To the Editor:

I want to express gratitude for the attention brought to Charles Gehring and the New Netherland Research Center and the very important work that they do. Even as a child growing up in a community with a large concentration of Dutch-Americans, we were taught colonial history that began with Jamestown, then to Plymouth, and it just went from there. No mention of the Dutch.

And in our area, there are many remnants of the Dutch past, and a significant one is the continuing presence of Reformed churches. The Reformed saw their origin in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century, and in particular, the Swiss reformation.

As the reform movement spread, this branch also spread to other places, and one of those was the Netherlands. When the Dutch traversed the seas, they brought the Reformed tradition with them, including here, and the first Reformed church in North America was organized in 1628 in what is now New York City. That church continues to this day as the Collegiate Church in the City of New York.

Up the Hudson in what is now Albany, another Reformed Church was organized in 1642. That church continues to this day as the First Church in Albany. Schenectady saw its first organized Reformed church in 1680 (after being an outstation of Albany for nearly two decades), and this church continues as the First Reformed Church of Schenectady.

Many more Reformed churches of the Dutch tradition were established, several even before the Revolution, that space does not permit me to chronicle here.

Reformed churches dot this whole region. You’ve probably seen a number of them without realizing it!

While there are very few Dutch-Americans that make up our churches anymore, we continue to stand as integral parts of our communities — some for a few decades, some for a century, and some for several hundred years — doing what we’ve done since the Dutch period, seeking to bring people together and strengthening our communities, always seeking to shine light and bring hope to the communities in which we have been placed. Thank you for your time!

The Rev. Matthew van Maastricht

Pastor

The Altamont Reformed Church