This year marks exactly 500 years since William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament (NT) appeared in Worms, Germany. What was remarkable was that, alongside Martin Luther’s German translation and the Latin Vulgate, he also used Erasmus’s edition of the New Testament in Greek. Tyndale’s New Testament was smuggled into England, where it was eagerly received.

A year earlier, in 1525, Tyndale had fled England because his initiative to translate the Bible into the vernacular met with strong opposition. Since the Inquisition was hunting him, he was not safe in Worms, Marburg, or Cologne either. In 1534, he fled to Antwerp, where a great many printers were based at the time. However, after nine months, he was arrested in May 1535.

Tyndale was transferred to the castle of Vilvoorde, the center of Spanish repression of Protestantism in the Low Countries. In 1536, he was strangled, after which his body was burned and his ashes scattered in the river Zenne. Tyndale was sentenced to death because of his Lutheran views, not for translating and distributing the Bible.

Anyone who visits Vilvoorde today will not be able to visit the castle where Tyndale and many other Protestants were imprisoned in the 16th century. The building was demolished in 1774. However, you can visit William Tyndale Park. Since the 1990s, a bluestone memorial to Tyndale has stood there, honoring the man who left his mark on the English language. This monument, which originally stood on the Koemarkt (now Fr. Rooseveltlaan) from 1913 onward, is designated as protected architectural heritage. About one kilometer from the monument, you can visit a small museum dedicated to Tyndale in the William Tyndale–Silo Church, which is affiliated with the United Protestant Church in Belgium.

Now, 500 years after the appearance of Tyndale’s New Testament, the political climate in our country has changed completely. Belgium is independent, and there is freedom of belief. Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region together count just under 600 Protestant–Evangelical church congregations that are officially recognized at the national level through affiliation with the Administrative Council for Protestant–Evangelical Religion (ACPER). In addition, many other Protestant–Evangelical faith communities have, for various reasons, not joined this body.

Since its founding in 2009, Evadoc - together with other (heritage) organizations and the local congregations themselves - has been committed to documenting, preserving, and making accessible the story of the highly diverse Protestant–Evangelical community. Through our newsletters, we regularly provide updates on this work.

Workshop on Sustainable Archiving

On Saturday, 16 May 2026, the Evangelical Alliance Flanders, together with Evadoc, is organizing a practical study day on sustainable archiving. The event will take place at KADOC – the Documentation and Research Centre for Religion, Culture and Society in Leuven, and is specifically aimed at church congregations, non-profit organizations (vzw’s), and social organizations.
During this session, you will learn how to set up your own archive in a clear, sustainable, and future‑proof way. Aaldert Prins will share his expertise and provide practical tips on, among other things:

Choosing clear and consistent file names
Building a logical folder structure
Smart use of cloud storage and local backups
Which documents and records should you preserve for the long term

In addition, there will be time to learn from practical examples, ask questions, and gain inspiration. The day will conclude with a guided tour of the repository, offering a unique behind‑the‑scenes look at the collections and the work of Evadoc and KADOC.

Practical information:

Date and time: 16 May, 10:00 – 15:00
Location: KADOC, Vlamingenstraat 39, 3000 Leuven
Price: €15 (lunch included)
Registration:[registration]]

Invest in the future of your church or organization: make sure your archive is robust, accessible, and sustainable. We look forward to welcoming you!

Student employees

During the 2025–2026 academic year, two student employees are helping us process material for our collection. Hadassa Bakker, a student at ETF Leuven, is working on making the audiovisual collection accessible. After processing recordings of worship services from the Pentecostal congregation Jezus Leeft in Lier, she is now working on recordings of worship services from Evangelical church ’t Zout in Overpelt.

ETF Leuven student Carleen Struik focuses on the digital newsletters of churches, organizations, and missionaries. In addition, she is making accessible the speeches of George Verwer from the archive of Operation Mobilisation.

Services

The archives and documentation housed by Evadoc at KADOC–KU Leuven are even consulted internationally.

For example, the Operation Mobilization archive was consulted by the Canadian J. R. Fountain for the short film The Stranger. The final result can be viewed via this link.

A student from the University of Geneva expressed interest in the European Evangelical Alliance's archive.

Currently, our periodicals collection is being consulted by a History student at Ghent University (UGent) for his bachelor’s thesis.

On November 13, 2025, as is traditional, the first‑year students of the Evangelical Theological Faculty Leuven came to get acquainted with Evadoc and KADOC.

Another good practice is that the Evadoc stand is present at various conferences in our country. For instance, in the autumn of 2025, we were at the Vlaamse Evangelische Familiedag in Malle and at the 92nd convention of the Association des Églises Protestantes Évangéliques de Belgique in Charleroi.

To Bridge a Gap

During the second project year, we were active in Mechelen and Willebroek. Interviews were conducted with ministers and members of various Sub‑Saharan church communities. In particular, there was intensive contact with the Ghanaian Church of Pentecost in Mechelen. Although the project focuses on religious heritage, it also became clear here that many church communities made up of people with a migration background struggle to find a suitable location for their worship services. Vacant or little‑used Catholic church buildings are not the ideal solution for this. After all, they have a long reverberation time, which is ideal for organ accompaniment but clashes with the tight, amplified singing and amplified musical instruments used by international churches. Moreover, these church buildings are generally not equipped with additional spaces for children’s and youth activities running parallel to the worship service. They also often wish to organize additional activities outside the worship services themselves.

From Aalst, we can present a fine example of sustainability that has emerged from our project. The Centre Evangélique la Famille Chrétienne and the Denderland heritage cell have joined forces to document and present the intangible heritage of this faith community to a broad audience. More about this will follow in our upcoming newsletters. For further information about the To Bridge a Gap project, we are happy to refer you to the following link.

Acquisitions

In this section, as is our custom, we keep you informed about the most important additions to our collection.

ARCHIVES

First of all, there has been an addition to Lukas Vandersteene's archive. This mainly concerns audiovisual material and documents related to the Pentecostal church De Kruispoort in Bruges.
A second addition concerns the digital archive of Operation Mobilisation International and relates to a number of Asian countries.

PUBLICATIONS

The library collection has been enriched with the following physical acquisitions:

Jean-Claude Kitoko, La prière me rend capable de tout

Martin Lelie, 100 jaar Protestants Evangelische Kerk Sint Niklaas

Marco Pavone, Dichtbij de eeuwige God: Bijbels dagboek

Wilma Samyn en Maaike den Butter, Vrouw vandaag; Vasthouden en doorgeven; Bemoedigingen voor moeders

Laurentine Van Landeghem, De leugens die we graag geloven

Rosita Traens, Recht ut myn herte: West Vlaamsche gedichten

Publications by publisher Het Goede Boek

Alex van Nes, Hij heeft gesproken: een handleiding voor geloofsverdediging

Wout van Wijngaarden, Ere wie ere toekomt: over de waarde van gezag in de Bijbel; Op zoek naar harmonie: woorden, tekeningen van ons hart; Bijl: (terug) ontvangen van de vrucht van de Geest; Afwijzing: oorzaak, gevolg en de weg tot genezing; Op zoek naar rust: verwacht het uit de hemel

Lucien Borkes, Twee verbonden: het christelijk huwelijk en het leven in veelzijdige aspecten beschreven en getekend : in een lofzang, met waarschuwingen, woordspelingen, diepgang, spreuken, verwachtingen en luchtigheid;

Alex van Nes, De vreugde van Bijbelmemorisatie

Lien Van den Bergh, Ruben en het Waipuna mysterie; Ruben en de bevroren waterval

DIGITAL PERIODICALS

- Bulletin of the Korean Church of Brussels

- Newsletter of the Protestants Sociaal Centrum

- En Avant, Armée du Salut, Belgique

Advice

KADOC offers expert services for diverse religious heritage, especially regarding documentary heritage (archives and publications) and intangible heritage (traditions and customs). Within KADOC, Evadoc is the designated expert for Protestant and Anglican heritage. For questions about objects and immovable heritage, we’re happy to connect you with our colleagues at PARCUM.

Support Evadoc

Would you like to help keep Evadoc financially healthy? You can donate to our bank account, BE92 7340 2819 9323 (KREDBEBB). Thanks to your support, we can continue to preserve, document, and promote the history of the Protestant-evangelical community in our region, in close collaboration with KADOC-KU Leuven.

Transferring Archives or publications?

You can deposit your archive with Evadoc. If placed in safekeeping, we manage and preserve it while you retain ownership. That means we will always ask your permission before granting access to your materials. Alternatively, you may donate your archive. In that case, we manage and preserve it and decide on access rights.

You can find general guidelines for transferring paper or digital archives here and here. For specific questions or more information, please contact Aaldert Prins.

Subscribe or unsubscribe

Use the form below to subscribe or unsubscribe from the Evadoc newsletter.

Evadoc

Protestants-Evangelisch Archief- en Documentatiecentrum

1526 - William Tyndale - 2026