The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands, or Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit, is a body of Mennonite Christians in the Netherlands. The Mennonites (or Mennisten or Doopsgezinden) are named for Menno Simons (1496–1561), a Dutch Roman Catholic priest from the Province of Friesland who converted to Anabaptism around 1536. He was re-baptized as an adult in 1537 and became part (and soon leader) of the Dutch Anabaptist movement.
In 1811, different regional churches merged to form the Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit (doopsgezind ≈ Baptist-minded). The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and in 2003 had 11,000 members in 123 congregations.
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—Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (1909–1989)