Catholic Apostolic Church - Church of God
The Catholic Apostolische Kirche - Gemeinde Gottes (nl. Katholiek Apostolische Kerk - Gemeente Gods) is a Christian denomination. It is one of the apostolic communities . Since 2009 the community has called itself the General Church (Algemene Kerk).
Self-image
One refers to oneself as " sealed souls" and sees oneself as "a fellowship of Christians from many church departments who, as they continue to function in their own ecclesiastical communities, come together to discuss themselves about the division of the church and loss to humiliate the first love. ” The members of the community remain in the church community in which they are baptized and undertake to work actively in the small community in addition to their work there.
Emergence
The history of the community goes back to the 1920s. Two brothers, Johannes Leonardus Bos and Leonardus Johannes Bos, from the vicinity of Utrecht , who belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church , heard about the Catholic apostolic congregations , which lived in the so-called "time of silence" after the death of the last apostle in 1901 . For a long time they had been concerned with the question of why the office of apostle, which was so expressively described in the letters of the apostle Paul , no longer existed in the Christian churches. The brothers attended Catholic apostolic services in Utrecht and were thereupon convinced of the authenticity of this work.
After this decisive discovery for them, they were fully convinced that God would give apostles to the Church again. To this end, they held prayer meetings, in which prophecies were then uttered. These meetings were purely private and had nothing to do with the Catholic Apostolic Churches. At one of these meetings both brothers were called to apostles through prophecy. Thereupon contact was sought with several Catholic-Apostolic ministers who were still alive. a. the coadjutor Heath, but her apostleship was not recognized by them.
Development towards your own community
Convinced of their mandate, the Bos brothers built a so-called “Apostle Chapel” behind their house in Groenekan (near Utrecht) and began to hold church services there. Since 1937, the Bos brothers' congregation has held the fourfold office of apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
One feels obliged to the 'Testimonium', which was published by the British apostles in 1837 and also uses their liturgy .
LJ Bos died in 1968, after the death of his brother JL Bos in 1997, Arie Nieuwland (since 1988), Henk van Wijk (since 1989) and Wiebe Tilstra (since 1995) became apostles.
The community under van Wijk
Since the early 1990s, the community, especially among the followers of other apostolic communities, has been promoting its own cause more strongly. At the end of the 1990s, a part of the Catholic-Apostolic congregation in Leipzig joined the movement. Apostle Henk van Wijk presented himself as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church when he published his book “The Dance of the Blind Bride” in 2000 , following the self-image of his own community. This was confirmed in advance by some clergymen from other ecclesiastical directions knew nothing of van Wijk's work as an apostle and had been asked to review the book, labeled 'dishonest', 'gross' and 'painful'. In 2018 the community came into the press negatively when Jildert de Boer published grievances in his book “Zijt gij niet apostelen ?!” . The Leeuwarder Courant , the Reformatorisch Dagblad , the Nederlands Dagblad and the Protestants Nederland reported on it in January 2018.
Today's distribution
The community should include a few hundred members. In addition to municipalities in the Netherlands, there are also municipalities in Germany (including Berlin and Leipzig ) and Austria ( Vienna ).
literature
- Jildert de Boer: Zijt gij niet apostelen ?! Geschiedenis leer en Praktijk van het Katholiek Apostolische Werk / De Algemene Kerk . Elburg 2017.
- Dr. MJ Tang: Het apostolic work in Nederland (tegen de achtergrond van zijn ontstaan in Engeland en Duitsland) . 4th edition. Boekencentrum, The Hague 1989, ISBN 9023914724 .
- Henk van Wijk: Over de ene holy, catholic en apostolische kerk - een bezinning en een oproep . Groenekan, 1992.
- Henk van Wijk: De dans van de blinde bruid . Merweboek, Sliedrecht 2000, ISBN 9057870339 .