Gijsbert Haan or alternate spelling Gysbert Haan (January 3, 1801 – July 27, 1874) was the leader in the 1857 Secession of Dutch-Americans from the Reformed Church in America, and the creator of the Christian Reformed Church in the United States and Canada.
Born in Hilversum, North Holland, Netherlands on January 3, 1801, Gijsbert grew up as a member of the Reformed Church in Hilversum. He was married to Marritje Pos (September 28, 1800 - August 26, 1876) after he learned that she was pregnant due to an affair several months before. Over the course of their marriage, they had at least 13 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood. On July 26, 1847, due to social and religious persecution as well as severe famine, Haan and his family emigrated from the Netherlands on the passenger ship Centurion. Under the guidance of Albertus van Raalte they established a colony in Holland, Michigan. In 1850 they aligned themselves with the Reformed Church in America (RCA). At that point, they were considered to be a classis (a "governing body of a group of churches in the Reformed system, made up of clergymen [and] ruling elders...") within the RCA. [1] [2]
Although most churches within the classis were content with their affiliation to the RCA, one church under the leadership of Haan found that the RCA was inadequate. Haan warned that the RCA "was not sound". This was reminiscent of a former schism in the Netherlands when the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands separated from the Dutch Reformed Church because of its supposed "theological laxity". Over time, dissension began to grow largely due to Haan's preaching against the RCA. [3]
In 1857 Haan's followers sent documents of secession to the classis in an attempt to garner support for an exodus from the RCA. The principal arguments in the document were that the RCA conducted "open communion", sang hymns whose lyrics were not based on Biblical psalms, overlooked catechism preaching, and did not support the secession in the Netherlands. Although the classis did not approve of the secession documents, one church did decide to leave the RCA in January 1857. Soon, other churches followed suit. In 1859 these secessionist churches became the True Dutch Reformed Church. The denomination then endured several name changes until 1904 when it adopted its present name, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC).
The CRC began as a Dutch immigrant church in the 1850s and continued to attract mainly Dutch constituents. The church population has increased at times of heavy Dutch immigration. The church in Canada gained new members after an influx of people from the Netherlands following World War II. The CRC has also gained members who were unhappy with and left the RCA for various reasons. For example, some people who were unhappy with the RCA's decision to permit members to join the Freemasons united with the CRC in the 1880s. On the other hand, the CRC also lost several congregations in 1882 that supported the Freemasons.
Haan continued to preach in the newly founded CRC until his death in 1874. Some of his children and many of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren became leaders in the CRC. His great-granddaughter Irene, served on the faculty at Hope College. Most of the congregations consisted of immigrants. Therefore services were held in the Dutch language in the early years. By the turn of the 20th century, CRC congregations could be found in several US states with services held in both Dutch and English. Haan died in 1874 of liver disease in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 84,957 members. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church.
The Christian Reformed Church in North America is a Protestant Calvinist Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1857 and is theologically Calvinist.
The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal family and the foremost Protestant denomination until 2004, the year it helped found and merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. It was the larger of the two major Reformed denominations, after the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was founded in 1892. It spread to the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and various other world regions through Dutch colonization. Allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church was a common feature among Dutch immigrant communities around the world and became a crucial part of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa.
The United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA) is a theologically conservative federation of Reformed churches founded in 1996. Many churches joined the URCNA after splitting from the Christian Reformed Church in North America denomination.
Western Theological Seminary (WTS) is a private seminary located in Holland, Michigan. Established in 1866, it is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America, a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States.
The Protestant Reformed Churches in America is a Protestant denomination of 33 churches and over 8,000 members.
Hendrik de Cock was a Dutch minister responsible for the 1834–35 Dutch Reformed Church split due to his incarceration and suspension from office for his Calvinist convictions.
The Netherlands Reformed Congregations is a conservative Calvinist denomination with congregations in Canada, the United States and Bolivia. It is affiliated with the Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands.
Albertus Christiaan van Raalte was a 19th-century Dutch Reformed clergyman.
The Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands is a Protestant church in the Netherlands.
The 1834 Dutch Reformed Church split, or the Secession of 1834, known simply as Afscheiding, refers to a split that occurred within the Dutch Reformed Church in 1834. The federation of churches resulting from the split, the Christian Reformed Churches, still exists in the Netherlands. The Free Reformed Churches are the North American counterpart.
The 1886 Dutch Reformed Church split, also known as the Doleantie, was the name of a prominent schism in the Dutch Reformed Church that took place in 1886 and was led by a renowned minister, Abraham Kuyper. The Doleantie was not the first schism in the Dutch Reformed Church. Another schism, the Secession of 1834 (Afscheiding van 1834), had led to the formation of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands.
Haan is surname of Dutch origin. People with this name include:
Eilardus Westerlo was a Dutch Reformed minister who worked in Colonial New York. He spent his career, from October 1760 until December 1790, as pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany. During this period, the United States fought for its independence, and the Dutch Reformed Church in North America gained its independence from the mother church in the Netherlands.
First Reformed Church (Orange City), founded in 1871, is an active church in the Kingdom Network located in Orange City, Iowa.
The Monsey Church is the colloquial name of a historic Reformed Christian church in the hamlet of Monsey, town of Ramapo, in southern Rockland County, New York, the official name of which, since December 6, 2000, is New Hope Christian Church. The church was founded in 1824 as the True Reformed Dutch Church of West New Hempstead and later became known as the Monsey Christian Reformed Church. The church owns a historic cemetery adjacent to the site of its first meeting house and briefly operated a private Christian school in the 1950s and '60s. Today the church is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). It is the only remaining church that was once part of the True Reformed Dutch Church.
Third Reformed Church of Holland is a historic church at 111 W. 13th Street in Holland, Michigan. It was built in 1874 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
Domine Johannes Arondeus was one of the earliest pastors in American history who was sent to the Middle Colonies during the height of the First Great Awakening by the Dutch Church in Holland. The purpose of the Great Awakening was Evangelism and it adopted the evangelical style of preaching that held conservative theological views believing in the Bible as the word of God.
Roelof Harms Smit was a Dutch-American minister. Smit ministered a congregation in Drenthe, Michigan in the mid-1800s, which led to a notable secession in the history of the Christian Reformed Church of North America.