Information in English

Welcome for English reading visitors

Welcome at the website of the Council of Churches in the Netherlands. The Council of Churches is a fellowship of thirteen member-churches, one associate member and two candidate members. The churches represent together more than 6,5 million believers.

The Council exists officially since 1968. The history of the ecumenical movement is of course much longer. All churches are represented by one or two delegates in the board of the Council. The two largest churches (the Protestants and the Roman-Catholics) are represented in the Executive Board, as well as three of the other churches. Theologians and delegates support the ecumenical work participating in working groups and committees.

The Council concentrates on three themes. First of all the Council stimulates the relations between churches and the mutual agreement on belief, faith and church. Secondly the Council organises the advocacy in public affairs, for instance to the media and the government. Thirdly the Council is a Christian partner towards representatives of other religions.

In the period 2010 and 2011 essential themes are among others:
* recognition of the baptism of different churches ending with the signing of a new agreement to be expected in 2011
* organising the week of prayer in January in which more than 200.000 Christians participate
* concentrating on the relation between politics and religion with a lecture to be expected in January 2011
* stimulating the contact between Dutch churches and churches of immigrants, who have more than 900.000 members in the Netherlands for instance by distributing the publication ‘Giving a face to one another’
* helping people who are in need of asylum trying to influence politics
* stimulating Christians to take care of environment and organise lectures about this with a spiritual background
* make information available about the poor people in the Netherlands and motivating church members and politicians to work on an economy based on justice
* organising programs together with partners from other religions to show the mutual interest in democracy, justice, peace and integrity of creation

The Council has an office in Amersfoort at the Koningin Wilhelminastraat 5. People who want to get further information or who want to visit the office can sent a mail to rvk@raadvankerken.nl. It is also possible to make a phone-call to + 31 33 46 33 844. Ms. Beppie van Laar (first picture) will take care of the information; she works at the office of the Council. People who want to meet a member of the Council informally can ask for rev. Klaas van der Kamp (second picture), general-secretary of the Council of Churches in the Netherlands.

                                                                  
The following churches are participating in the Council of Churches in the Netherlands:  
Protestant Church in the Netherlands
Roman-Catholic Church in the Netherlands
Old-Catholic Church of the Netherlands
General Mennonite Society
Remonstrant Brotherhood
Evangelical Brothercongregations in the Netherlands
Religious Fellowship of Friends (Quakers)
Syrian-Orthodox Church in the Netherlands
Salvation Army
Anglican Church in the Netherlands
Geredja Indjili Maluku
Coptic Orthodox Church
Fellowship of Free Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands
Organisation of Orthodox ‘H. Niclas of Myra’ (associate member)
Critical Groups and Congregations in the Netherlands (candidate member)
Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists (candidate member)

If you want to see a short introduction of two minutes on YouTube, showing our office, meetingroom and chapel: please push here.