On the 1st of may, in 2004, the Netherlands Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and de Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands merged in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. (PCN, Dutch: PKN – Protestantse Kerk in Nederland) website

This website contains information about the Evangelical-Lutheran tradition in The Netherlands, and is a project from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the Protestant Church.

Since the first years of the reformation there has been a Lutheran minority in the Netherlands, mostly from Germany and Scandinavia. They were business man, travelers, workers in the industry, and they usually settled in cities. Today, most Lutheran congregations are found in cities and in places nearby rivers or former industry.

From the reformation on, there has always been a Calvinist majority in The Netherlands, but since a few decades the process of secularization, made that most Dutch people don’t belong to a Church any more. The secularization did not leave the Churches untouched. Most Churches lost many members, Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans.

In the new Protestant Church the Calvinists and Lutherans found each other, Calvinists are a majority in the Church, about 99% of the PCN members are Calvinists, 1% are Lutherans.

Today there are about 50 Evangelical-Lutheran congregations in Holland. Some small Evangelical-Lutheran congregations merged with Reformed congregations and formed protestant congregations.

The Dutch Lutherans can be described as open-minded, social and caring people, who usually like liturgical services. Their liturgical awareness had an enormous influence on Calvinists.

door: Peter de Koning, laatst bijgewerkt op: 17-04-2006