Download Visit of the Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem, The Netherlands

Visit of the Old Catholic Bishop of Haarlem,
The Netherlands
17-19 March 2013
The Bishop of Haarlem, the Rt Revd Dr Dirk Jan Schoon, will be visiting Suffolk from
17-19 March 2013. He will be staying with Mary and John Hare and his programme
will include:
Sunday 17 March
Bishop Dirk will preach at the Sung Eucharist in our Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds.
Monday 18 March
Bishop Dirk will join us for an informal meeting here in Woodbridge in St Mary’s
House, 1915 for 1930. This will be an excellent opportunity to question him and
learn how a small Reformed Catholic Church, almost identical in many ways to the
Church of England, relates to the modern Western Society that is the Netherlands. It
will be interesting in particular to hear how this Church has resolved the issue of gay
and lesbian relationships, which is causing so much division in the Anglican
Communion.
Tuesday 19 March
Bishop Dirk will give a Lecture at the University College in Ipswich (1730 for 1800)
entitled
Survival of One of the Smallest: The Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands
to which all are welcome without charge.
This is one of a series of UCS Academy Lectures and is held in the Waterfront
Building. There are car parks nearby and the bus routes from Woodbridge pass close.
As wine and canapés are generously provided after the lecture, the University asks
that, if possible, you book a place in advance.
email: the [email protected]
The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht
The Old Catholic Church in the Netherlands
At the time of the Reformation, the Church in the Netherlands became overwhelmingly
Calvinistic, and the small number of people who wished to remain in communion with
Rome were forced to abandon the buildings, especially the Great Churches which dominate
the skyline in most Dutch towns. The violence of their expulsion varied from place to place,
and in some towns they were permitted to take the Altar furnishings, vessels and vestments
with them. In many places there was a tacit agreement that, as long as Catholic worship
was not seen or heard, the Protestant Town Authorities would not stop it. This led to the
building of hidden churches. In some places Catholics would buy a group of houses in the
centre of a Town backing on to each other to form a square; they would then pool their
back gardens and build a church. In Den Hague where the houses are very tall, this enabled
them to build a fine baroque church invisible from the road. At the other end of the scale,
the Church at Krommenie faces the road as a typical farmhouse, the back of which is a
beautiful church adapted from a barn. All these hidden churches are well worth visiting.
In the latter half of the 17th Century the Dutch Catholics become embroiled with Rome over
a theological dispute (the Jansenist Controversy) culminating in the deposition by the Pope
of the Archbishop of Utrecht, Petrus Codde. The Dutch did not accept this, and, after the
death of Archbishop Codde, elected a new Archbishop without Papal authority. The Pope
then declared Utrecht to be out of communion with Rome, thus leaving the Netherlands
Catholics independent.
By the later 19th century there were a number of other Churches in Europe that had broken
with Rome but still maintained Catholic Order and Ministry. This grouped together to form
the Union of Utrecht, with the Archbishop of Utrecht in much the same position as the
Archbishop of Canterbury. The Old Catholics and the Anglicans realigned that in origin,
doctrine, practice and ecclesiology (church structure) they were virtually identical, and in
1931 the Church of England and the Old Catholic Communion signed the Bonn Agreement.
This provides for complete recognition of the validity and interchangeability of each other’s
sacraments and ministry: it is the closest relationship we have to any non-Anglican Church.
There is free exchange of ordained clergy between our Churches; we have Old Catholic
friends who minister in Anglican churches and Anglican friends who minister in old Catholic
Churches, and some who do both!
With Bishop Dirk we hope that his visit will develop and strengthen Anglican Old Catholic
relations, especially in this Diocese which, as Bishop Nigel has pointed out, is the closed in
England to the Netherlands. The St Willebrand Society, which has assisted with this visit,
exists to promote this relationship; further details from Mary or John Hare.