Polaszek and the Psałterz Poznański

For several years now I have been a fan of the work of Andrzej and Agata Polaszek in rendering the biblical Psalms in singable texts in their native Polish language. Last week I was finally privileged to meet Andrzej, who is visiting North America this month and decided to pay me a visit here in Hamilton. We met at a local Tim Hortons and spent some time in conversation, which ranged from topics related to the liturgical use of the Psalms to the complexities of Polish history. Polaszek is a minister in a congregation in Poznań affiliated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a small denomination of recent vintage centred primarily in the United States. Last year Polaszek completed a PhD at the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw on Maciej Rybiński's Polish version of the Genevan Psalter.

Among our conversation topics:

• The 14 Turkish-language psalms of Wojciech Bobowski, better known as Ali Ufki (1610-1675)
  
• The 150 Psalms of Jan Kochanowski set to the music of Mikołaj Gomółka
• The 16th-century Polish bishops most of whom were sympathetic to the Reformation
• The Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw boasting Protestant and Orthodox faculties among others
  
• The Lipka Tatars, the Muslim nobility in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

 

Polaszek was kind enough to give me a copy of his dissertation on the Rybiński Psalter, about which there is very little information online. I in turn presented him with a copy from my own library of the 1650 Scottish Psalter, arguably the best-known metrical psalter in the English language.

May our Lord bless Andrzej's travels on this side of the pond and prosper his and Agata's work in Poland.