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History of the two congregations that now
form
The United London Latvian
Lutheran Church.
The first Latvian congregation in London (Londonas Latviešu draudze) was established in 1945, shortly after the end of the Second World War,
with a pastor who had just arrived via
Sweden.
The members of this first congregation were from the small group of Latvians
who were then living in the London
area, including the diplomats who had
spent the war years in this country. Latvians who had fled from their country
before the advancing Soviet Army arrived in Britain in much greater numbers in the years 1946-8. They came,
together with members of other nationalities from eastern and central Europe,
as so-called European Volunteer
Workers from the Displaced Persons’ camps in Germany. Among them were a number
of Lutheran pastors, and a second Latvian congregation (Miera draudze) was
established in London
in 1948. Both congregations held services at various locations in London and the
South-East.
In 1953, the original London Latvian
congregation started to lease Rowfant House in the Sussex
countryside near Crawley and held some of
its services in the chapel there. In 1961 it was able to purchase this
property. The second congregation (Miera draudze) together with the Estonian
congregation started to use the church
of St Anne and St Agnes
after the completion of its
restoration from war damage in 1966. The two Latvian congregations
united in 1994, and services are now held both at Rowfant House and at St
Anne and St Agnes.
The United
London Latvian
Church belongs to the Latvian Lutheran
Church in Great
Britain and, through it, to the Latvian Lutheran Church
Abroad, which maintains close links
with the Lutheran Church in Latvia but is
organisationally separate from it. The
London congregation has two sister
congregations in Latvia
with which it maintains contacts and which it supports with donations.
The majority of the
membership of the United
London Latvian
Lutheran Church
consists of the now elderly first-generation immigrants. However, there are
also second-generation and third-generation members supplemented by Latvians
who have moved to London
from other countries. A significant development since the collapse of the
Soviet empire in 1991 has been the arrival in England, and especially in London, of Latvians who come here to work
or study for a few months or years or
to live here on a more permanent basis. A number of them participate in the
activities of the congregation, and some have been confirmed as full members.
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