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.
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