Hillar Palias – ohvitseri auastmes pastor

Abstract

Hillar Palias: a Pastor with the Rank of Captain
Hillar Palias (prior to 1940 his name was Gottfried-Georg Palias) (1896-1969) was an Estonian Baptist pastor. Before 1940 he pursued a military career in the Tapa Armoured Train Regiment, being awarded the rank of Captain in 1936. While working as an army officer he also preached at Tapa Baptist Church and fulfilled other pastoral duties. In 1940-1941 he was for a short period in the Soviet Army, before allowing himself to be imprisoned by German troops in autumn 1941, after which he was a prisoner of war camp for seven or eight months. The military and ministerial sides in his life mean that he represents a rather extraordinary identity combination, at least in Estonian Free Church history. Hillar Palias was not ordained, however, until 1949, in Sweden. He had emigrated with his family to Sweden in 1944, towards the end of the Second World War. In his earlier years he had been influenced by the German General and evangelist Georg von Viebahn, and Viebahn’s writings probably helped Palias to find peace between his military and ministerial identities. In Sweden, serving an Estonian Baptist congregation in Stockholm and beyond, he helped to organise church life and co-ordinated social ministries for Estonian refugees. In 1951 he moved to Toronto, Canada, and in 1956 he was elected an assistant pastor of the Estonian Baptist Church in Toronto. Being influenced by the spirituality of the holiness movements, he was engaged in a sincere striving for a deeper personal experience of sanctification. In Stockholm and Toronto he devoted himself to Christian ministry: besides preaching and other ministerial duties he gave much time to pastoral counselling and visiting sick and elderly people. With his balanced character, Palias helped to create an atmosphere of trust and security among Estonian refugees.

Hillar Palias belongs to Estonian cultural and church history, both as an army officer and as a pietistically-minded Baptist pastor who served both in Estonia and abroad. In addition, his biography is one example of many Estonian life-stories that were deeply affected by the political storms of the Second World War and its aftermath.