The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 80,675 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 2024, Pew Research estimated that approximately 0.1% of the US adult population, or about 260,000 people, self-identifies with the Reformed Church in America.
The RCA is a founding member of the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches (WCC), Christian Churches Together, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). Some parts of the denomination belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, the Canadian Council of Churches, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The denomination is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and United Church of Christ and is a denominational partner of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
Names The Reformed Church in America is sometimes colloquially referred to as the Dutch Reformed Church in America, or simply as the Dutch Reformed Church when an American context has already been provided. In 1819, it incorporated as the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. The current name was chosen in 1867.
History 17th century
The early settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland first held informal meetings for worship.
In 1628, Jonas Michaelius organized the first Dutch Reformed congregation in New Amsterdam, now New York City, called the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, now The Collegiate Churches of New York. During Dutch rule, the RCA was the established church of the colony and was under the authority of the classis of Amsterdam. The Brookville Reformed Church remains one of the oldest churches in America.
18th century Even after the English captured the colony in 1664, all Dutch Reformed ministers were still trained in the Netherlands. Services in the RCA remained in Dutch until 1764.
In 1747, the church in the Netherlands had given permission to form an assembly in North America; in 1754, the assembly declared itself independent of the classis of Amsterdam. This American classis secured a charter in 1766 for Queens College (now Rutgers University) in New Jersey. In 1784 John Henry Livingston was appointed as professor of theology, marking the beginning of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
The Dutch-speaking community, including farmers and traders, prospered in the former New Netherlands, dominating New York City, the Hudson Valley, and parts of New Jersey while maintaining a significant presence in southeastern Pennsylvania, southwestern Connecticut, and Long Island.
In the early 18th century nearly 3,000 Palatine German refugees came to New York. Most worked first in English camps along the Hudson River to pay off their passage, paid by Queen Anne's government, before they were allowed land in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys. They created numerous German-speaking Lutheran and Reformed churches, such as those at Fort Herkimer and German Flatts. Thousands more immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 18th century. They used German as the language in their churches and schools for nearly 100 years, and recruited some of their ministers from Germany. By the early 20th century, most of their churches had joined the RCA.
During the American Revolution, a bitter internal struggle broke out in the Dutch Reformed church, with lines of division following ecclesiastical battles that had gone on for twenty years between the "coetus" and "conferentie" factions. One source indicates that defections may have occurred as early as 1737.
"Desolation pervaded many of the churches, whereas prior to 1737 good order was maintained in the churches, and peace and a good degree of prosperity were enjoyed. ...But in 1754, the Coetus of the previous year, having recommended the changing of the Coetus into a Classis with full powers, the opposition became violent, and the opponents were known as the Conferentie."Benjamin C. Taylor D. D., Annals of the Classis of Bergen of the Reformed Dutch Church and of the Churches Under its Care: Including, The Civil History of the Ancient Township of Bergen, in New Jersey, Hosford & Co. NY, NY 1857A spirit of amnesty made possible the church's survival after the war. The divisiveness was also healed when the church sent members on an extensive foreign missions program in the early 19th century.
In 1792, the classis adopted a formal constitution; and in 1794 the denomination held its first general synod. Following the American Civil War, in 1867 it formally adopted the name "Reformed Church in America". In the nineteenth century in New York and New Jersey, ethnic Dutch descendants struggled to preserve their European standards and traditions while developing a taste for revivalism and an American identity.
19th century
Some members owned slaves, the most famous of the slaves being Sojourner Truth, and the church did not support abolitionism. In rural areas, ministers preached in Dutch until about 1830–1850, then switched to English, at the same time finally dropping the use of many traditional Dutch clothing and customs.Firth Haring Fabend, "The Synod of Dort and the Persistence of Dutchness in Nineteenth-century New York and New Jersey", New York History; 1996 77(3): 273–300 Although some ministers favored revivals, generally the church did not support either the First or the Second Great Awakenings, which created much evangelical fervor.
Dutch language use faded thereafter until the new wave of Dutch immigration in the mid-19th century. This revived use of the language among Dutch descendants and in some churches.
Reformed Church women's work begins In New York in January 1875 a group of women formed the Women’s Board of Foreign Missions. Women began organizing their North American Reformed Church Missions in 1882 and in 1909 became incorporated as the Women’s Board of Domestic Missions. Consecrated women began work among the American Indians in 1894, in 1900 an Appalachian settlement school in McKee, Kentucky (which eventually became called Annville Institute), and among Japanese residents in and around New York City in 1907.
Midwestern United States Immigration from the Netherlands in the mid-19th century led to the expansion of the RCA into the Midwestern United States. In 1837, Pastor Abram D. Wilson and his wife Julia Evertson Wilson from New Jersey established the first Dutch Reformed church west of the Allegheny Mountains in Fairview, Illinois.History of Fairview Reformed Church http://churches.rca.org/fairviewreformed/History.html#1837 Hope College and Western Theological Seminary were founded in Holland, Michigan, Central College in Pella, Iowa, and Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. In the 1857 Secession, a group of more conservative members in Michigan led by Gijsbert Haan separated from the RCA. They organized the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC), and other churches followed. In 1882 another group of congregations left for the CRC, mirroring developments in the church in the Netherlands.
Post-World War II After 1945, the RCA expanded into Canada, which was the destination of a large group of Dutch emigrants. Between 1949 and 1958, the RCA opened 120 churches among non-Dutch suburban communities, appealing to mainline Protestants. It was a charter member of the Presbyterian Alliance, the Federal Council of Churches, and the World Council of Churches.
Statistics Like most other mainline denominations, the RCA has had a declining membership during the last thirty years. In 2024, the total membership was less than 84,000, down from 196,308 in 2018, from 220,000 in 2016, from 300,000 in 2000, and 360,000 in 1980.Church Statistical Data Reformed Church in America
Beliefs The RCA confesses several statements of doctrine and faith. These include the historic Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed; the traditional Reformed Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism (with its compendium), the Canons of Dort.
At its 2010 meeting of the General Synod, the Church adopted the Belhar Confession as a fourth Standard of Unity (or confession; alongside the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort).
Life issues The RCA opposes euthanasia. The report of the Commission on Christian Action, issued in 1994, states, "What Christians say about issues of morality ought to be and usually is a reflection of their fundamental faith convictions. There are at least three of these convictions that appear especially relevant to the question of whether it is acceptable for Christians to seek a physician's assistance in committing suicide in the midst of extreme suffering./ A fundamental conviction Christians have is that they do not belong to themselves. Life, despite its circumstances, is a gift from God, and each individual is its steward... Contemporary arguments for the 'right' to assistance to commit suicide are based on ideas of each individual's autonomy over his or her life. Christians cannot claim such autonomy; Christians acknowledge that they belong to God... Christians yield their personal autonomy and accept a special obligation, as the first answer of the Heidelberg Catechism invites people to confess: 'I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ' (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 1)... A decision to take one's own life thus appears to be a denial that one belongs to God./ A second conviction is that God does not abandon people in times of suffering... Christians express their faith in God's love by trusting in God's care for them. A decision to end one's life would appear to be a cessation of that trust... Suffering calls upon people to trust God even in the valley of the shadow of death. It calls on people to let God, and not suffering, determine the agenda of their life and their death./ A third conviction is that in the community of God's people, caring for those who are dying is a burden Christians are willing to share. Both living and dying should occur within a caring community, and in the context of death, Christian discipleship takes the form of caring for those who are dying./ This is an era when many people find legislating morality a questionable practice. Should Christians promote legislation which embodies their conclusions about the morality of physician-assisted suicide?... If Christians are to be involved in debating laws regulating assisted suicide, it will be out of a concern for the health and well-being of society... As a society, there is no common understanding that gives any universal meaning to 'detrimental'. In humility, Christians can simply acknowledge this, and proceed...to share our own unique perspectives, inviting others to consider them and the faith that gives them meaning."
The Reformed Church also condemns the death penalty. The General Synod in 2000 expressed seven reasons why the Church opposes it:
Capital punishment is incompatible with the Spirit of Christ and the ethic of love. The law of love does not negate justice, but it does nullify the motives of vengeance and retribution by forcing us to think in terms of redemption, rehabilitation, and reclamation. The Christ who refused to endorse the stoning of the woman taken in adultery would have us speak to the world of compassion, not vengeance. Capital punishment is of doubtful value as a deterrent. The capital punishment as a deterrent argument assumes a criminal will engage in a kind of rational, cost-benefit analysis before he or she commits murder. Most murders, however, are crimes of passion or are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This does not excuse the perpetrator of responsibility for the crime, but it does show that in most cases capital punishment as a deterrent won't work.