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2008-12-02 issue:

Amsterdam Mennonite 400 years old

Anniversary year brings restoration, preservation and remodeling projects.

by Jan Gleysteen

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During this 400-year anniversary year, the Mennonite church in Amsterdam is undergoing restoration, preservation and some remodeling. This includes the repointing of brickwork, installation of an elevator and the transformation of a loft into a multifunctional space, accessible to all via the new elevator. The 19th-century ceiling is being restored, in the words of the contractor “not by the yard but slowly, inch-by-inch, in order to preserve the historic beauty of the past while making it conform to the safety and environmental standards of the future.”


This 1743 line drawing by S. Fokke shows a baptism service at the Amsterdam Mennonite Church. From the Jan Gleysteen collection.

Anabaptist activity showed up in Amsterdam around the year 1531, when it was met with brutal force by the Catholic rulers of the then-Spanish Netherlands. It was not until 1578, after the so-called Alteration of Amsterdam—a new authority made up of 30 Protestants and 10 Catholics—that the followers of Menno Simons became a “reluctantly tolerated” group. Only then did the various groups of Anabaptists begin to think of buildings for their hidden churches.

In 1607, the Mennonite cloth merchant Harmen Hendriksz van Warendorp bought a large lot between the King’s Canal and the Gentleman’s Canal. In 1608, he used the courtyard space between them to build a wooden meetinghouse to accommodate the Flemish Anabaptist group to which he belonged.

In 1639, the old wooden structure was replaced by the current, more spacious, Singelkerk. This larger space was needed because the Flemish were uniting with the Frisian and the High German branches of the Anabaptist movement. Their first union service on April 26, 1639, attended by some 3,000 people, is said to have lasted five hours. The Singelkerk remains a good example of a “Schuilkerk,” a hidden church, not visible from street side. During the summer, a four-story-high banner, draped on the scaffolding outside, read, “400 years of Mennonites on the Singel.”