Van kerken en dorpen

The relation between church and village is shifting due to processes of de-churching, regionalisation, cooperation, and mobilisation. In the past a village often consisted of various churches, now it is the other way around: a church congregation consists of several villages. In this article I want to investigate what ecclesiological questions arise from this changing relation between church and village. First, I describe the processes of regionalisation and cooperation in the last decades and the consequences for being church in the countryside. Secondly, I explore a couple of developments that shed light on how the village church in the future might look like. The combination of cooperation processes and new forms of church lead to a mixed economy and raise ecclesiological questions, such as how to remain present as a church in several village communities? David Walker, Michael Moynagh and Pete Ward provide useful insights to understand rural ecclesiology