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In 1972 a new organ was built for the Julianakerk in The Hague by Vierdag
from Enschede. Hans Brink made the design. Until then the builders had only constructed one and
two-manual instruments, but were keen to build a 'masterpiece': a
three-manual with pedal. For this reason Vierdag added the third manual
(Borstwerk) as a gift.
Originally the pedal was to be placed in separate towers besides the Great;
due to financial reasons this could not be realised. So since then the pedal
is placed behind the Great.
Due to the greatly reduced numbers of churchgoers The Hague church councils
had to take the difficult decision to close certain church buildings. The
Julianakerk, with around 1000 seats only being filled to 5% of its capacity,
was one of the chosen buildings. The last service was held in January 1997.
 The Bethlehemkerk was used until 1995 by the a Nederlandse Hervormde
congregation. Again, the building was far too large for the numbers of
worshippers. It was decided to merge the Bethlehemkerk congregation with
that of the nearby Pauluskerk.
In the Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk there is a movement known as the
"Gereformeerde Bond". The Hague Gereformeerde Bond used to meet up until
1995 in the Marcuskerk. This building was becoming too small for the growing
congregation and so the large Bethlehemkerk was put to good use: the "Cathedral
of the Laan van Meerdervoort" is now home to a Gereformeerde Bond
congregation.
It became clear that the Van Leeuwen organ that had stood in the
Bethlehemkerk since 1974 was not equal to the task of accompanying
congregational singing; the organist had to use all 19 stops constantly to
make any impact at all. The Vierdag organ in the Julianakerk presented the
perfect solution to the problem and was chosen to succeed the Van Leeuwen
instrument.
The firm of Pels & Van Leeuwen Orgelbouw from 's-Hertogenbosch began the
disassembly of the organ in the Julianakerk in February 1997 and the
magnificent instrument was used to accompany the first services in the
Bethlehemkerk in June of the same year. The moving of the instrument
provided a good opportunity to make several changes in the stop scheme of
the organ.
Since 1931 when the Bethlehemkerk was first used this is the third
instrument to be placed in the church.
Visit this page for a history of the organs in this church.
The Bethlehemkerk has its
own website.
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