Seven of The Hague’s Protestant Churches face closure

THE HAGUE - The Protestant Church (PKN) of The Hague which uses 27 buildings of which the congregation owns 17, needs to reorganize to avoid serious financial problems, an outside committee reports. It advised the church’s ruling body to phase out seven of its buildings, urging a decision by no later than next November and action by mid 2013. The committee only investigated the 17 buildings owned by the large merger congregation of the Hervormden (NHK) and Gereformeerden (GKNs). The seven surplus buildings all scored poorly for their approachability, functionality, operational costs, cultural heritage value and geographical coverage. Elsewhere, the Roman Catholic dioceses of Groningen-Leeuwarden will undertake a reorganization to cut costs as well, an issue also facing Den Bosch, which has embarked on rare layoff and austerity drives.