Reformed Church in The Netherlands Celebrates Merger

Almost 60 years after the Dutch Reformed Churches (Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken) painfully split away from the Reformed Churches Liberated (Gereformeerde Kerken Vrijgemaakt), the two denominations have merged to become the Dutch Reformed Churches (Nederlandse Gereformeerde Kerken or NGK). With about 320 congregations and 130,000 members, the NGK is now the second-largest protestant denomination in the Netherlands.

Peter Sinia, representing the new denomination, said they had to learn to bridge differences. “It was very tough. After years of two separate denominations, the merger in 2023 is a gospel story of hard work of reconciliation by God’s grace.” As he spoke of the wrongs they had to humbly confess, he said to Synod 2025 delegates, “I hope the dark pages of our history encourage you to take a higher road.”

The CRCNA’s Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee has the matter of an ecumenical relationship with the new merged denomination on the agenda of its fall 2025 meeting. Only one half of the merged denomination, the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken (Netherlands Reformed Churches), has been “church in communion” with the CRC until now.

Sinia noted that the new NGK is not much different from the church in which the CRC has been in ecclesiastical fellowship for decades. “Our concerns are often similar; membership decline over two years is almost as big as yours. Our confessions are the same. We will now create a Dutch translation of ‘Our World Belongs to God’ (the CRC’s contemporary testimony). You will find the same spirit at work on either side of the ocean.”

When the newly constituted church hosted its first synod in 2023, a major issue on its agenda was how to remain a confessional denomination. “With a lot of disagreement on the form of subscription it can be considered a blessing that the topic was dealt with in harmony,” said Sinia.

Another major issue on the agenda of that synod was the position of homosexual members within the churches. A synodical study committee, which started its work long before the merger, published one report, presenting minority and majority views. Sinia said synod’s first response to the report was to humble itself and express remorse over any injustice that homosexuals had experienced within their churches.

Sinia said the church has, for now, accepted that different views will exist within the denomination. “Leaving the matter in the freedom of local churches means that there is room for churches who choose to open the offices for those living in same-sex marriages, and for churches who wish to celebrate same-sex weddings within a church setting.” He said that despite the great differences in views, the deliberations of their synod on these matters took place in great harmony. “That does not mean that the decisions have found unanimous support within the churches. Time will learn whether the next synod will be overtured to revise these decisions,” he said.

Synod 2025, the annual general assembly of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is meeting June 13-19 on the campus of Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ont. Find daily coverage from The Banner at TheBanner.org/synod. Visit crcna.org/synod for the agenda, advisory reports, recordings of plenary sessions, and to subscribe to the daily Synod News email.