Straipsnyje apžvelgiamas Lietuvos evangelikų reformatų bažnyčios, jos elito lietuvėjimo procesas XIX a. pabaigoje – XX a. pradžioje.
Upon the occupation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Tsarist Russia, both the Lithuanian
Evangelical Reformed Church and the Lithuanian language came to be persecuted. According to
1905–1914 statistics of the Vilnius Evangelical Reformed Collegium, an absolute majority of evangelical
reformed parish members lived in ethnographically Lithuanian lands; therefore, the Lithuanian
language became increasingly salient for the purposes of apostolate in the last quarter of the 19th
century. The Synod supported young students and fostered future active members of the Church.
Before the revolution of 1905, the Church went through a period of stagnation. Only collective
prayers in Lithuanian and confirmation schools were allowed at that time. After 1905, the situation
started to change. In 1908, the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Synod charged the Collegium to
open parish schools with instruction in Lithuanian and to ensure the introduction in the university
of a practical theology course in Lithuanian. There were plans to organize prayers in Lithuanian in
Vilnius churches. The second pastor of Biržai, P. Jakubėnas, founded a four-year secondary school
with instruction in Lithuanian. He also published religious literature. In 1908, the Synod decided
to produce an overview of the life of Jean Calvin in Lithuanian. The work was entrusted to pastor
J. Šepetys. Until World War I, three Lithuanian pastors took part in Synod; Lithuanians were assigned
as curators. At the time of World War I, the Collegium of the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed
Church was evacuated to Slutsk (Belarus). Lithuanian pastors became involved into the charitable
and apostolic activities of Lithuanian refugees. After the war, a part of the Collegium returned to
Vilnius, meanwhile the other part moved to Biržai. In the late 19th – early 20th century, in spite of the
persecution by Tsarist authorities and polonization of the society, the Lithuanian language became
firmly entrenched in the Lithuanian Evangelist Reformed Church. This was the period when Lithuanian
evangelical pastors J. Šepetys and P. Jakubėnas rose to prominence.
