On Sunday, June 27, 2021, the Official Board of the Orthodox Church (Orthodoxe Zendende Instantie – OZI) held a meeting of representatives of the Eastern Orthodox and Ancient Oriental Churches in the Netherlands.
The meeting took place in the historic Armenian Church in the center of Amsterdam. In total, they represent about 250,000 Orthodox Christians in the Netherlands.
The Orthodox Church wishes to take its rightful place in Dutch society. As part of this recognition process, the Official Board of the Orthodox Church (Orthodoxe Zendende Instantie – OZI) submitted on November 7, 2019, an application for recognition to the competent Minister of Legal Protection Sander Dekker, as the eighth recognized religion.
The Orthodox priests of the Dutch prisons now work under the auspices of the Protestant Church.
The independent recognition of the Orthodox Church will mean that the Orthodox Church will be autonomous to appoint priests to the Ministry of National Defense for the pastoral needs of the Orthodox in the armed forces. This is a constitutionally guaranteed right.
Metropolitan Athinagoras of Belgium, President of the Orthodox Church in the Netherlands (OKIN), and Bishop Arsenios (Coptic Orthodox Church), Chairman of the Association of Oriental Orthodox Churches (SOKIN), are members of the board of OZI.
The Armenian Apostolic Parish in Amsterdam was founded three hundred years ago. However, the roots of the Armenian Church in the Netherlands date back much earlier: Saint Servatius of Maastricht (4th century), and the first Bishop of the Netherlands was of Armenian descent.
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the representative of the Armenian Church in the Vatican, presided over the Vespers. He was accompanied by Father Taron, priest of the Parish of Amsterdam, and a deacon.
Apart from the many years of Armenian presence in the Netherlands, the Greek and Russian presence should also be mentioned. Most importantly, Queen Anna Pavlovna Romanova (1795-1865) maintained her faith as the wife of King Willem II.
More recently, the Coptic and Syrian Churches have been established, among others, to avoid the persecution of their faithful in the Middle East. They are generally well integrated into Dutch society.
The Dutch Orthodox have their own Institute of Orthodox Theology Saint Ireneos, which joined Radboud University in Nijmegen on July 1, 2021.