The Christian Reformed Church of Sri Lanka (formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church of Sri Lanka) is the oldest

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

church on the island.

History

Beginnings and development

On 6 October 1642, the first Protestant church service was held in Galle, following the capture of the fort at Galle by

Willem Jacobszoon Coster Willem Jacobszoon Coster ( – 21 August 1640) was a Dutch colonial governor who served as the first Governor of Dutch Ceylon from 13 March until 17 August 1640. He was succeeded by Jan Thyszoon Payart. Ceylon In 1637, the K ...

in 1640. Protestantism was introduced as a missionary religion in Sri Lanka in 1658 by Dutch missionaries after the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

defeated the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

on the island. When the Dutch took over there were already three religions present, Buddhism, Hinduism and Catholicism. All Roman Catholic churches, schools, and monasteries were transferred to the Dutch Reformed Church. The DRC church membership grew rapidly, and in the 18th century there were over 53,000 members in Colombo and 200,000 in Jaffna. The Reformed

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 Ca ...

faith was propagated by its schools. During a period the Reformed Church was the state religion. The Dutch period started in 1656 and lasted until the late 1700s. In 1796 the British occupied the Maritime Province of Ceylon, and Ceylon remained a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Crown

Colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

for the next 150 years. When the island become a British colony, many Dutch ministers left, and the church system collapsed. In the 19th and 20th centuries DRC church membership consisted of the Burghers, a Dutch word for citizens. They were not necessarily of Dutch origin, but were persons who held to

faith. But in the 19th century membership begin to broaden, with separate

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and Singhala congregations being formed.

Recent history

In 1992 the church celebrated its 350th anniversary. It is the oldest Protestant denomination in the island of Sri Lanka, and the Wolvendaal (which means the 'Valley of Wolves') Church is the oldest

church building. The latter church celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2007. Over the past years attempts have been made to increase church membership through evangelism. In 2008 the Dutch Reformed Church changed its name to the Christian Reformed Church in Sri Lanka.

Current status

The Christian Reformed Church of Sri Lanka currently has 31 churches and over 5,000 adherents. The church office is located in Galle Road,

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

Doctrine and practice

Creeds

* Apostles Creed * Athanasian Creed * Nicene Creed

Confessions

* Belgic Confession *

Canons of Dort 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� ...

* Heidelberg Catechism

Relationships

* National Christian Council in Sri Lanka * National Christian Evangelical Alliance in Sri Lanka The church has sister church relations with the Christian Reformed Church in North America, Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa and since 2008 the fraternal relation was restored with the

Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt)) are an orthodox Calvinist federation of churches. This church body arose in 1944 out of the so-called Liberation (') from the Reformed ...

World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Chris ...

- a new ecumenical body 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 nam ...

and Reformed churches represent over 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide *

World Reformed Fellowship The World Reformed Fellowship (WRF) is an ecumenical Christian organization which promotes unity between confessional Calvinist churches around the world. History The World Fellowship of Reformed Churches was formed in 1994 by the Presbyterian ...

- promotes unity between conservative Reformed churches

References

External links

*
localyte.com
{{European presence in Ceylon Dutch Reformed Church Evangelical denominations in Asia Members of the World Reformed Fellowship Members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches Reformed denominations in Sri Lanka