Jan Szarek

Jan Szarek (13 February 1936 – 8 October 2020) was a Polish bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. He was also the head of the Polish Ecumenical Council from 1993 to 2001. He held an honorary doctorate from the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw.

Biography Szarek was born in Bielsko and raised in the Lutheran faith. From 1956 to 1960 he studied theology at the Christian Theological Academy, which he completed with the defense of the thesis entitled "The life and activity of Tomasz Muenzer and his attitude to the reformation of Martin Luther." He was ordained a priest by Bishop Andrzej Wantuła on 25 September 1960 in the Church of the Savior in Bielsko-Biała. On 6 January 1991, the Synod of the Church elected him the Bishop of the Church. On 3 May 1991 at the Holy Trinity Church in Warsaw he was consecrated as the bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland, he was consecrated by his predecessor Bishop Janusz Narzyński.

Szarek died from COVID-19 on 8 October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland.