scholarly journals Die toekoms van die drie Afrikaanse hoofstroomkerke saam

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Tolmay
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Bright Future ◽  
The Future ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

The future of the three mainstream Afrikaans Churches. The union of the three mainstream Afrikaans Churches encompasses inter alia a mutual origin, a mutual socio-historical contextualism, a mutual language experience and mutual Articles of Faith. These bonds form the foundation for greater cooperation and may even lead to future church unification. The Conventus of Reformed Churches is an exciting initiative that has developed over the last two decades. This organisation unites some 15 churches with a reformed background. Do the three Afrikaans mainstream churches take church unification seriously? Historically the Nederduitsche Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (NHKA) in particular was cautious about church unification. The Interdenominational Church Council (TKR) presents a basis for cooperation, but the question arises as to the structure that would be supported by the three churches. Mainly after 1994 the Afrikaner started redefining its own identity. The tendency is that the three churches will decrease in size as the three are all losing members. The three Afrikaans mainstream churches definitely need one another, and in future this interdependency probably will increase. That is why it is important to focus on common ground and not on differences. Bearing the church unification of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN) in mind, together we can look forward to a bright future in the 21st century.

scholarly journals Beauty and battle: How the Spirit is moving and operating in the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hans Kommers
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Spiritual Renewal ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Core Function ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
New Vision ◽  
The Church

This article discusses how we in the present day hear the sound of the Holy Spirit and where his work can be witnessed in the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands. Mainstream churches have been faced with many challenges during the first decade of the 21st century. Many people have left these churches and have had little contact with its institutions. Is it necessary for them to search for spirituality elsewhere? The author is convinced that the Lord is not bypassing his church. The following question is relevant, In what way is the Spirit working today? This question is urgent, because today there is a renewed search for the reality and power of the Holy Spirit. Within the great and traditional Reformed Churches we hope to see a spiritual renewal. Last year the synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands revealed a new vision for mission work, which indicates that the church wants to return to its core function, to reach out to others who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking forward to the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in this century, we are already witnessing the beauty of the work of the Holy Spirit, but we have a battle to wage in order not to lose what has been gained.Grootsheid en stryd: Die dinamiese werking van die Gees in die Gereformeerde Kerke van Nederland. In hierdie artikel word die teenwoordigheid en werking van die Heilige Gees in die Gereformeerde Kerke van Nederland bespreek. Die hoofstroomkerke het met baie uitdagings te kampe gehad tydens die eerste dekade van die 21ste eeu. Baie mense het hierdie kerke verlaat sonder om enige verdere interne kontak daarmee te hê. Was dit vir hulle nodig om elders na spiritualiteit te gaan soek? Die outeur is daarvan oortuig dat die Here nie sy kerk verlaat het nie. Die volgende vraag is relevant: Op watter wyse werk die Gees vandag? Hierdie vraag is belangrik, aangesien daar ‘n hernude soeke is na die wese  en krag van die Heilige Gees. Binne die groot tradisionele gereformeerde kerke hoop en verwag ‘n mens om  spirituele herlewing te sien. Die sleutelplan wat die Protestantse Kerk van Nederland (PKN) se sinode in 2009 bekendgestel het vir die oplewing in sending, wys dat die kerk wil terugkeer na sy kerntaak. ‘n Toekomsblik op  die dinamiese werk van die Heilige Gees in hierdie eeu dui op die grootsheid van die werk van die Heilige Gees tot dusver en dat ons die stryd moet verskerp om nie te verloor wat ons tans het nie.

‘The Substance of the Faith’ A Clarification of the Concept in the Church of Scotland

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-338
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Torrance
Keyword(s):  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Nicene Creed ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Church

In determining the meaning of the expression ‘the substance of the Faith’, it seems right to go back to the act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 which ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith ‘as the publick and avowed Confession of this Church, containing the summe and substance of the doctrine of the Reformed Churches.’ There the WCF was regarded as containing the sum and substance of some thirty Reformed Confessions, including the Scots Confession, the First and Second Helvetic Confessions. These confessions expressly acknowledged the ancient Catholic Creeds and Conciliar Statements of the Church, the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Formulations of Ephesus and Chalcedon, and the so-called ‘Athanasian Creed’, and embodied all their main statements as essential articles of belief. This was true of the WCF which, as James Denney once pointed out, ‘contains everything that is in the Nicene Creed’ (Jesus and the Gospel, p. 39If). That is to say, there was no move away from what the Athanasian Creed and the Second Helvetic Confession called ‘the Catholic Faith’, although the basic articles of faith handed down through the Creeds were set within a confessional frame of distinctively Reformed character. It was inevitable, therefore, that a distinction was made between what Samuel Rutherford called (Due Right Presbyteries, p. 13) ‘a confession dejure, what everyman ought to believe, as the Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Athanasius’, and a wider summation of teaching common to ‘true Reformed Protestant religion’.

Non-Geographic Classes? Reformed Geography

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Leon van den Broeke
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Reformed Church In America ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Church

Abstract The Reformed Church in America is wrestling with an interesting question in ecclesiology and church order: is there a place within the church for so-called non-geographic classes. Non-geographic classes are classes which are not formed around a geographic regional principal, but by agreement in theological perspective or a peculiar way that a congregation is shaped. The question central to this article is then: is there a place in Reformed churches for non-geographical classes? In answering this question, the following will be considered: a similar proposal from the Gereformeerde Bond in the Netherlands Reformed Church in 1998; the geographic-regional principle; the Walloon Classis; the Classis of Holland; the Reformed Church in America; Flying, diocesan and titular bishops and finally a conclusion.

scholarly journals Reformed missionary work at Richmond (KZN): A historical analysis of its Dutch roots

2004 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wielenga
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
The Political ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

In this article the Dutch roots of Reformed missionary work, based at Richmond (KZN) since 1960 are analysed. The following three aspects were investigated: the church-historical background of Dutch missionary work in KwaZulu-Natal; the political context within which the work was undertaken, the relationship between the Gereformeerde Kerke in Suid-Afrika (GKSA) and the Dutch churches that sent missionaries to KwaZulu-Natal, the Netherlands Reformed Churches (Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken). The investigation undertaken in this article attempts to contribute to a deeper understanding of the sometimes uneasy relationship between the GKSA and one of her missionary partners from abroad.

scholarly journals ’n Waarskynlike bedieningsmilieu vir die GKSA in die dekades na 2000

1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Vorster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Future ◽  
Broad Framework ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Biblical Principles ◽  
The Church

This article focuses on the possible milieu for the ministry of the Reformed Churches in South Africa in the decades beyond 2000. From a church- historical and futurological point of view the paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism is investigated. The effect of the paradigm shift as well as the emerging megatrends is analysed and proposals for the focus of the future ministry of these churches are formulated. These proposals are outlined within the broad framework of Biblical principles for the ministry of the church.

An ‘Unnatural Alliance’ for Religious Toleration: The Philosophes and the Outlawed Pastors of the ‘Church of the Desert’

1973 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-523
Author(s):  
John Dunning Woodbridge
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Toleration ◽  
Life Imprisonment ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
Religious Services ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
The Church

The struggles and sacrifices of those pastors and laymen who reconstructed the Reformed churches in southern France during the eighteenth century compose one of the intriguing chapters of the history of the “Church of the Desert.” Members of an outlawed Protestant church in a country which was overwhelmingly Roman Catholic by religion, these pastors and their flocks ran great risks in holding open-air religious services in the secluded and rugged countryside of the Midi—or the “Desert”—in southern France. Attendance at their services was punishable by perpetual service in the king's galleys for the men and life imprisonment for the women; the Reformed pastors who led these meetings did so on pain of death. Not a few of these Calvinists suffered extreme physical and mental anguish because of their obstinate refusal to abandon the faith of their fathers.

scholarly journals Longitudinal, Transverse or Centrally Aligned? In the Search for the Correct Layout of the ‘Protesters’ Churches

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Harasimowicz
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Art History ◽  
Church Architecture ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

The article was written within the framework of a research project “Protestant Church Architecture of the 16th -18th centuries in Europe”, conducted by the Department of the Renaissance and Reformation Art History at the University of Wrocław. It is conceived as a preliminary summary of the project’s outcomes. The project’s principal research objective is to develop a synthesis of Protestant church architecture in the countries which accepted, even temporarily, the Reformation: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Island, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden and The Netherlands. Particular emphasis is placed on the development of spatial and functional solutions (specifically ground plans: longitudinal, transverse rectangular, oval, circular, Latin- and Greek-cross, ground plans similar to the letters “L” and “T”) and the placement of liturgical furnishing elements within the church space (altars, pulpits, baptismal fonts and organs).

scholarly journals Reuse of Churches in Urban and Rural Dutch Landscapes

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55
Author(s):  
Stefan Netsch ◽  
Katharina Gugerell
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Building Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Applications ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Buildings

Abstract European churches are confronted with the challenge of finding new uses for their church buildings. Due to a lack of members and income, the maintenance of their buildings cannot be ensured in the future; therefore, new applications and users are to be found. This task poses a considerable challenge, especially in a to a certain extent provincial and conservative country like the Netherlands, where people, even irreligious ones, perceive the church as a building that belongs to them. Besides having to deal with the building in an architectural way, there is a wide range of possibilities for reusing it; for example, community-based or mixed uses, commercial or residential ones. The eventual solution is mainly based on the church’s building type, the influence of the neighborhood, the owner’s financial possibilities, and the location. One of the present study’s main results suggests that uses which serve the community are more likely to be found in rural areas, consequently reflecting the importance of those buildings there.

scholarly journals Sejarah Gereja Belanda Austin Friars di City of London: Refleksi Sejarah Gerakan Reformasi � Harapan dan Tantangan

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Henk Ten Napel
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City ◽  
Church In The World ◽  
The Church ◽  
Formative Years

In the centre of the City of London one can find the Dutch Church Austin Friars. Thanks to the Charter granted in 1550 by King Edward VI, the Dutch refugees were allowed to start their services in the church of the old monastery of the Augustine Friars. What makes the history of the Dutch Church in London so special is the fact that the church can lay claim to being the oldest institutionalised Dutch protestant church in the world. As such it was a source of inspiration for the protestant church in the Netherlands in its formative years during the sixteenth century. Despite its long history, the Dutch Church is still alive and well today. This article will look at the origin of this church and the challenges it faced and the developments it experienced during the 466 years of its existence.

scholarly journals Die hervertolking van die paradigma in verband met die Kollegialisme om die Afrikaanse kerke kerkregtelik te verstaan

1992 ◽  
Vol 48 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Brown
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
Reformed Churches ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Church

Reinterpreting the paradigm concerning ‘Kollegialisme’ in order to understand the Afrikaans churches according to church law The Afrikaans term ‘Kollegialisme’ is used to convey criticism of the polity and history of the Afrikaans churches of Reformed persuasion. The well-known Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper, constructed this methodological paradigm. A philosophical concept originating within the German church was rendered contextually to communicate the development of the national church of the Netherlands. An analysis of the relevant sources indicates that what was implied was an understanding of the church in terms of a society (‘genootskap’). Accordingly, the polity and history of the Reformed churches needs to be reinterpreted.

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