Protestant Church in the Netherlands

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (Dutch: de

Protestant Church in the
Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, abbreviated PKN) is the largest
Protestant denomination in the Netherlands, being both Calvinist Netherlands
and Lutheran.

It was founded on 1 May 2004 as the merger of the vast majority

of the Dutch Reformed Church, the vast majority of the Reformed
Classification Protestant
Churches in the Netherlands, and the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.[2][3] The merger was Orientation United church
the culmination of an organizational process started in 1961. Polity Mixture of
Several orthodox Reformed and liberal churches did not merge presbyterian and
into the new church. congregationalist

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) forms the Associations Conference of
country's second largest Christian denomination after the Catholic European
Church, with approximately 1.5 million members as per the church Churches
official statistics or some 8.6% of the population in 2021.[1] It is World
the traditional faith of the Dutch Royal Family – a remnant of
Communion of
historical dominance of the Dutch Reformed Church, the main
Reformed
predecessor of the Protestant Church.
Churches
Communion of
Doctrine and practice Protestant
Churches in
The doctrine of the
Protestant Church in the Europe
Netherlands is expressed in Lutheran World
its creeds. In addition to Federation
holding the Apostles', the World Council of
Nicene, and the
Churches
Athanasian creeds of the
universal Church, it also Origin 1 May 2004
Westerkerk in Amsterdam holds to the confessions of Netherlands
its predecessor bodies. Merger of Dutch Reformed
From the Lutheran
Church
tradition are the unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's
Catechism, and from the Calvinist tradition are the Heidelberg and Reformed
Genevan Catechisms along with the Belgic Confession with the Churches in the
Canons of Dordt. The Church also acknowledges the Theological Netherlands
Declaration of Barmen and the Leuenberg Agreement.[4] Evangelical
Ordination of women and blessings of same-sex marriages are
Lutheran Church
allowed.[5]
in the Kingdom of
The PKN contains both liberal and conservative movements, the Netherlands
although the liberal Remonstrants left talks when they could not Separations Restored
agree with the unaltered adoption of the Canons of Dordt. Local Reformed
congregations have far-reaching powers concerning Church
"controversial" matters (such as admittance to holy communion or Continued
whether women are admitted as members of the congregation's
Reformed
consistory).
Churches in the
Netherlands
Organization (newly organized
denominations;
The polity of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands is a hybrid refused to
of presbyterian and congregationalist church governance. Church
participate in the
governance is organised along local, regional, and national lines.
merger)
At the local level is the congregation. An individual congregation
is led by a church council made of the minister along with elders Congregations 1,487
and deacons elected by the congregation. At the regional level Members 1.5 million (8.6%
were 75 classical assemblies whose members are chosen by the of the
church councils. As of May 1, 2018, these 75 classical assemblies
population)[1]
are reorganized into 11 larger ones. At the national level is the
General Synod which directs areas of common interest, such as Official website www
theological education, ministry training and ecumenical .protestantsekerk
cooperation.[6] .nl (https://www.p
rotestantsekerk.n
The PKN has four different types of congregations: l)

1. Protestant congregations: local congregations from

different church bodies that have merged
2. Dutch Reformed congregations
3. Reformed congregations (congregations of the former Reformed Churches in the
Netherlands)
4. 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.[6]

Statistical details
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands issues yearly reports regarding its membership and finances.[7]

Its make-up by former affiliation of its congregations was as follows in 2017:

Members of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands by type of congregation (2017)[7]

% of members in the Protestant Church in the
Former affiliation of the congregation
Netherlands
no former affiliation, merged, or simply identifying as
57.3
Protestant (Protestants)

former Dutch Reformed Church (Hervormd) 33.6

former Reformed Churches in the Netherlands

8.6
(Gereformeerd)
former Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the
0.5
Netherlands (Luthers)
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 and Groningen. Then, it spread to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the other large cities in the west.
Finally, the southern Catholic areas showed religious declines. Research in 2007 concluded that 42% of the
members of the PKN were non-theists.[8] Furthermore, in the PKN and several other smaller
denominations of the Netherlands, one in six clergy were either agnostic or atheist.[9][10] A Dutch minister
of the PKN, Klaas Hendrikse once described God as "a word for experience, or human experience" and
said that Jesus may have never existed.[9][11]

A countervailing trend is produced by a religious revival in the Dutch Bible Belt.[12][13]

Separations
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.[2] 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.
Estimations of their membership vary from 35,000 up to 70,000
people in about 120 local congregations.[14] 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. History of the churches in the
Netherlands
Chart of splits and mergers of the Dutch Reformed churches

Splits and mergers of the Dutch Reformed churches

NHK (1571)

Remonstrants
(1619)

Seceders
(1834)
 CGK
(1869)
NGK
(Dolerende)
(1886)

GKN (1892)
GerGem
(1907)

GKV (1944)

GGiN
(1953)
NRC
(1967)
GGiN
(unconnected)
(1980)
NVK
(2003)
HHK
VGKN (2004)
(2004)

ELKKN

PKN (2004)
NGK
(2023)

Involvement in the Middle East

In a meeting of eight Jewish and eight Protestant Dutch leaders in Israel 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, but standing up for the rights of the Palestinians does not detract from the emphasis on the safety of
the State of Israel and vice versa.[15]

See also
Bible Belt (Netherlands)
History of religion in the Netherlands
United and uniting churches
Religion in the Netherlands
Reformed Association in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands
Catholic Church in the Netherlands

References
1. "Over de Protestantse Kerk" (https://www.protestantsekerk.nl/over-ons/). Protestantse Kerk
 in Nederland. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
2. GoDutch.com, "Three-way PKN Union Drastically Changes Dutch Denominational
Landscape: Two Groups of Merger Opponents Stay Out" (http://www.godutch.com/newspap
er/index.php?id=571), May 24, 2004. Accessed July 13, 2010.
3. "strijd met de onkerk" (https://www.trouw.nl/home/strijd-met-de-onkerk-~addb2469/).
4. Church Order of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (http://www.protestantchurch.nl/sit
e/uploadedDocs/CHURCH_ORDER.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201107191
62608/http://www.protestantchurch.nl/site/uploadedDocs/CHURCH_ORDER.pdf) 2011-07-
19 at the Wayback Machine. Article I, p. 1. Accessed July 13, 2010.
5. Christian Post: Protestant Church in Netherlands to Grant Blessings to Gay Couples (https://
www.christianpost.com/news/protestant-church-in-netherlands-to-grant-blessings-to-gay-cou
ples.html), 2007
6. Organisation of the PKN (http://www.protestantchurch.nl/info.aspx?page=1509#) Archived (h
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110719162652/http://www.protestantchurch.nl/info.aspx?page
=1509) 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed July 14, 2010.
7. "PKN Statistische Jaarbrief 2017" (https://www.protestantsekerk.nl/download/CAwdEAwUU
kRBXEU=&type=pdf).
8. Meester, Ronald; Dekker, G. God in Nederland (1996-2006). ISBN 9789025957407.
9. Pigott, Robert (5 August 2011). "Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world" (https://www.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14417362). BBC News. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
10. Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6TuZ9F-PGo) on YouTube
11. Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eypysiJQgw) on YouTube
12. Knippenberg, Hans (1998). "Secularization in the Netherlands in its historical and
geographical dimensions". GeoJournal. 45 (3): 209–220. doi:10.1023/A:1006973011455 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1006973011455). ISSN 0343-2521 (https://www.worldcat.org/
issn/0343-2521). S2CID 142623867 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:142623867).
13. Sobotka, Tomáš; Adigüzel, Feray (2002), Religiosity and spatial demographic differences in
the Netherlands, hdl:11385/169984 (https://hdl.handle.net/11385%2F169984)
14. "Official website Restored Reformed Church" (https://web.archive.org/web/2010102323064
3/http://www.hersteldhervormdekerk.nl/website/gemeenten). Archived from the original (htt
p://www.hersteldhervormdekerk.nl/website/gemeenten) on 2010-10-23. Retrieved
2011-09-06.
15. "Encounter and dialogue" (https://web.archive.org/web/20111118110306/http://www.protest
antchurch.nl/info.aspx?page=16308). Archived from the original (http://www.protestantchurc
h.nl/info.aspx?page=16308) on 2011-11-18. Retrieved 2011-08-14.

External links
Official website (https://www.protestantsekerk.nl) (in Dutch)

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