Netherlands-based Manna-Vandaag (www.manna-vandaag.nl) said up to 1200 of 4000 churches and 130 of the country’s 150 monasteries are expected to close their doors. At a symposium next week in the Dutch city of Utrecht experts, including government advisers and politicians, will discuss the future of the churches’ estimated 200,000 art objects.
News of the church closures comes just days after Statistics Netherlands (CBS) said that every week only 20 percent of the estimated nine million Dutch believers visits a church, mosque or other religious gathering.
Of the three main groups of believers, Roman-Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims, Protestants are the most "faithful" church goers, CBS said. Nearly a third of them visits a church at least once a week, according to the released statistics. Only 27 percent of Dutch Muslims reportedly meet in a mosque every week. Catholics are the least enthusiastic, with apparently only seven percent visiting a mis on Sunday. Some 57 percent never, or rarely, visits a church service, according to CBS estimates.
The figures come at a time when Open Doors Netherlands, a group investigating reports of persecution worldwide, has warned especially evangelical Dutch Christians to prepare for an era of persecution. It has said that it is unlikely that persecution will remain an issue only for Christians living outside the Netherlands. (With additional reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
