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Why We Are Here:
- We wish there was a short and simple explanation for this, but alas, there is not.
We will try to summarize the words of Howard G. Hageman, who wrote the book Our Reformed Church.
- First,the full title of our church sums up the whole story, “The Church of
Jesus Christ Reformed according to the Word of God”. Our church believes it can trace its origin back to the earthly life of our Lord and his apostles. Nevertheless, it honors the memory of those
faithful Christians who at the time of the Reformation purified it and gave back to it many things which had been lost. A tree which is ‘reformed’ is not cut down; it is pruned. Just so with our
church; one with the historic church of Jesus Christ, it has been purified and restored by that keenest of all instruments, the living Word of God.
- The Reformed Church in America: Henry Hudson came to the New World under the auspices of the Dutch West India Company in 1609. Which brought with it permanant Dutch settlements along the Hudson River which began at Fort Orange, now Albany as early as 1614. In 1623, Jan Huyck and Sebastian Krol were sent from Holland as “comforters of the sick.” These devout men, though they were not ministers, went up and down the countryside in the little colony, gathering Dutch Reformed people together to read services and perform such other offices as they could.
- The First Minister Arrives: By 1628 the Dutch Reformed people in New Amsterdamn, now New York City, felt able to form a church and have a minister of their own. Domine Jonas Michaelius was called from the Netherlands and took charge of the little congregation of some fifty people. From that time on there has always been a Dutch Reformed Church in New York City. Thus our Reformed Church is the oldest Protestant Church in America with an uninterupted ministry.
- Why We Are Here: Our survey thus has shown that side by side in our Reformed
Church today are congregations that were founded in the very infancy of our country, congregations that were founded in the great work of church extension and congregations that were founded out of more
recent immigrations from the Netherlands.
Such a survey is only partially complete, for it ought to include also the peoples of Swiss and German extraction who have also added their strenght to ours in both East and West. But more deeply than this, we are here becuase we are all part of the church of Christ, as it is\\has been called out, maintained, and purified by the living Word and Holy Spirit. We are the “church of Jesus Christ, reformed according to the Word of God.
If you are looking for more information, please follow this link to the Reformed
Church of America’s website. It has an indepth description of what the Reformed Church believes. www.rca.org/aboutus/beliefs/
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