 |
TheReformed churches are a group ofProtestant denominations connected by a commonCalvinist system of doctrine.
In France, the Calvinist Protestants were calledHuguenots. TheReformed Church of France survived under persecution from 1559 until theEdict of Nantes (1598), the effect of which was to establish regions in which Protestants could live unmolested. These areas became centers of political resistance under which the Calvinist church was protected until 1628, whenLa Rochelle, the Protestant center of resistance toLouis XIII, was overrun by a French army blockade. After the Protestant resistance failed, the Reformed Church of France reorganized, and was guaranteed toleration under theEdict of Nantes until the final revocation of toleration in 1685 (Edict of Fontainebleau). The periods of persecution scattered French Reformed refugees to England, Germany, Switzerland,Netherlands,Africa (especially South Africa), andAmerica.Louis XVI granted anedict of toleration. Freedom of religion came with theFrench Revolution.Napoleon organized state controlled French Reformed church with theOrganic Articles in 1802. A free (meaning, not state controlled) synod of the Reformed Church emerged in 1848 and survives in small numbers to the present time. The French refugees established French Reformed churches in the Latin countries and in America.
The first Calvinist churches in France produced theGallic Confession and French Calvinist confession of faith, which served as models for theBelgic Confession of Faith (1563).
Today, about 300,000 people are members of the Reformed Church of France (nowUnited Protestant Church of France). There is also the smallerProtestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine and the more conservativeNational Union of Independent Reformed Evangelical Churches of France (the name of the denomination was changed in 2009).
TheMalagazy Protestant Church in France is a Calvinist denomination whose members come fromMadagascar.TheUnion of Free Evangelical Churches in France is another denomination.
The German Reformed Church (Reformierte Kirche) forms, together with GermanLutheran andunited Protestant churches, the umbrella namedProtestant Church in Germany (German:Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland) or EKD. Themember churches of EKD were formerly the Protestantstate churches in German states before theseparation of religion and state in 1919. EKD represents, alongside Catholicism, Germany's "mainstream" religious bodies.
The German Reformed Church, unusually, does not trace its origins back to Zwingli or Calvin, but rather toPhilipp Melanchthon, Luther's best friend and closest ally. After Melanchthon's death in 1560, extremist Lutherans (from whom Luther had previously distanced himself) accused Melanchthon's successors in the "Philippist" cause ofCrypto-Calvinism and mercilessly persecuted and sometimes killed them in several states, especiallySaxony. Other states, such asHesse(-Cassel), remained openly Philippist and Calvinist. Only during the time of Calvin (1509–1564) himself did genuinely Calvinist influences enter the German Calvinist faith; even today, it remains more Philippist than Calvinist.
In the German Empire (1871–1918) some states were Lutheran, some Reformed. KingFrederick William III of Prussia united both major Protestant confessions in his domains into thePrussian Union of churches in 1817, allowing congregations to maintain Lutheran or Calvinist confession, or declare their union, also inBremen (1877),Hesse-Cassel (1817), andHesse-Darmstadt (1832) Reformed and Lutherans form a union merely in administration. Some states saw unions of Reformed and Lutherans to a united confession, such asAnhalt (1820 inAnhalt-Bernburg, 1827 inAnhalt-Dessau, and 1880 inAnhalt-Köthen),Baden (1821),Nassau (1817) and BavarianPalatinate (1848), while Lutherans in other states (Bavaria proper,Hamburg,Hanover,Lübeck, theMecklenburgs,Oldenburg,Saxon Duchies,Saxony,Schaumburg-Lippe,Schleswig-Holstein, andWürttemberg) did not followed suit.
The German Reformed Church's finest hour arguably occurred during the Third Reich (1933–1945): although by far not all Calvinist clergy and their flocks opposed the Nazis, the Reformed Church dominated theConfessing Church resistance against Hitler.
As of 2009, German Protestants come in four different guises, all under one national umbrella, but differentiated by region (Landeskirche, usually regions smaller than thestates):
In Germany, as of 2009, roughly 25 million Germans (less than one-third of the entire population, slightly more than half of German Christians) are Protestant. Of these, less than 2 million are Calvinist. The main coordinating body for Calvinist churches in Germany is theReformed Alliance.[7]
Smaller, separate denominations include theEvangelical Old-Reformed Church in Lower Saxony, theUnion of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Germany, and the episcopally governedFree Reformed Churches of Germany.
The churches with Presbyterian traditions in the United Kingdom have theWestminster Confession of Faith as one of their importantconfessional documents.
In Wales, there are theUnion of Welsh Independents, which is another congregational body. ThePresbyterian Church of Wales is one of the biggest Christian denomination in Wales.
In Scotland, presbyterianism was established in 1560 by John Knox who studied in Geneva and planted Calvinism in his home country. The presbyterian churches in the Canada, Australia, New Zealand trace their origin back primarily from Scotland.
In Ulster, Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland spread the Calvinist faith in the 17th century.
A group of churches calledNewfrontiers began in England and also exists elsewhere in the world. This group tends to hold to Calvinist theology, but is alsocharismatic in its experience.
Historically, theChurch of England upheld both Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines.[8] Several continental Calvinist theologians moved to England to aid with the doctrinal and liturgical developments there, includingMartin Bucer,Peter Martyr, andJan Łaski. Especially Calvinistic distinctions of the Church of England include the division of theTen Commandments after the Calvinist numbering (rather than the Lutheran or Catholic division), the iconoclastic reforms ofEdward VI andElizabeth I,[9] and the Eucharistic doctrine ofReceptionism. The Church of England so took part in theSynod of Dort, and monarchs since theGlorious Revolution have sworn in the coronation oath to protect the “true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant Reformed religion established by law.”
However, the ascendency ofWilliam Laud to the archbishopric saw a periodic suppression of pro-Calvinist clergymen underCharles I, and theOxford Movement of the 19th century sought to further distance the Church of England from its Calvinistic ties. Because of the political success ofAnglo-Catholicism there have been a few conservative Reformed movements which have left the Church of England:
TheReformed Church in Hungary, Transylvania and southern Slovakia is one of the largest branches of the Calvinist movement. The Reformed Church is the second largest church in Hungary, it has 4 seminaries in the country (Debrecen, Papa, Budapest, Sarospatak). The Hungarian Reformed Church adopted theHeidelberg Catechism and theSecond Helvetic Confession as a definition of their teaching, together the Ecumenical creeds of the Christian Church:Athanasian Creed,Nicene Creed, Chalcedon, and the common creed ("Apostles' Creed"). The Hungarians organised the Calvinist church in 1557 in the Synod of Csenger and adopted the Second Helvetic Confession in 1567 inDebrecen.
The Hungarian Reformed Church maintains educational institutions, almost 80 primary schools, 28 high schools, 47 nurseries and several vocational schools and the Bethesda Hospital. There are diaconal institutions and conference centres.
In 2001, more than 1.6 million people in Hungary identified as members of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Of that number, about 600,000 are considered active members, in 1,249 congregations. The HRC has 27 presbyteries, four districts and a General Synod. In Romania, 700,000 people identified as Calvinist in 800 congregations, nearly all of them ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania.[10]
There is the more theologically conservativeReformed Presbyterian Church of Central and Eastern Europe, which has approximately 25 congregations in Hungary,Slovakia,Romania andUkraine. Like the mainline Hungarian Reformed church, from which it split in 1997, the church adheres to theSecond Helvetic Confession and theHeidelberg Catechism, but it has also adopted theWestminster Confession, andShorter andLarger Catechisms.[11][12]
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Central and Eastern Europe maintains theKárolyi Gáspár Institute of Theology and Missions, located inMiskolc, Hungary.
There is a mission church of theCommunion of Reformed Evangelical Churches inDiósd, nearBudapest.[13]
This is an Italian historicalProtestant denomination. After the Protestant Reformation, the small church absorbed Calvinist theology, under the influence ofGuillaume Farel, and became the Italian branch of the European Calvinist churches.
In 1975, the Waldensian Church (around 45,000 members, plus some 15,000 affiliates in Argentina and Uruguay) joined forces with the ItalianMethodist Church (5,000) to form the Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches. It is member of both the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the World Methodist Council, due to its nature of a united church.[clarification needed]
This is aReformed Baptist denomination. As a member of theWorld Reformed Fellowship, this network of churches recovers theCalvinist tradition ofPietro Martire Vermigli andGirolamo Zanchi.
This is a mission of thePresbyterian Church of Brazil in Italy.
The Dutch Calvinist churches have suffered numerous splits, and there have been some subsequent partial re-unions. Currently there are at least nine existing denominations, including (between brackets the Dutch abbreviation):
Since the Reformation, the Netherlands, as one of the few countries in the world, could be characterised as a mainly Calvinist state. Until the first half of the 20th century, a majority of the Dutch (about 55%) were Calvinist and a large minority (35-40%) were Catholic. Because of large-scale secularisation during the 20th century, these percentages dropped dramatically. Today[when?] only 15-20% of the Dutch (about 2.5 million people) is Calvinist, while 25-30% is Catholic. About 45% is non-religious. Today many orthodox Calvinist Christians in the Netherlands cooperate with Evangelicals in organizations such as the 'Evangelische Omroep' (Evangelical Broadcasting Company), the 'Evangelische Hogeschool' (Evangelical College), and the political party 'ChristenUnie' (ChristianUnion)
Dutch emigrants and missionaries brought Calvinist churches to many other countries outside Europe, including Canada, United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.
TheReformed Church in Romania consist of two dioceses. These are:
InTransylvania, the Calvinist faith took root in the 16th century. In 1564, a Synod was held in Nagyenyed (todayAiud) when the Calvinist and Lutheran churches separated. This date is the founding date of the Reformed Diocese of Transylvania.Partium (today partiallyCrișana) used to be a separated geographical area from Transylvania, also ruled by Hungarian/Transylvanian princes. In this region was founded the Királyhágómellék Reformed District.Transylvania was part of Hungary until 1920. The Confessions of these churches are theApostles Creed, theHeidelberg Catechism. In the church buildings, especially in smaller villages, the men and women sitting separated and the children and those who were not yet married were sitting in the church choir or gallery. The believers are predominantly (95%)Hungarian, so the worship language is also Hungarian. It has 800 congregations and 700,000 members.
A Romanian mission of theUnited Reformed Churches in North America was founded in Bucharest in 2016.[18]
Reformed Christian Church in Slovakia was part of the Reformed Church in Hungary until the end of World War I. In 1993, a theological seminary was opened inKomárno. Cathechial schools are in Kosice and Komarno. InSlovakia, 110,000 Calvinists were recorded.[10]
TheSwiss Reformed Churches were started in Zurich byHuldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basle (Johannes Oecolampadius), Berne (Berchtold Haller andNiklaus Manuel), St. Gall (Joachim Vadian), to cities in Southern Germany, and via Alsace (Martin Bucer) to France. After Zwingli's early death in 1531, his work was continued byHeinrich Bullinger, the author of theSecond Helvetic Confession. The French-speaking cities Neuchatel, Geneva and Lausanne changed to the Reformation ten years later underWilliam Farel andJohn Calvin coming from France. The Zwingli and Calvin branches each had their theological distinctions, but in 1549, under the lead of Bullinger and Calvin, they came to a common agreement in theConsensus Tigurinus (Zurich Consent), and 1566 in the Second Helvetic Confession. Organizationally, the Reformed Churches in Switzerland remained separate units until today (the Reformed Church of the Canton Zurich, the Reformed Church of the Canton Berne, etc.), the German part more in the Zwingli tradition, in the French part more in the Calvin tradition. Today they are members of theFederation of Swiss Protestant Churches. They are governed synodically and their relation to the respective canton (in Switzerland, there are no church-state regulations at country level) ranges from independent to close collaboration, depending on historical developments. A distinctive of the Swiss Reformed churches in Zwingli tradition is their historically almost symbiotic link to the state (cantons) which is only loosening gradually in the present.
There are a small number of conservative churches like theEvangelical Reformed Church (Westminster Confession)[20] and the Lausanne Free Church.[21]
A total of 2.4 million Swiss are members of Calvinist churches, according to the 2000 census, which corresponds to 33% of the population. The past decades show a rapid decline in this proportion, coming from 46% in 1970.
It is the oldest Protestant community inUkraine, established during the 16th century. 70-75% of Transcarpathian Hungarians are followers of theCalvinist faith. The church currently has three dioceses with about 120,000 - 140,000 members and is itself a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
This church was started by missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in America and has 12 congregations and missions with 11 ordained national pastors; it maintains aCalvinist seminary inKyiv.
Most Presbyterian denominations share same name, the Presbyteian Church in Korea, tracing back their history to the United Presbyterian Assembly. There are 15 million Protestants in South Korea, about 9 millions are Presbyterians and there are more than 100 Presbyterian denominations. Before the Korean War Presbyterians were very strong in North Korea, many fled to South, and established their own Presbyterian denominations.[29] The Presbyterian Churches are by far the largestProtestant churches with well over 20 000 congregations. For more information seePresbyterianism in South Korea.
(source: reformiert-online)
The various Reformed churches of Nigeria formed theReformed Ecumenical Council of Nigeria in 1991 to further cooperation.
According to the census of 2001, more than 3.2 million people recorded themselves as Reformed. This however is fast decline compared to the 1996 census, when still 3.9 million people were Reformed. Particularly amongst black and coloured people the Reformed churches lost many members, while the number of Reformed whites remained status quo due to mass emigration.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)