Walenty Dawidow, pioneering church member in Poland, dies at 88

Walenty Dawidow, who planted and nurtured Churches of Christ in Poland — before and after the Iron Curtain fell — died May 27 in Sopot, Poland, family members said. He was 88.

The Christian Chronicle will post more details as they become available.

In 2005, Dawidow and his family were honored at the Pan European Lectureship in Warsaw, Poland, the Chronicle reported. The Dawidows played a critical role in a food relief program among churches of Christ in 1981-82.

More than seven years before the Iron Curtain fell, a drought following a severe winter, combined with Soviet Union oppression in the wake of the Solidarity movement, created food shortages in Poland. Churches raised $1.5 million to help, coordinated by missionaries including Bill McDonough, Royce Sartain, Don Yelton and Murray Czeczotka. 

Dawidow and his son, Marek, helped distribute relief in Poland. Another son, Michael, coordinated efforts from Vienna, Austria, where he served as a missionary.

Nationwide publicity resulted, and the Poland’s communist government officially recognized churches of Christ as a religious group.

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