The Polish Reformed Church, officially called the Evangelical Reformed Church in the Republic of Poland (Polish: Kościół Ewangelicko-Reformowany w RP) is a historic Calvinistic Protestant church in Poland established in the 16th century, still in existence today. Structure and organisation According to Poland's Central Statistical Office, the Polish Reformed Church has 3,461 members (2015). The majority of church members live in central Poland; in 2014 out of a total number of 3464 adherents, 1800 lived in Łódź Voivodeship and 1000 in the city of Warsaw. There are eight congregations in Poland: Warsaw Łódź Zelów Bełchatów Kleszczów Żychlin Strzelin Pstrążna (part of the town of Kudowa Zdrój) Furthermore, emerging congregations exist in some other cities, including Poznań, Wrocław, and Gdańsk. In 2003, the Church ordained its first female minister and two more female students are in training. The Polish Reformed Church is a minority church in Poland, where roughly 90% of the people are Catholics. History 16th-18th centuries The Polish Reformed movement goes back to the half of the 16th century when the teachings of Swiss Reformers like Zwingli and Calvin began to make their way to Poland. Earlier, Lutheranism had made way to Poland, especially in the cities. A great boost to the Calvinist Reformation movement happened when in 1525, the devout Catholic king Sigismund I the Old (1506–48) accepted as his vassal in Ducal Prussia, the Lutheran prince Albert I, Duke of Prussia, thus creating the first Protestant country in the World. Though the king opposed "new thought", humanists all across the Polish–Lithuanian union began studying Calvinist theology. The most celebrated and influential group was found in the country's capital Kraków, where they flocked around the book printer and vendor Jan Trzecielski grouping nobles, burghers, professors, priests. The first Calvinist church service was held in 1550 in Pińczów, a little town nearby Kraków, where the local noble owner converted to the Reformed Faith, expelled the monks, ’purging’ the city church. Other nobles soon followed suit and the first Calvinist synod in Lesser Poland was held in 1564 in Słomniki, close to Kraków. Thus, the Lesser Poland Brethren (Jednota Małopolska) was formed. In the meantime, in the North of Poland, another Calvinist church was formed. The Czech Brethren, persecuted by the Czech king Ferdinand I Habsburg fled to Greater Poland (1548), where they settled in the estates of the local aristocrats whom they very quickly converted to their faith. The