The Protestant Church in the Netherlands (Dutch: Protestantse Kerk in Nederland, abbreviated PKN) is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the Netherlands. With 2,000 congregations and a membership of some 1.8 million (or 10.8% of the Dutch population, 2009), it is the second largest church in the Netherlands after the Roman Catholic Church.
It was founded 1 May 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The merger was the culmination of an organizational process begun in 1961. The Church incorporates both Reformed and Lutheran theological orientations.
Read more about Protestant Church In The Netherlands: Doctrine and Practice, Organization, Secularization, Separations, Involvement in The Middle East
Famous quotes containing the words protestant church, protestant, church and/or netherlands:
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“There was a young lady called Alice
Who peed in a Catholic chalice.
The Padre agreed
It was done out of need
And not out of Protestant malice.”
—Anonymous.
“The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, what have we to do
But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards
In an age which advances progressively backwards?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Greece is a sort of American vassal; the Netherlands is the country of American bases that grow like tulip bulbs; Cuba is the main sugar plantation of the American monopolies; Turkey is prepared to kow-tow before any United States pro-consul and Canada is the boring second fiddle in the American symphony.”
—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)