1917–1929 · event
The Dutch Gemeentedag movement
Dutch Mennonite gatherings and brotherhood houses grew from a desire to renew shared spiritual life.
Also searchable as: Gemeentedagbeweging · Gemeentedag-Beweging · Woodbrooke · Fredeshiem
Contacts with the Quakers at Woodbrooke in England and the Woodbrookers at Barchem helped inspire Dutch Mennonites to organize the Gemeentedagbeweging in 1917. The movement created gatherings where believers from different congregations could meet for spiritual reflection, fellowship, and the strengthening of Christian life.
The first national Gemeentedag met at Utrecht in August 1917. Further gatherings and camps followed, including meetings at Giethoorn. The desire for places where young and old could share this life contributed to brotherhood houses; Fredeshiem opened as a Frisian Mennonite center in 1929.
Fredeshiem’s own institutional history explicitly identifies the Quaker connection and the 1917 movement. It therefore supplies a documented name and setting for the chart’s small, partly unreadable reference to Quaker-inspired renewal. The movement belonged within Dutch Mennonite life and did not represent a new sixteenth-century branch.
Sources for this history: [1] [2] [3]
