About us

Protestant Church Amsterdam / Protestantse Kerk Amsterdam

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.

Facts & figures
The Protestant Church of Amsterdam

  • is a merger of two Amsterdam Dutch Reformed Churches in 2005
  • is part of the Protestantse Kerk Nederland (PKN)
  • has 20.000 members
  • forms 2,5 % of Amsterdam population (750.000)
  • has 20 parishes, connected with each other and the Algemene Kerkenraad (main church council)
  • has parish pastors and specialist pastors (pastoral care for people in hospitals, prisons, seamen, people on drugs, students, etc.)
  • has a small church service center
  • belongs to the Calvinist tradition – from strict to broad church to liberal. Most parishes accept women ministers, gay ministers and will bless gay marriages.
  • has the Protestantse Diaconie Amsterdam: church organisation for charity, ministry of mercy. The Diaconie will help people 'under protest' if no one else can or will help.
    See Diaconie for projects: social, intercultural, interreligious.


Where we are

Protestantse Kerk Amsterdam - Churches and parishes


Church renewal process
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:

  • Versoberen = cost cutting - spend less, spend it cleverly; clear cobwebs in organization
  • Verbeteren = improve - create synergy, use talents and passions
  • Vernieuwen = renew - new initiatives, new people, new money

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 vision and administration, while being part of the city wide church, giving to it and profiting from it.
Both the city 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. Seven groups work on communication / diaconate / finance / pastoral care / renewal / training and education / youth. 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 was getting better too. The deficit was reduced from 1 million to 250.000, old buildings have been sold and money is set aside for new experiments. But the economical crisis also effects churches.


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