wfn.org | Protestant Church-Day Major Event of Dutch Lutheran-Reformed

["Frank Imhoff" <Frank_Imhoff@elca.org>]

Protestant Church-Day Major Event of Dutch Lutheran-Reformed Merger 
Hard-Liners Criticize Broad Selection of Confessional Texts 

UTRECHT, The Netherlands/GENEVA, 29 June 2004 (LWI) * A
Protestant Church-Day on June 12 launched the first large-scale
event of the new united church in the Netherlands. 

Over 5,000 Reformed and Lutheran Christians gathered in the
Dutch city of Utrecht for a national rally to mark the merger of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, Netherlands Reformed Church (NRC) and Reformed
Churches in the Netherlands (RCN), into the Protestant Church in
the Netherlands (PCN), which formally came into existence on May
1. 

The launch somewhat reflected the seemingly endless tension with
hard-line opponents to the church union. "Perhaps [the
hard-liners] preserve us from triumphalism," PCN general
secretary Bas Plaisier said in an address at the rally. 

With over two million baptized members, the PCN is the
second-largest church in the country, after the 5-million-member
Roman Catholic Church. Of the more than 2,200 congregations that
belonged to one or other of the predecessor churches, at least 60
Reformed congregations have declared their intention to remain
outside the PCN. Most of these belonged to the NRC and have since
grouped to form the Restored Netherlands Reformed Church. A few
former RCN congregations have banded together as the Prolonged
Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.

The PCN establishment ends the "Samen op Weg" (Together on the
Way) process that began with an appeal for the reunion of the two
Reformed churches in 1961. The Lutheran church joined the process
in 1990. The Dutch Lutheran church, currently with 14,000 members
and NRC with a membership of 1.9 million, both date from the
16th-century Reformation movement. The 650,000-member RCN, was
formed from 19th-century schisms in the NRC.

Confessional Texts Not Meant "to Kill off all Conversation"

With the formation of the PCN general synod, the two Reformed
synods ceased to exist. The Lutheran synod remains as a body that
advises the general synod with the aim to "ensure that the
Lutheran tradition is preserved and made to serve the whole
church." Five Lutheran delegates from this synod are among the
158 members of the general synod.

The PCN refers to 11 confessional texts - Reformed, Lutheran and
ecumenical - as being "of essential importance for the Protestant
Church in the Netherlands." The historical documents, which
include the Augsburg Confession and Leuenberg Agreement, are
named in the opening article of the PCN constitution. In
practice, local congregations may choose from several
confessional identities, resulting in a nationwide patchwork of
local identities.

However, the broad selection of confessional texts underpinning
the new church was challenged by hard line critics within the
NRC. But Dutch Lutheran theologian Prof Klaas Zwanepol assured
general synod members that these texts are not meant "to kill off
all conversation, but precisely to start the conversation."
Zwanepol was speaking at the synod's first meeting, May 13-14 in
the town of Wageningen.
 
There are currently four Lutheran-Reformed 'union' churches with
membership in both the Lutheran World Federation and World
Alliance of Reformed Churches. They include the Evangelical
Church of the River Plate, in Argentina; Ethiopian Evangelical
Church Mekane Yesus; Malagasy Protestant Church in France; and
Church of Lippe in Germany. (531 words)

(By Amsterdam-based LWI correspondent Andreas Havinga.)

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing 62.3 million
of the almost 66 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
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ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, h
uman rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

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