The World Communion of Reformed churches (WCRC) actually has 233 members and all of these churches have in some form legal norms for their constitutional set-up. How do they look like, what is similar to them and where are the di¬fferences? What in the constitutional set-up of the Reformed churches is influenced by the organisational principles that the 16th century Reformers developed for the church and what is the outcome of the, sometimes strong, in fluence of state law? Where do we see constitutional transplants due to the fact that some churches grew out of others? With which topics are all Reformed Churches currently dealing? Finally, to what extent does the Reformed branch on the tree of Christian churches di¬ er from other Christian churches? This books contains expert papers on Reformed church polity in ¬different countries. By comparing a series of church polity topics it wants to foster an understanding of the richness of Reformed church polity in history and at present. This book, then, seeks to enlarge the knowledge on Reformed church polity and, in the meantime, to contribute to ecumenism. If you would like to order the book for delivery outside of the Netherlands, please email orders@aup.nl

Leon van den Broeke is Professor of Legal Theology and Church Law at the Theological University of Utrecht.