CZYKWIN, Eugeniusz

Place and Date of Birth:    Podlaskie (Ανατολική Πολωνία), 1973

Marital Status:      Married. He has two sons (his eldest son, Michael, is a priest) and a daughter, as well as five grandchildren.

Profession:      Engineer

Studies:         He graduated from Warsaw University of Technology (Polytechnic) with a degree in railway engineering.

From 1974 to1982, he was responsible for the safety of train traffic on the railway line of the Bialystok region. During his studies and after graduation, he participated in Orthodox youth activities.

Parliamentary Activity:      During 1985-1993, 2001-2015 and since 2019, he has been elected member of the Polish Sejm (Parliament). He was rapporteur of the bill “on the relationship between the State and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church”, enacted by the Polish Parliament in 1991, the bill “On nationalities and national minorities and the regional language” (2005) and the bill “on the funding of the Orthodox Seminar in Warsaw” (2013).

In his parliamentary activities, he focuses on the state’s position towards religious communities and the problems of religious and ethnic minorities. Since the creation of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), he has actively participated in its work. During the 30th anniversary IAO General Assembly, held in Chalkidiki, in June 2023, he was elected President of the IAO General Assembly.

Political / Social Activity:      In 1981, he co-founded the Orthodox Youth Brotherhood, the first Orthodox youth organization in the bloc of socialist countries. From 1986 to 1989, he was Vice-President of the World Orthodox Youth Union “Syndesmos”. In 1985, he founded in Bialystok the publishing house of the monthly magazine “Przegląd Prawosławny”, which covers the history, teaching and current situation of the Orthodox Church in Poland and the world (the publication is in the Polish language, containing columns in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian and Ruthenian languages). To this day, he is the editor-in-chief of this magazine.

He organized the provision of humanitarian aid to the victims of the war in the former Yugoslavia.

He participates in the initiatives for the protection of persecuted Christians.

Foreign Languages:      Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian Languages.