Vaals, a town in the southeast of the Dutch prov­ince of Limburg, close to the German border (coordinates: 50° 46′ 0″ N, 6° 1′ 0″ E). Mennonites from Burtscheid and Aachen, Germany, who could not meet there freely, used to meet at Vaals and built a meetinghouse there in the early 17th century. In the 18th century Burtscheid, Vaals, and Aachen formed one single congregation, whose preacher lived at Burtscheid until 1768; he also had charge of the Maastricht congregation. In 1768 Pastor Pieter Staal moved to Maastricht; the Burtscheid and Vaals sections did not agree with this change and separated from Maas­tricht, forming the independent congregation of Vaals and Burtscheid, which, however, never had a preacher of its own, died out by ca. 1793; it had prob­ably dissolved in 1785.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 796. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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