Dutch Reformed Church
Overview
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
: Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk or NHK) was a Reformed Christian denomination
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was the second largest Protestant church in the Netherlands until it merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands in 2004.-History:...
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands was a denomination in the Netherlands which under that name existed from 1818 to 2004...
to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands
Protestant Church in the Netherlands
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million , it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of...
. At the time of the merger, the Church had 2 million members organised in 1,350 congregations. A minority of members of the Church chose not to participate in the merger. These former members re-organized as the Restored Reformed Church
Restored Reformed Church
The Restored Reformed Church is a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It was founded on May 1, 2004, by a minority of the Reformed Bond inside the Dutch Reformed Church who opposed that church's merger with two other Protestant churches into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands...
.
It was one of the many new churches established across Europe during the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in the 16th century.
