The Netherlands Orthodox Church

THE ORTHODOX MISSION TODAY

THE NETHERLANDS ORTHODOX CHURCH

A Report from The Hague by a member of the clergy of one of the youngest Orthodox missionary Churches

By HIERODEACON DAVID Monastery of Our Holy Father Basilios


THE NAME OF THE Netherlands (in Dutch: Nederland) means literally "Low Country," and in fact about forty per cent of its surface lies below the level of the sea. Bordered by Germany on the east and by Belgium on the south and facing the British Isles across the North Sea, the Netherlands is very much a Western European country and this is reflected in the religious composition of its inhabitants. Of its population of more than twelve million, about forty per cent is Roman Catholic, slightly less than forty per cent is Protestant (mostly belonging to the Calvinistic Nederlands Hervormde Kerk, commonly referred to in English as the Dutch Reformed Church). More than eighteen per cent declared itself in the 1960 Census as having no religion and this proportion may well have increased since that date as greater and greater economic prosperity coupled with higher and higher standards of living leads more and more people to materialism and indifference towards God. There are also about eleven thousand who belong to the Old Catholic Church, which broke away from the Church of Rome in the 17th century, following the semi-calvinistic teachings of Jansen and associated with the philosophers Descartes and Pascal; in 1870 the then existing Old Catholics were joined by several Germans who could not accept the newly-promulgated dogma of Papal infallibility. In addition, there are churches of various jurisdictions of the Orthodox diaspora in Western Europe, namely of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and the Patriarchate of Moscow.

The Greek Orthodox Church in Rotterdam (which is now the world's largest seaport) is appropriately dedicated to the honor of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of seamen. In addition to the Greek sailors on visiting ships there are many Greek contract workers in the Netherlands (of whom more than two thousand are in the city of Utrecht), so that the single Greek Orthodox parish has a population which is estimated to be of the order of five or six thousand, but which changes daily in its composition as ships arrive and depart. This flock is served by one energetic and enthusiastic priest, stationed in Rotterdam. Its members include some Dutch people who have become Orthodox, mostly after marriage with a Greek, but in some cases out of real conviction of the truth of Orthodoxy.

Being a small country in a corner of Western Europe, the Netherlands was never settled for long by the Russian emigres. The number of Russian Orthodox at present in the Netherlands is only about 900, mostly belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which has parishes in The Hague, Amsterdam and Arnhem. There are also three parishes under the Patriarchate of Moscow.

IT IS NOT so well known, however, that the Netherlands also contains an indigenous Orthodox Church. In a side street of The Hague (De Ruyterstraat) one can see outside one of the terraced houses (no. 63 a board with the legend: Nederlands Orthodoxe Kerk. If there is a service in progress, incense can be smelled in the street outside and singing can be heard; there may also be bicycles and autocycles (which are very common forms of transport among the Dutch) leaning against the front of the house. Inside is the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist (Het Klooster van Sint Jan de Doper), containing Dutch nuns, and a little further up the same street (at no. 73) is the Monastery of Our Holy Father Basilios, which is also the residence of a Dutch bishop, and which contains Dutch monks. These monasteries are also the center of a parish of Dutch Orthodox Christians. How did this Dutch Orthodox Church come into being?



After the schism of the West from the Orthodox, the first appearance of Orthodoxy in the Netherlands came about when King William II was married to the Russian princess Anna Pavlovna in 1816. The Queen had a private chaplain and a small Orthodox chapel in the palace, and she also started a Russian Orthodox church in The Hague. In 1917 a few hundred refugees came from Russia and a parish was established in The Hague. Some Dutch people began to be interested in the religion of these refugees and a few became Orthodox in the 1930's.

The real beginning of the Netherlands Orthodox Church, however, came in 1940, when two Roman Catholic Benedictine monks, Jacob Akkersdijk and Adriaan Korporaal, were led towards Orthodoxy on their own initiative through study of the Church Fathers. After being received as monks into the Orthodox Church, they hired a house in The Hague for use as a monastery. However, during and after the Second World War they had to move around much and both monks had to work in secular employment in order to support themselves. Then in the 1950's the first Dutch converts began to join them. Among these were an artist and her mother. The artist became a nun and learned icon painting.

At first only the Divine Liturgy was translated into Dutch and for the daily offices the monks used the Benedictine forms. It should be remembered in this connection that St. Benedict, the great father of Western Christian monasticism, learned about the monastic life from the Egyptian and other Eastern monastic fathers. St. Benedict can therefore be regarded as belonging to Western Orthodoxy, before the West began drifting away. In fact, the reigning Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Benedictos I, bears his name. The Rule of St. Benedict, which is very close in spirit to that of St. Basil, is still used in the Dutch Orthodox monasteries, even though the services and liturgical customs are now all in the usual Orthodox form.

In 1950 Fr. Adriaan unfortunately became ill with tuberculosis and was sent to Switzerland to convalesce until 1953. He used that time for making translations into Dutch of the Orthodox services. The Divine Liturgy and the services of Vespers and Matins, together with other rites from the Orthodox service books, translated into the Dutch language and carried out in the usual Orthodox manner, have all been found appropriate to the worshipping needs of Dutch congregations (despite what the protagonists of a "Western-rite Orthodoxy" would have us believe); in any case, not to use them would be to miss the great and rich treasures of the Orthodox hymnody, which so admirably expresses the holy Orthodox faith that we confess. The method of chanting used is the Russian polyphonic form, which was found to be suitable for use with the Dutch language.

After experiencing some ecclesiastical difficulties, the young church was received under the omophorion of the late Archbishop John (Maximovitch) of Western Europe and later of San Francisco, in January, 1954 Under the paternal care and guidance of that great missionary bishop the mission grew steadily. The Netherlands Orthodox Church was very much grieved when it lost its founder through his sudden death in July, 1966. (On his life see The Orthodox Word vol. 2, nos. 3 and 5, 1966.)

In 1955 the monastery was moved to De Ruyterstraat 63 in The Hague, its present address. As the monastery and the parish centered on it advanced together, Fr. Jacob became successively hegoumen and archimandrite.

Then in the year 1965 came the greatest day so far of the young Netherlands Orthodox Church. First, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, meeting in New York, decided that the Dutch Orthodox of its jurisdiction should have their own bishop, who would at the same time be Vicar of the Diocese of Western Europe, and that Archimandrite Jacob should accordingly be consecrated as bishop with the title Bishop of 's Gravenhage (the full name in Dutch of The Hague). Then the consecration itself took place on Sunday, 19 September, 1965 in the Church of the Much-Patient Job in Brussels, which serves as cathedral in Western Europe for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The consecration was carried out by His Eminence Philaret, Metropolitan of New York and President of the Episcopal Synod, together with Their Eminences Antony, Archbishop of Geneva and Western Europe and Bishop Nathanael of Berlin. During the same service Hieromonk Adriaan was made Hegoumen of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist.

Towards the end of 1966 the Netherlands Orthodox Church was able to acquire another terraced house in the same street (De Ruyterstraat 73). After much hard work (especially by Hegoumen Adriaan) this house has been converted into the episcopal residence and the men's monastery of Our Holy Father Basilios. The nuns remain in the St. John the Baptist Monastery, which also serves as parish church.

In 1964 an attempt had been made to start a parish in Amsterdam the largest city in the Netherlands). A one year's lease was obtained on an empty house in which services were held, but because a priest had to come on visit from The Hague every time there was a service, and because a more permanent place could not then be found, the attempt was not a success and had to be shelved temporarily. Then in 1967 it became possible to hire a building in the center of Amsterdam and also a basement room in one of the suburbs, very close to one of Amsterdam's universities. Both these places have been furnished for Orthodox worship. The church in the city center is served by a hieromonk and that in the suburb by a married priest who lives nearby. Thus at two strategic places in the capital city there is now a real Orthodox presence, with the Office done daily, the Vigil service on Saturday evenings and the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and the great feasts. Bishop Jacob, as did Archbishop John before him, insists on the living Orthodox liturgical tradition as the best witness to the Faith.

IN ADDITION TO Bishop Jacob (the English equivalent of his name is James) and Hegoumen Adriaan, the Netherlands Orthodox Church has at present as clergy the above-mentioned hieromonk and priest in Amsterdam, a deacon who lives in Eindhoven (a large town in the south of the country), and a deacon and a hierodeacon in The Hague. The monasteries, under Hegoumen Adriaan, include the hieromonk and the hierodeacon, three nuns, two novice nuns and one novice monk. There are also four laypeople (a man and three women) who live in the respective monasteries, attend the services, share the meals and join in the chores and other aspects of the life of the brethren and sisters. The total number of Dutch faithful is approximately six hundred. Bishop Jacob also has jurisdiction over the Russian speaking parishes in the Netherlands of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Some of his Dutch clergy can, if necessary, take services in Slavonic. The monasteries themselves have a somewhat international character, since one of the nuns is German and the hierodeacon British.

The church furniture was mostly made by the monks, most of the icons were painted by the above-mentioned iconographer-nun, and most of the vestments (including complete sets of episcopal vestments) were made by the nuns assisted by the laywomen of the parish.


THE GUARDIAN OF THE NETHERLANDS ORTHODOX CHURCH THE ICON OF THE VLADIMIR MOTHER OF GOD



Iconostasis and Royal Gates, Church of St. John the Baptist, 1967



Bishop Jacob of The Hague


One of the main purposes of the monasteries is to establish a living center of Orthodoxy in the Netherlands, where much interest in the Orthodox Church is shown as a result of the Catholic and Protestant ecumenical and liturgical movements. The Oktoichos has already been printed in Dutch; this is to date the only complete printed translation into Dutch of an Orthodox service book, and it has been purchased by university and theological seminary libraries as well as by the Dutch Orthodox faithful. Appreciation has also been expressed by members of other churches over the standard of liturgical Dutch used as the language of translation. A new translation of the Psalter from the Greek Septuagint text as used in the Orthodox Church was completed in 1967. The other service books exist at present in typewritten copies only. These translations have been made first and foremost for liturgical use; great attention has therefore been paid to the rhythm of the words used in translation so that they should fit the rhythm of the chanting. The style of language is poetic. On the other hand, great care has been taken to express the meaning of the original Greek as closely as possible. The result is a translation which is not only fit for liturgical use but is also as exact as possible in conveying the meaning of the original.

POSSESSING ITS OWN BISHOP, the Netherlands Orthodox Church now has even greater possibilities for growth than before, provided that it can have a certain degree of independence in the running of its affairs. However, it should be remembered that (as was stated at the beginning of this article) the Netherlands is a small, predominantly Christian country (or at least nominally so). The aim must therefore on no account be to gain converts from other churches by means of any kind of propaganda campaign or through pressure exerted on persons. Those who of their own accord wish to become Orthodox (and they continue to come forward) are genuinely welcome. The number of Dutch Orthodox is small and can be expected to remain small in such a situation, but it is important that the quality of the converts be kept high, persons only being received into the Church after careful preparation, if the Dutch Orthodox Church is to carry out its task of being a witness in Western Europe to Western Europeans of the richness of the Holy Orthodox Faith.

The late Archbishop John was an Orthodox missionary directly in the tradition of the great Russian missionaries of the last few centuries and the Netherlands Orthodox Church tries to follow his advice in its mission. Accordingly there is no attempt at identification with the "ghettoes" (to use Archbishop John's own phrase) of the Russian and Greek dispersions, but it is important to remain culturally and linguistically Dutch and not try to present the Holy Orthodox Faith as a piece of exoticism. On the literary side, the emphasis has been on translating the Orthodox service books and not on producing pamphlets and other such literature.

In many countries of Western Europe nowadays more and more people are finding the answer to the problems of the age in which we live and to their own personal longings of the heart in Orthodoxy. The Netherlands Orthodox Church represents only a small group of these converts, but though small it is perhaps the most advanced. Through the prayers of our holy fathers Servatios and Willibrord, the Apostles of the Netherlands, and of the Father of Western monasticism, St. Benedict, may the Lord Jesus Christ our God strengthen us to bear witness to His Holy Orthodox Faith in Western Europe.

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Editor's note: One most interesting question, one that becomes an increasingly practical one as the Orthodox mission progresses in Western Europe, concerns the pre-Schism saints of the West: what is their status in Orthodoxy? Many, of course (such as St. Benedict and many Popes of Rome) were acknowledged by the whole Church before Rome's apostasy and are still revered in the Orthodox Church (having whole services written to them – which they do not have in the Latin Church); but many were purely local saints whose Orthodox veneration ceased when the West ceased to be Orthodox and has only been revived now as a part of the unexpected patrimony of European converts. The question is not entirely simple, since some leading Western saints (such as Blessed Augustine and Jerome) have been regarded with some reserve in the East, and others uncanonized by Rome herself (such as St. John Cassian of Rome) were canonized and are highly venerated in the East.

The Netherlands Orthodox Church commemorates some forty local Dutch saints (mostly missionaries, and many also martyrs) and many non-local Western saints. The Life of St. Willibrord (by the Venerable Bede) exists in a recent English translation in: C. H. Talbot, The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany, Sheed & Ward, New York, 1954.