^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Polish Religious flags

Polish National Catholic Church (abroad)
Polish National Catholic Church (used in Poland)
Lutheran Church
Polish Buddhists
Lublin Jewish flag

Other religious flags:

See also:

Poland

Polish National Catholic Church (used abroad)

image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Jan 2002

Here is a flag of the Polish National Catholic Church. Broke away from the RC in 1897 (Pennsylvania). Most of the adherents are in the US and Canada, few in Poland and elsewhere.Member of the National Council of Churches (US) and the World Council of Churches.
The motto says: "Through Truth, Struggle and Work - -We Will Overcome"
Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Jan 2002

The Old Catholics started in 1870 as a group opposed to the "then newly proclaimed" doctrine of Papal Infallibility. That doctrine itself being a response to the final unification of Italy, and the loss of the bulk of the papal lands, except for the Vatican City itself and a few minor areas.
The PNCC lists 1897 as its start date, when the people who formed the PNCC had to choose between becoming the Polish branch of the Episcopal church or going for full independence as a separate church. Since they feared loosing their "Polishness" they opted for full independence. The 1st Bishop in the PNCC (Hodur) was consecrated by the Dutch Old Catholic Church, and once that happened he could ordain priests and set up a separate church. In addition to Buffalo, another major center of the PNCC was in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area, where the church still has its headquarters today. After the PNCC was founded here in the US, it spread up to Canada, and back to Poland - in 2 attempts there, pre-WWII and post-WWII.
As a sidenote, around 1965 the Lithuanian National Catholic Church became a part of the PNCC. So today within the PNCC you have some parishes that are Lithuanian.
In the PNCC the local parishes "own" and run the local churches - much like the Congregational Churches here in NH - and not like the Roman Catholic Church or some Protestant churches, where the church hierarchy "owns" the local churches and can close them at will. The PNCC clergy can be married - the bishop in Manchester when I was growing up was both a father and a grandfather.
While use of Polish in the mass was a major reason for the split with the Roman Catholic Church, its use has declined over the years. (The next generations don't see much need to learn a "foreign" language of little use in the US.) When I was growing up we had to attend Saturday Polish language classes to prepare for our First Holy Communion, and later for our Confirmation.
In 1970, the next bishop to serve in Manchester refused to do an English ceremony for my older sister's wedding - so she got married at her fiance's Congregational Church. But at my father's funeral in 1977, the same bishop conducted the ceremony at the cemetery in English.
After WWII there was a pact between the PNCC and the Episcopalians where you could attend services at either one. The PNCC dropped the pact in 1992(?) when the Episcopalians started ordaining women as priests. This same opposition has placed the PNCC at odds with the rest of the Utrecht group of Old Catholic churches as they start to ordain women.

I'm not certain about the grey border on the flag - I seem to remember the flag in Manchester being white with a yellow fringe on it. But it could be as the name implies, that the grey border is used by the branch back in Poland.
Also, I remember this flag as being a vertical one, used mainly in ceremonial processions around the church. Otherwise it was displayed on one side of the altar near the bishop's chair, while the US and Polish flags were displayed on the other side of the altar.
Michael Roth, 27 Jan 2002

Polish National Catholic Church (used in Poland)

image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 3 Mar 2002

Here is the flag of the Polish National Catholic Church as used in Poland (it is basically American-Canadian church) and logos of other Old-Catholic churches united in the Union of Utrecht.
The motto says: "Truth, Struggle and Work"
Chrystian Kretowicz, 3 Mar 2002

Lutheran Church flag

image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 28 Jan 2002

This is the flag of the Evangelical-Augsburg (Lutheran) Church in Poland or Kosciol Ewangelicko-Augsburski (Luteranski) w Polsce
Chrystian Kretowicz, 28 Jan 2002

Polish Buddhists flag

image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 28 Jan 2002

This is the flag of the Union of Buddhists Karma Kagyu or Zwiazek Buddyjski Karma Kagyu. My brother belongs to this one, and fights for Tibetans' freedom too.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 28 Jan 2002

It looks like a tropical hurricane to me, specifically Southern Hemisphere due to the clockwise direction of the arms.
Blas Delgado Ortiz, 29 Jan 2002