The Protestant Church in the Netherlands ( nl, de Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, abbreviated PKN) is the largest

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

denomination in the Netherlands, being both

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John ...

and

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

. It was founded on 1 May 2004 as the

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

of the vast majority of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family a ...

, the vast majority of the

Reformed Churches in the Netherlands {{Infobox Christian denomination , name = Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Dutch ''Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland'') , image = , caption = , main_classification = Protestant , orientation = Calvinist , polity = Presbyterianism , ...

, and the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Evangelisch-Lutherse Kerk in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) was a denomination in the Netherlands which under that name existed from 1818 to 2004. In 2004, the denominatio ...

.GoDutch.com
"Three-way PKN Union Drastically Changes Dutch Denominational Landscape: Two Groups of Merger Opponents Stay Out"
May 24, 2004. Accessed July 13, 2010. The merger was the culmination of an organizational process started in 1961. Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge into the new church. The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) forms the country's second largest

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...

after the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, with approximately 1.6 million members as per the church official statistics or some 9.1% of the population in 2016. It is the traditional faith of the

Dutch Royal Family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

– a remnant of historical dominance of the

, the main predecessor of the Protestant Church.

Doctrine and practice

The doctrine of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands is expressed in its

creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

s. In addition to holding the Apostles', the Nicene and the

Athanasian Creed The Athanasian Creed, also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed and sometimes known as ''Quicunque Vult'' (or ''Quicumque Vult''), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes", is a Christian statement of belief ...

s of the universal church, it also holds to the confessions of its predecessor bodies. From the Lutheran tradition are the unaltered

Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Re ...

and Luther's Catechism, and from the Calvinist tradition are the

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

and Genevan Catechisms along with the

Belgic Confession The ''Confession of Faith'', popularly known as the Belgic Confession, is a doctrinal standard document to which many of the Reformed churches subscribe. The Confession forms part of the Three Forms of Unity of the Reformed Church, which are still ...

with the

Canons of Dordt The Canons of Dort, or Canons of Dordrecht, formally titled The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands, is the judgment of the National Synod held in the Dutch city of Dordrecht in 1618–1 ...

. The Church also acknowledges the

Theological Declaration of Barmen __NOTOC__ The Barmen Declaration or the Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (German: ''Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung'') was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the German Christian movement. In the view of the d ...

and the Leuenberg Agreement.Church Order of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands
. Article I, p. 1. Accessed July 13, 2010.

Ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

and blessings of same-sex marriages are allowed. The PKN contains both liberal and conservative movements, although the liberal

Remonstrants The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...

left talks when they could not agree with the unaltered adoption of the Canons of Dordt. Local congregations have far-reaching powers concerning "controversial" matters (such as admittance to

holy communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institute ...

or whether women are admitted as members of the congregation's consistory).

Organization

The polity of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands is a hybrid of

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

and congregationalist church governance. Church governance is organised along local, regional, and national lines. At the local level is the congregation. An individual congregation is led by a church council made of the minister along with elders and

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

s elected by the congregation. At the regional level were 75 classical assemblies whose members are chosen by the church councils. As of May 1, 2018, these 75 classical assemblies are reorganized into 11 larger ones. At the national level is the General

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

which directs areas of common interest, such as theological education, ministry training and ecumenical cooperation.Organisation of the PKN
. Accessed July 14, 2010. The PKN has four different types of congregations: # Protestant congregations: local congregations from different church bodies that have merged # Dutch Reformed congregations # Reformed congregations (congregations of the former Reformed Churches in the Netherlands) # Lutheran congregations (congregations of the former Evangelical-Lutheran Church) Lutherans are a minority (about 1 percent) of the PKN's membership. To ensure that Lutherans are represented in the Church, the Lutheran congregations have their own synod. The Lutheran Synod also has representatives in the General Synod.

Statistical details

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands issues yearly reports regarding its membership and finances. Its make-up by former affiliation of its congregations was as follows in 2017: Trend shows that since 2011 identification with former denominations has been falling in favor of simply identifying as "Protestant".

Secularization

Secularization, or the decline in religiosity, first became noticeable after 1960 in the Protestant rural areas of

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of F ...

and

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of th ...

. Then, it spread to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, and the other large cities in the west. Finally, the southern Catholic areas showed religious declines. A countervailing trend is produced by a religious revival in the Dutch

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's ...

, and the growth of Muslims and Hindu communities resulting from immigration and high birth rates. Research in 2007 concluded that 42% of the members of the PKN were

non-theist Nontheism or non-theism is a range of both religious and nonreligious attitudes characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of god or gods. Nontheism has generally been used to describe apathy or silence towards the subject o ...

s. Furthermore, in the PKN and several other smaller denominations of the Netherlands, one in six clergy were either agnostic or atheist. A Dutch minister of the PKN,

Klaas Hendrikse Klaas Hendrikse (September 1, 1947, Groot-Ammers – Middelburg, June 26, 2018) was a Dutch minister of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands who declared that he "believes in a God who does not exist." He was known in the Netherlands as '' ...

once described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and said that Jesus may have never existed.

Separations

Ontstaansgeschiedenis van kerken in Nederland

Only those congregations belonging to the former Reformed Churches in the Netherlands have the legal right to secede from the PKN without losing its property and church during a transition period of 10 years. Seven congregations have so far decided to form the Continued Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. Two congregations have joined one of the other smaller Calvinist churches in the Netherlands. Some minorities within congregations that joined the PKN decided to leave the church and associated themselves individually with one of the other Reformed churches. Some congregations and members in the Dutch Reformed Church did not agree with the merger and have separated. They have organized themselves in the

Restored Reformed Church The Restored Reformed Church ( nl, Hersteld Hervormde Kerk, abbreviated HHK) is a Calvinist denomination in the Netherlands. It was founded in 2004, from congregations which made up the orthodox-reformed wing of the Dutch Reformed Church; t ...

. Estimations of their membership vary from 35,000 up to 70,000 people in about 120 local congregations. They disagree with the pluralism of the merged church which maintains, as they see it, contradicting Calvinist and Lutheran confessions. This group also considers same-sex marriages and female clergy unbiblical.

Involvement in the Middle East

In a meeting of eight

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

and eight Protestant Dutch leaders in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in May 2011, a statement of cooperation was issued, indicating, for the most part, that the Protestant Church recognizes the issues involved with the Palestinian Christians and that this is sometimes at odds with support for the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, but standing up for the rights of the

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

does not detract from the emphasis on the safety of the State of Israel and vice versa.

References

External links

* (in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Protestant Church In The Netherlands Calvinism in the Netherlands Christian denominations in the Netherlands Dutch Reformed Church Lutheran World Federation members Lutheranism in the Netherlands Protestant denominations established in the 21st century Reformed denominations in the Netherlands

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...

United and uniting churches Christian organizations established in 2004 2004 establishments in the Netherlands