership of Stanislav Czudek.

Currently, there are 250 members in our church and approximately 120 children and youth under 18 years of age.

the pastors of the church

1967 - 1983Stanislav Heczko
1983 - 1995Ernest Welszar
1996 - 1999team leadership of elders (Josef Sliž, Kornel Kotas and Tadeáš Filipek)
1999 - 2012Tadeáš Firla
2010 - 2012Josef Sliž as the second pastor
2012 - 2018Josef Sliž
2014 - 2018Jaroslav Pokorný as the second pastor
since 2018Jaroslav Pokorný as the first pastor, Josef Sliž as the second pastor