The Anglican Church in Zwolle, Koestraat 4
zaterdag 13 februari 2016
Services are held in the Lutheran Church (the church on the old town wall) on teh first and third
Sunday of the month, except in July and August.
In 1962, mainly through the support, inspiration and encouragement of the then domine of the
Lutheran Church in Zwolle, the Anglican Church in Zwolle made het début. The writing of one letter
to the Anglican Church in The Hague eventually resulted in the rev. D. Buekes coming once a month
to take our services, which he did with a few absences until his retirement 1990. When the church
began we had services on the first Sunday of the month. The services always includes a shortened
form of Holy Communion. After the services we had coffee together.
The Lutheran Church in Zwolle was founded at the beginning of the 17th century ans was originally a
corn warehouse. Merchants from the north German lowlands, Scandinavians and soldiers from a
German regiment stationed near the republic of the United Netherlands were the first people to
worship in the church. In the whole of Germany the reformation of the protestant churches was in
motion, and the Germans founded a strongly Calvinistic church in Zwolle. The Germans brought their
own chaplain and they and other Germans and Scandinavians formed a church here that was
strongly influenced by German Lutherans.
Other Lutheran parishes were started in the same way in other parts of Holland. Souvenirs of the
German regiment can still be seen in the church in Zwolle to this day: a silver hosti box on the altar
used at Lutheran communion services, with the name of the officers of the regiment, and in the
vestry a “God’s Chest” dating 1618. Gifts given to the town dwellers and parishioners were collected
to be given to strangers in Zwolle. The Lutheran Church had many problems with the Calvinistic
church. Only after paying toleration taxes were their services permitted. The coming op Napoleon
made freedom of worship easier.
There are two weathercocks on the roof of the church. They were presented to the church in 1799.
One is a lamb and the other is a swan. The donor thus made it clear that the building was a Lutherab
church, because the swan is the symbol of the Lutheran Church in Holland.
The foreign influences are gradually waning because the Lutheran churches in Holland are linked by a
Synod and have their own theological study at he University of Amsterdam. In 1967 the church in
Zwolle was restored to its old glory. It is a very beautiful, simple and restful place to be in. Strangely
enough history has repeated itself, as the present domine of the Lutheran Church in Zwolle hails
from Thüringen in the former DDR. The Lutheran church is Holland is a member of the world
federation of Lutheran churches. Because the church in Zwolle has always had a slightly “un-Dutch”
background it was glad to welcome the Anglican Church within its walls.
E-R. van den Berg-Humby