Protestantse Kerk Amsterdam
Protestant Church Amsterdam

Information in English

The Protestant Church of Amsterdam is a diverse community of people who share the Christian belief and through this contribute to society. They want to involve many people in the city.

Mission: The Protestant Church of Amsterdam feels called to make manifest Gods love in this city.

See below for Church services in English

Facts & figures

The Protestant Church of Amsterdam

Where we are

map of local churches and parishes within Protestant Church Amsterdam.

Church renewal process

Present in many colours

Protestant Church Amsterdam started a process to renew itself citywide. The catalyst was money, more precise: the lack of it. At the time of the merger (2005) the church was 1 million euro short a year, on a total yearly budget of 7 million euro.

A process started with 3 goals:

Our aim is to become a Wervende Kerk:
an engaging and inviting church, that dares to be relevant to the city today. Local parishes are challenged to become living, lively and affordable churches.
Before the merger the local parishes were mainly inward looking. Now they are responsible for their own management, vision and direction but are also part of the citywide church, giving to it and profiting from it.

Both the ‘main’ church and the local parishes are encouraged to go out, present themselves in the open, and to become really interested in what inspires & motivates people who will not ever become church members. In Holland ‘religion is in and church is out’ – churches are (seen as) old and stuffy and miss out on people’s spiritual quests.
The pastors’ council plays an active role in the process. Pastors are encouraged to use their special talents for the benefit of the church as a whole, not only for their own parishes.
On 31 October (Reformation Day) the church council invites all Amsterdam church members to get together from all over town to share plans, successes and new ideas. This council has reorganized itself to create less time for assemblies / talk and more time for working together in order to empower the parishes and realize more vitality. Nine groups work on renewal / pastoral care / diaconate / external communication / internal communication / finance / youth / liturgy / training and education. They are pulling together input from the local parishes, from other churches and organizations and assist local parishes in fulfilling their aims and plans.
The financial position of the PKA is getting better too. The deficit is reduced from 1 million to 250.000, old buildings have been sold and money is set aside for new experiments.

Christmas in Muiderkerk

Christmas in the Muiderkerk

Alive and skipping in Oranjekerk

The church is jumping with life, Oranjekerk organises rope-skipping competition

Church services in English in Amsterdam

There are many international churches with services in English, a selection: