Dutch Reformed Church Evolution: 6 Key Events for Christian Denomination Since It Began

The Dutch Reformed Church and the German Reformed Church were the two main groups that formed under the Reformed Church movement during the Protestant Reformation in Europe. The reformed Christian churches had broken away from the Roman Catholic Church.

Here are six events that affected the Dutch Reformed Church over the years:

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1. Christian settlers who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1628 continued the Dutch Reformed Church with a congregation under the name of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. Four churches were established in what is now New York City and those congregations evolved into different forms of the Reformed Church through the centuries. The Reformed Church was the main church of the colony until British took control in 1664. However, the congregation continued to expand.

2. The Dutch church remained independent even under the British and Americans. It became incorporated as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in 1819 when it cut its ecclesiastical ties with the Netherlands.

3. Dutch Christians who settled in Michigan separated from the Reformed Church in 1857. They created the Christian Reformed Church.

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4. The original church changed its name to the Reformed Church in America in 1867. It continued to thrive, becoming a founding member of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. The church has some 300,000 members.

5. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Reformed Church had been the largest church association in the country until the middle of the 20th century when the Roman Catholic Church took control over it.

6. A number of changes were made to the Reformed churches in the Netherlands throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2004, the Reformed churches merged with the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. However, conservative elements in the Dutch Reformed Church refused to accept the merger and formed their own Restored Reformed Church.

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