Doctrine and Practice
In teaching, the Netherlands Reformed Churches are in many ways an orthodox Reformed Church. They hold to the traditional confessions of the ancient church (the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, and the Athanasian Creed), as well as the Three Forms of Unity. As a Calvinist church, they practice infant baptism.
However, the denomination is very loosely organised. As a result of the bad experiences with synodical authority, the local congregations have much more power, and the general synod much less, than in most other Reformed churches. Thus there are many variations and differences between local congregations. Some are very traditional; others are more heavily influenced by contemporary evangelical practices, having replaced traditional Dutch organ music with praise bands. Also, the Netherlands Reformed Churches have not allowed women to serve as deacons, elders and pastors. These variations have made contacts with other churches somewhat more complicated. Though there have been close contacts with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated), the widespread desire to be reunited to each other has been hampered by deep-running disagreements over both doctrine and practice. The Netherlands Reformed Churches are also close to the Christian Reformed Churches. After the formation of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, two protesting congregations from the former Reformed Churches in the Netherlands joined the Netherlands Reformed Church.
Read more about this topic: Netherlands Reformed Churches
Famous quotes containing the words doctrine and/or practice:
“But the doctrine of the Farm is merely this, that every man ought to stand in primary relations to the work of the world, ought to do it himself, and not to suffer the accident of his having a purse in his pocket, or his having been bred to some dishonorable and injurious craft, to sever him from those duties.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)