THE REFORMED MUNICIPALITY OF GROLLOO/SCHOONLOO

from: Grolloo from past to present

Church and parsonage, the center of the village.

Approximately in the 9th century the population in our community will have become Christian. Rolde was the center, where the mother church was also located. For centuries, our ancestors from Grol100 and Schoonloo went to church there.
That lasted until 1853, when the independent municipality of Grolloo/Schoonloo was created with its own church and parsonage. The impetus for this was mainly given by Grolloer farmers Roelof Hagting and Remmelt Haange and Lens Beijering from Schoonloo.
The road to Rolde was long and difficult. This had to detract from church life, which was strongly intertwined with the village community. Hence the pursuit of one's own independence. The construction costs for the church and parsonage would amount to NLG 10,000. A large amount for the more than 40 families in Grolloo and Schoonloo, with a combined population of less than three hundred. Especially when one considers that the monetary value at the time was approximately 100 times higher than today.
More than half was raised by its own population; the rest had to come from other sources.

We obtain the following data from newspaper articles:

March 1848	Due to the large walking distance, request for our own church. There will be no decision yet.
July 1850	There is also a need for a church in other places. Also because of the distances. That's about more believers. What if Grolloo-Schoonloo not only came with money for the church, but also for the pastor's salary...
July 1852	The residents can put 150 guilders on the table for the preacher's salary.
November 1852	One can expect 2000 guilders from provincial funds. The budget is €9612 Residents contribute €5,409.50 More than 4,000 are still missing Ultimately the decision is negative.
January 1853	A choice has been made in bricks and a contractor from Assen - Westerink - will do the job for ʄ 1591.50.
February 1853	A church council is appointed, our own church comes one step closer.
July 1853	It is proposed to allow a subsidy from the province of ʄ 1,500. The advertisement for the tender is placed.
September 1853	The general synod of the Dutch Reformed Church awards an amount of ʄ2000.
October 1853	Request to the Minister of Religious Affairs to open an appeal.
December 1853	Seven candidates have registered. Cornelis Bolt was appointed that same month.
January 1854	Dedication of the church.
March 1854	Pastor C. Bolt was born on March 19 by his stepfather Rev. Slomp from Diever confirmed.

 

The first church service of our own congregation, in which the new church council was led by Rev. Borgesius van Rolde is confirmed, was held in the school on Sunday, March 9. The first pastor will be Rev. Cornelis Bolt, who remained so until 1870. He died here in Grolloo.
From the beginning, church life was closely linked to the village community. The actual sympathy of the church council focuses as much as possible on all residents of Grolloo and Schoonloo during joyful and difficult times. Conversely, almost all families make a financial contribution to enable the church to continue to fulfill its function in their midst. That they indeed want this became clear again during the restoration of the church and parsonage in 1976, when the willingness to sacrifice was again very great.

The last memorable event in the church life of Grolloo took place on Sunday, August 14, 1983. Then the organ, a pneumatic pipe organ, was officially put into use, making it a real organ for the first time in the 130 years of existence of the church in Grolloo. could be played. To achieve this, they always had to make do with a harmonium and later with an electronic organ. The new organ comes from the Jozef Church in Assen. The restoration costs of the organ were also paid by the church community itself. The money was collected through flea markets, extra collections and the sale of spoons and candlesticks.

For current information about the church, we would like to refer you to the grolloo.com site. Click on the link below (only available in Dutch):

https://www.grolloo.com/onze-kerk.html

On October 19, 2023, the Old Grol Foundation offered and installed a new information board. The old one had served for years, but was no longer readable.