The Dutch Reformed in North America before World War II

Reformed Church Origins

Nowhere in Europe did people suffer more for what they believed than they did in Holland. Spain, the most powerful country of that day, ruled Holland with an iron hand. The Spanish kings were determined to root the Reformation out of Holland.5

Due to Spain's cruelty, the Catholics of the Low Countries united with the Protestants to throw off the Spanish chains. The Netherlands became a republic in 1648, and the Gereformeerde Kerken (Reformed Churches) were officially recognized.

The first Dutch immigrants came to the new world in the early 17th century and brought their reformed faith with them. The first congregation of what became the Reformed Church in America (RCA) was organized in New Amsterdam in 1628. By the time the English conquered New Netherland in 1664, there were 15 reformed congregations in the colony.

As in New France, the English did not actively discourage the religion of the conquered inhabitants. At times, Dutch reformed congregations received charters - something otherwise reserved for the Anglican Church. By the time of the Revolution, there were over 100 Dutch reformed congregations. They had been so well treated and assimilated by the British, in fact, that perhaps one-third were loyal to the nation which had defeated them a century earlier. Some of these loyalists returned to the Netherlands following the Revolutionary War, while others settled in future Canada, often joining Presbyterian or Anglican churches. In some cases they did created Dutch Reformed churches in Canada, but following the War of 1812, most of these left the Reformed Church of America and aligned themselves with the Presbyterian church.

The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, as it was then called, was no stranger to controversy and secession. Three small secessions took place in the 19th century. The first occurred in 1822 over the issue of Hopkinsism; the resulting denomination called itself the True Dutch Reformed Church (TDRC). The second involved immigrant congregations in Michigan; after joining the RCA in 1850, four of these congregations left the fold in 1857 and began the Christian Reformed Church. The third controversy was over lodge membership; the RCA's refusal to stand against lodge membership impelled several congregations to join the fledgling CRC in the early 1880s.6

The Afscheiding, Rev. Ledeboer, and the Doleantie

The RCA was established long before William I made the Gereformeerde Kerken7 the state church, henceforth called the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk (NHK, Netherlands Reformed [or, better, Reorganized] Church). Making the church a department of the state did not sit well, nor did the liberalism introduced during the Napoleanic era. These changes planted the seeds of change. "Six ministers and their flocks returned to the standpoint of orthodoxy in 1834 and the years immediately following."8 This group became the Christelijke Afgescheiden Kerk (Christian Seceded Church). This was the group to which Scholte, van Raalte, and their followers belonged before coming to North America in the late 1840s.

The afgescheiden were united in their opposition to the NHK, but not in enough ways to remain unified. The first parting of ways took place in 1837 over the issue of state recognition. The crown was willing to recognize seceded congregations if they no longer claimed to be the true continuation of the Gereformeerde Kerken and also abandoned the Church Order of Dort. A group called the Gereformeerde Kerken onder het Kruis (Reformed Churches under the Cross) emerged, which opposed the compromises necessary for state recognition. In 1869 the afgescheiden and most of the kruis kerken merged to form the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken (CGKN).

In 1841, Rev. Ledeboer led another group out of the NHK. This group stressed personal piety and was unwilling to affiliate with the afgescheiden or the kruis kerken. Much later, the Ledeboerians merged with the kruis kerken that had remained outside of the 1869 union to form the Gereformeerde Gemeenten (Reformed Congregations) in 1907. This group corresponds to the Netherlands Reformed Congregations in North America.

The Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk experienced another secession in 1886, the Doleantie (Grieving) led by Abraham Kuyper. In 1892, union was effected between the Doleantie and a majority of the Christelijke Gereformeerde. The new church returned to the original name of the Dutch reformed churches: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (GKN). Four congregations remained outside this union, retaining the name Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland.9

This is summarized on A Timeline of Dutch Reformed Churches. The left part of the chart represents denominations and individuals in the Netherlands; the right part covers North American churches and leaders.

[Later research has uncovered the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerken, an offshoot of the "Article 31" churches begun in the late 1960s, and the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Church, formed by a group seceding from First NRC of Grand Rapids in 1993. These do not appear on the timeline.]

Christian Reformed Church Growth

The Christian Reformed Church grew slowly in its first twenty years. From four congregations in 1857, it grew to 26 in 1875 (when the first yearbook was published). In 1880, there were 39 congregations.

The RCA's refusal to condemn lodge membership led several congregations and families to join the CRC. Because of the lodge decision, the CGKN after 1882 no longer recommended its immigrating members join the RCA, instead promoting the CRC.10 Since the 1880s was the peak decade of Dutch emigration prior to World War II, the CRC benefited greatly. Additionally, the True Dutch Reformed Church, located in New York and New Jersey, united with the CRC in 1890 as Classis Hackensack.11 Together, the RCA defection, CGKN immigration, and 1890 union brought the Christian Reformed Church from 39 congregations to 95 in a single decade.

Beyond the number of new members, this period also broadened the base of the CRC. The TDRC brought an English-speaking element much needed for the CRC to enter the American mainstream. Also, the followers of Abraham Kuyper brought his ideas with them, ideas which had far less impact on the RCA.

Early Dutch Reformed Churches in Canada

The first Christian Reformed Church in Canada was organized in 1905 at Nyverdall, Alberta (separated in 1911 to form congregations in Nobleford and Granum). A congregation was organized in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1908, followed by an RCA congregation at Monarch (Nobleford), Alberta, in 1909. Christian Reformed churches were established in Edmonton in 1911 and Burdett, Alberta, in 1911. All of these congregations have survived to the present.

Of the next five Dutch reformed churches organized in the Canadian west, only one was so blessed. The RCA church at Botrell, Alberta, was organized in 1912 and disbanded in 1971 (the RCA had only two Canadian congregations before World War II). Due to severe crop failures, the CRCs of Cramersburg, Saskatchewan, lasted from 1912 to 1923; Zant, Manitoba from 1917 to 1920; and Edam, Saskatchewan, from 1917 to 1923. However, the Christian Reformed church in Neerlandia, founded in 1915, continues to this day.

It wasn't until 1926 that Christian Reformed congregations were found in Canada outside the prairies. In that year congregations were established in Chatham, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia. A congregation was begun in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1929; another in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1934.

Also begun in the 1930s were the following congregations: Lacombe, Alberta, in 1935; Holland Marsh, Ontario, in 1938; and Houston, British Columbia, and Windsor, Ontario, in 1939. Of the congregations founded between 1920 and 1940, only the Windsor church has since disbanded (in 1960).

In brief, on the eve of World War II there were two RCA churches in Canada, both in Alberta. The CRC had six churches in Alberta, five in Ontario, two in British Columbia, and one in Manitoba. The Dutch reformed had a barely noticeable presence in Canada.