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Baptists gather in Amsterdam to celebrate 400 years of their foundation

Baptists in Amsterdam started their movement back in 1609 when John Smyth and Thomas Helwys left persecution in England in search of the freedom to worship God according to their conscience. With just a handful of followers, they began with meetings in the backroom of a bakery.

That was about 400 years ago and now the movement has grown to more than 110 million members from around the world who gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday for the start of a three-day celebration marking 400 years since the movement’s founding.

The President of the Baptist World Alliance, the Rev David Coffey, preached at the celebration service on Sunday. The celebrations will mark the movement’s historical beginnings and also seek to discern God’s calling on Baptists for the future in the areas of mission, community, freedom and discipleship.

David Coffey remembered Smyth and Helwys saying that they were a “powerful inspiration” for Baptists in today’s Europe where religious liberty is once again at risk.

“The liberty of the church to follow her Lord is under threat and we have to look now at how we were founded and what it is from our founding mothers and fathers we can take as an inspiration today,” he said.

The celebration is being hosted by the European Baptist Federation and will be immediately followed by the Baptist World Alliance’s annual gathering in Ede, which will also take stock of the last 400 years of Baptist history.