Šilalė Evangelical Lutheran church

The Evangelical Lutheran church, established in a rebuilt residential building on Nepriklausomybės g. 8 has been consecrated in 1991.

Šilalė is one of the first areas of Lutheran faith in Lithuanian territory, dating back to 1525-1527, when the Catholic priest Jonas Tartilavičius-Batakiškis from Batakiai, started evangelical preaching and promoting the ideas of Reformation. Being under persecution, he left for Königsberg, where the Duke Albrecht appointed him as the pastor of the Lithuanian Lutheran community of Königsberg in 1531.

Šilalė Evangelical Lutheran Parish has been established in the late 18th c., when Šilalė and its surroundings were inhabited by a large number of various craftsmen from East Prussia, the majority of which worked and settled at the manor near Šilalė. At the beginning their babies were usually baptised at a Roman Catholic Church, while their births and baptisms were recorded in the books of the Šilalė Roman Catholic Church. In 1806, M. Jurkovskis, Vicar of Šilalė Roman Catholic Church, started a new book of ecclesiastical records for Evangelical Lutherans, featuring records of baptisms and weddings in Latin language.

Nobleman Pilsudskis gave the Evangelical Lutherans of Šilalė a plot of land with a condition that the plot near the town of Šilalė would be used for building a church. In 1806, the town’s Evangelical Lutheran community built a wooden church. In 1833, the church burned down, so in summer the mass used to take place in open air. In winter, or when the mass included a holy supper, the community used to gather at the home of one of its members. In 1838, the burned down wooden church was replaced by a new one. The Evangelical Lutheran community had also built a wooden belfry near the church, equipped with a small bell. In 1882, the church was renovated, adding a wooden belfry with a bell on its western end. In the first days of war, on 24 June 1941, the church burned down again. The parish centre was moved to Obelynas village. Here Julius and Marė Gėrkiai dedicated a part of their house to the church, where the community used to gather for prayer. The mass used to take place at their home until 1991, when the congregation of Šilalė rebuilt their church again.

Upon the decision of the consistory of the Lithuanian Evangelical Lutheran Church, during the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Šilalė Lutheran Parish on 28 October 2006 the church of Šilalė was named after Jonas Tartilavičius-Batakietis, who began to preach the gospel in the 16th c.  The new bell was consecrated on 29 July 2001.

Compiled in 2018