In the year 1838 a division took place in the Reformed Church of Lower Saxony (in what is now the Federal Republic of Germany). In order to maintain the Reformed tradition intact, a number of congregations of the Reformed Church broke away to form the Evangelical Old Reformed Church. On the 150th anniversary of this church on June 14 1988, the presidium of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany issued a declaration which stated among other things the following:

"The members of the presidium of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany rejoice with their Old Reformed brothers and sisters on the occasion of this jubilee of their church and sends them its heartfelt greetings and prayers for God's richest blessing on them. We would also express our recognition of the respect shown by the Old Reformed church and its members for Reformed theology and the Reformed tradition...

Reformed Christians (in Germany) cannot recall the birth of the Old Reformed church without being reminded at the same time of their own guilt. At that time they turned a blind eye to the protestation of many church members... Instead of heeding this protestation, they excluded the critics from the church and attacked the groups of church members whose earnest desire was to be Christians in a church reformed in accordance with God's word. So division came about...

Knowing this, we declare that in many respects the critics of 150 years ago were in the right. The scriptures were often arbitrarily interpreted and the church constitution frequently violated; the Reformed confessions of faith often went unheeded and the singing of the psalms neglected along with other elements of the Reformed tradition. We wish to say to our Old Reformed brothers and sisters:

We deplore the fact that the pleadings and warnings of loyal Reformed church members were ignored or ridiculed...
We deplore the fact that for many years police measures and penal courts were invoked against the church services, assemblies, ministers and elders of the Old Reformed congregations, instead of efforts being made to initiate joint discussions in the light of the open Bible.
We deplore the fact that our Old Reformed brothers and sisters were for decades prevented from building churches of their own...
We deplore the fact that our Old Reformed brothers and sisters were vilified and scorned by Reformed Christians and ministers generally and treated as 'separatists', 'sectarians' etc.
We deplore the fact that Reformed Christians failed for so long to realize and accept that the Old Reformed Church, like the Reformed Church, grew out of one and the same Reformed tradition."