(Formerly: Reformed Churches in the Netherlands
and Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands)

The Protestant Church in the Netherlands was founded May 2004, as a merger of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN), Netherlands Reformed Church (NRC) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Together they have 2.15 million members, in about 2,700 congregations. The church is served by 3,000 ministers and evangelists. The church meets twice a year in a synod (150 members). In its new Church Order the Protestants Church in the Netherlands has adopted the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort and the Augsburg Confession of Faith as their doctrinal standards.

In the 19th century the RCN came into being as a split from the NRC. One of the main conditions for a unification with the Lutheran church has been the Leuenberg Agreement: about 100 Reformed and Lutheran Churches, mainly in Europe, agreed that existing theological differences as such can no longer be regarded as justifying continued separation of these churches.

The unification process caused a joint effort to reconsider priorities in all areas of church life, directly related to developments in society (the growing gulf between rich and poor, new immigrant minorities, asylum seekers, etc.).

The churches who came together within the Protestant Church in the Netherlands are among the historical churches in the Netherlands. Since the 16th century Reformation the numbers of Roman Catholic and Reformed people in this country are about equal. Today this implies the necessity and fruitfulness of ecumenical cooperation of the main churches. Secularization also is a major stimulus for that: more than half of the Dutch population at the moment denies having any connection with Christian faith. This situation also gives new urgency and new possibilities for witness in our society, with a special emphasis on urban mission. Another priority of the churches is the interreligious dialogue, especially with the 1 million muslims in the Netherlands, mainly of foreign origine (Turkey, Maroc, Suriname).

Generally speaking the horizon of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands has been broadening during the last decades. Until the early sixties the church "as an institution" used to leave engagement in society mainly to specific Reformed institutions (schools, political party, trade union, press, etc.- together seen as "the church as organism"). Nowadays it is clear that church councils and synods have to take their own responsibility in addressing issues on the political, economical and social level.

In July 2005, the Protestants Church in the Netherlands hosted the Assembly of the Reformed Ecumenical Council.

In January 2007, the PCN combined its theological schools into one new one, the Protestant Theological University.