Middelpuntvliedende en eenheidsoekende kragte in die 19 de eeu

Abstract

In order to commemorate the unification of the Christian Reformed Churches (CGKN) and the Dutch Reformed Church (NGK) in 1892, this article recalls the centripetal and centrifugal events within the Reformed Church of the Netherlands (NHK) during the 19th century. This history, important to South Africa, is rather unknown. It is alleged that the Church Ordinance of King William 1 (1816) gave rise to a new idea of the Church as a societal entity, directed by political and ecclessiastical authorities. This idea was challenged by ordinary people in 1834 and more deliberately in 1886 by Church Councils maintaining that the unity of the church is de­monstrated by testifying to the traditional reformed faith. This belief brought about the remarkable fusion of two church communities in a century characterised by multiple ecclessiastical secession.