Baptist and Anabaptist Research Centre

Getting to know one's community's past and its roots is always important; Lithuanian Baptist community is no exception. For this purpose, in October 2005, just after one of the oldest Baptist congregations in the Baltic region celebrated its 165th anniversary, the Baptist and Anabaptist Research Centre (BARC) was established. Albertas Latužis, whose contribution to the research of Lithuanian Baptist history is widely known, became the Director of BARC.

BARC has several aims. One of them is to collect the archival material related to Lithuanian Baptist history and make it more widely available. In the course of the turbulent life of Lithuanian Baptists, it has been scattered throughout various places, in Lithuania and abroad. Significant work has already been done in collecting various important pieces of this material, but there are still various “white spots”, as we say in Lithuanian.

Another aim of BARC has been, on the basis of such archival material, to prepare and publish the history of Lithuanian Baptist churches. We had the joy of seeing the outcome of this preparation last year in the publication of Po Jo sparnais: Baptistų istorija Lietuvoje, 1841-1990 (Under His Wings: History of Baptists in Lithuania, 1841-1990) (Klaipėda: Eglė, 2009) (in Lithuanian), by Albertas Latužis, Director of BARC. Plentifully  illustrated, this has been a milestone in the historical research of the community which has experienced so many changes, within and without, in the course of its almost 170-year history.

For ordering your copy, please write to  bait(at)baptist.lt

Further activities of BARC include providing history courses for the Non-residential Bible School of the Baptist Union of Lithuania and working on other publications of the Centre.

Baptist & Anabaptist Research Centre (BARC) Director, Albertas Latužis, E-mail: bait(at)baptist.lt