Mennonite Church in the Netherlands

The Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit ( in German: General Taufgesinnte society ) is the Mennonite Church in the Netherlands. The church was founded in 1811 as a merger of several Mennonite churches as had been founded in 1695 Friese Doopsgezinde Sociëteit ( Frisian Taufgesinnte ).

The church is a member of the Mennonite World Conference, the Conference of European Churches and the Dutch World Council of Churches ( Raad van Kerken in Nederland) and in 2009 had approximately 9,700 members in 119 congregations.

History

The Netherlands' first Baptist congregation was founded in 1530 in Leeuwarden. Encourage the establishment of Baptist congregations came primarily from the acting in Emden reformer Melchior Hofmann. After the failure of apocalyptic and militant Anabaptists of Munster gathered Dirk and Obbe Philips as well as a native of the Dutch Friesland priest Menno Simons temperate part of the Anabaptist movement, and formulated a conscious pacifist theology. Under Menno Simons arose in the 1540ern in the north of the Netherlands ( Friesland and Groningen) and in Northern Germany new churches.

After his death, the Dutch Anabaptist movement splintered increasingly. Unlike the Evangelical Reformed Church, the Congregational Mennonites could not build on a solid church structure. So were still in the 16th century waterländische, Frisian and Flemish communities. After 1664 emerged conservative ( Sonnisten ) and open ( Lammisten or Remonstrant Taufgesinnte ) communities. It was not until 1801 both factions agreed again. The Flemish municipalities agreed already in 1632 on the Dordrecht Confession, which later took over many other communities and still has a great importance for the spun-off from the Swiss Mennonites Amish.

After the introduction of tolerance in the northern Netherlands under William of Orange in 1579, the Dutch municipalities called open again Taufgesinnte ( Doopsgezinde ). In the 17th and 18th century in a time of economic and cultural flowering ( Golden Age ) found the Dutch Mennonites as well eg the Remonstrants increasingly gaining acceptance in government and business. For the theological education has existed since 1735 in Amsterdam, a Mennonite seminary. Since 1925, several seminar houses as fraternity houses ( Broederschapshuis ) have emerged. The largest church is the Singelkerk in Amsterdam.

In 2013, the Dutch Mennonites gave along with other Protestant Churches in the Netherlands ( Protestant Church, Arminianism, Liberals and others) a common ecumenical hymnal ( Liedboek - zingen s bidden in huis en kerk ) out.