Bi-lingual church

Melanie and I attended Christ the King Church in Kraków in July when we visited for house hunting and we had a great experience.  It was a bit different than we were used to, though we both have regularly attended various denominations in the past, tending towards a Baptist format for many years.  We have been attending Chrystus Królem since we moved (even went to a game night the second day of living in Poland before we went to a second service).

One significant difference is the church services are in both English and Polish!  Not an English service and a Polish service, but one service in both languages.

Be aware that Poland is a very Catholic country, even to the point of possibly being the highest percentage of active Catholics in Europe (or the world?).  Finding a non-Catholic church can be a challenge, especially one that holds services in English (there are some English masses here, but relatively few).

The songs are sung in English OR Polish, and sometimes within the same song we sing different verses in either languages.  Fortunately, the projected lyrics have both English and Polish on the wall so we can sing at any time.  As with any time you go to a new church, there are songs we know and songs we do not know... when you do not know the song in English, it is difficult to follow in Polish (don't know the tune or Polish, hard to keep up).  Sometimes I try to sing in Polish, but I find translating the words to be a challenge when I try to remember what sounds certain letters or combinations of letters are supposed to make (there are a lot of cz, rz, and sz letter combos in Polish words, but some are even more difficult to remember and not try to sound in English, such as "c" has a "ts" sound and "ci" is a hard "ch" sound).

The worship leaders sometimes speaks or prays in English and another person on the team translates into Polish... sometimes it is the other way around.

If you think your pastor's sermon's are long, think about it being said twice... in different languages. The pastor speaks in Polish and a translator repeats it in English; the pastor could preach in both languages, repeating himself every few sentences, but the translator helps save his voice.  Because of this double length sermon, I am sure that he keeps the sermons shorter (even a short sermon can go a long time when it has to be repeated).

I am sure many of the customs and traditions at this church have been influenced by the history and culture (as is to be expected), but some also appear to be forced to express a separation from the Catholic dominance in Poland... to show a difference.

We have meet a broad variety of people from many countries at Church and we have many experiences that we will remember as part of this sojourn in Krakw, Poland.  Here's to many more to come.