Baptists in the Netherlands

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Baptists in the Netherlands have been around since 1845 . The Union of Dutch Baptists today has 85 local congregations with a total of around 12,000 baptized members. The official name is: Unie van Baptistengemeenten in Nederland .

In addition to this union, there is another Baptist association, the Brotherhood of Baptist Congregations (Dutch Broederschap van Baptistengemeenten ). After a merger with other free church congregations, this union is now called ABC - Alliantie van Baptisten en CAMA gemeenten .

history

Amsterdam was the founding site of the world's first Baptist church. Congregational religious refugees from England met in 1609 in the back room of a bakery and united under the direction of John Smyth and Thomas Helwys to form a baptismal congregation. A short time later Helwys returned to England with part of this community. The other part of the community was absorbed into the communities of the Waterland Mennonites.

Beginnings

Elias Feisser

The actual emergence of Dutch Baptism is closely connected with the name Johannes Elias Feisser . Feisser, born in 1805 , was originally a preacher of the Dutch Reformed Church and worked in three parishes. Most recently he was pastor of the parish Gasselternijveen . As a result of his personal study of the Bible , he realized that New Testament baptism required the person to be baptized and that it was done through immersion. He put this knowledge up for discussion within his church and got into a deep argument about it with his church council. In 1843 the higher church authority, the Provinciaal Kerkbestuur , removed him from his offices.

It was probably traveling salesmen and seasonal workers whom Feisser heard about shortly after his impeachment from the young Baptist movement in Germany. He got in touch with Johann Gerhard Oncken , founder of this movement, and received on its mediating between visiting Julius Köbner and Jeveraner elders Anton Friedrich Remmers . Feisser found out that he was not alone with his understanding of baptism; for the first time he heard the denomination of Baptists in conversations with Koebner and Remmers .

First church planting and further developments

In May 1845 Julius Köbner traveled a second time to Feisser. In the meantime he had gathered a small circle of like-minded people around him. They left the Reformed Church and decided to be baptized. Köbner carried out the baptism of Feisser and initially six other members of the Feisser circle. The place of baptism was the Nijveensche moon , not far from Gasselternijveen.

The baptized were constituted under Köbner's chairmanship as the Gemeente van dopte Christenen (congregation of baptized Christians). Feisser was ordained an elder in this first Dutch Baptist church. A short time later it received official royal recognition as a religious society . The community grew very slowly at first.

In the second half of the 19th century the Baptist movement in the Netherlands experienced a strong boom. In addition to church planting in the provinces of Groningen and Friesland , which were mainly supported by East Frisian Baptists from theirs , churches also developed in Haarlem , The Hague and Amsterdam . Your missionary and former blacksmith Johann Pieter de Neui is one of the pioneers of Dutch Baptism . As a result of his activities, a Baptist congregation was established in Franeker (Friesland) and he became its preacher for six years from 1865.

In January 1881 the Dutch Baptist Union was founded. His name was initially Unie van Gemeenten van doped Christenen . 26 rulers and elders attended the charter meeting. Around 1900 the federal government had 20 member communities with around 1000 baptized members. He became a founding member of the 1905 in London launched Baptist World Alliance . In 1917 the Dutch Baptists took on the name they still bear today: Unie van Baptistengemeenten in Nederland .

Between 1946 and 1970 there was a further growth phase in Dutch Baptism. Almost 30 new churches were formed during this time. The number of members rose to almost 10,000. There were also many other congregations that had constituted themselves as independent congregations.

In 1972 the Dutch Baptists were given their own theological chair at the University of Utrecht . At the same time tensions developed between the more liberal on the one hand and conservative communities on the other, which in 1981 led to the separation of the communities organized in the brotherhood .

Organization of the university

The Dutch Baptist Union sees itself as a congregational church community. Since the autonomous local congregation is at the center of Baptist ecclesiology , regional and national associations are not hierarchical above the congregations. At the beginning of the 21st century has been Unie , after decades of preparation, largely reorganized. It belongs to the European Baptist Federation and the World Baptist Federation .

The Algemene Vergadering

The Algemene Vergadering (German: General Assembly ) consists of elected representatives of the local congregations and usually meets once a year to decide on all important matters of the Baptist Union at a council meeting that lasts several days. The Vergadering decide on the budget of the Federal and elects the members of the Federal line ( Unieraad ). From 2008 the AV is to be held twice a year.

The Unieraad

The Unieraad consists of six to nine people, each of whom heads certain work areas. Its members are elected for a limited time. It is their task to implement the decisions of the Unieraad and to coordinate the national work. In addition to the main management of the federal government, Unieraad is responsible for the following areas:

Broederschap van Baptistengemeenten / ABC churches

The Broederschap was founded in 1981 as a spin-off from the Unie and comprised 26 autonomous communities with a total of approx. 5000 members baptized in faith. In 2005 the brotherhood merged with the Dutch CAMA congregations and today forms a new church association under the name ABC congregations (Dutch: ABC - Alliantie van Baptisten en CAMA gemeenten ). It includes 68 local parishes. Among them is the Vrije Baptistengemeente Bethel in Drachten , led by Pastor Orlando Bottenbley, the largest free church in the Netherlands with over 2000 members and 750 children. The ABC churches belong neither to the European Baptist Federation nor to the Baptist World Federation .

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