Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands, or Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit, is a body of Mennonite Christians in the Netherlands. Anabaptism appears in the Netherlands (Holland) by 1530, when Melchior Hoffman (1495-1543) visited Emden in East Friesland. While there, Hoffman baptized over a hundred adults who converted to Anabaptism. The Mennonites (or Mennisten) are named for Menno Simons (1496-1561), a Dutch Roman Catholic priest who converted to Anabaptism around 1536. He was baptized in 1537 and became part (and soon leader) of the Dutch Anabaptist movement. The Mennonite Church in the Netherlands is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and in 2003 had 11,000 members in 123 congregations.¹ Official Web Site Algemene Doopsgezinde Sociëteit - in Dutch Footnote 1. source = 2003 Europe Mennonite & Brethren in Christ Churches, Mennonite World Conference Web Site This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.