Old Catholic Ecumenical Commitment
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[edit] OCC and Ecumenism
Immediately after the schism with Rome in 1870, the Old Catholic theologians dedicated themselves to a reunion of the Christian churches. The Conferences of Reunion in Bonn in 1874 and 1875 convoked by von Döllinger who was the source of inspiration and a guide of the Old Catholic Movement, are famous. Representatives of the Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran Churches were invited. The aim was to discuss the denominational differences in view of a theological consensus as the ground for restoring the church communion. The participants choose another way to restore the Catholic Church communion as Rome has done: it influenced the climate. The Conferences did not have an immediate measurable effect, but still set the course for the later Old Catholic involvement in ecumenical affairs. The basic assumptions for participation were the following principles:
The acceptance of the Christological dogmata's of Nicea and Chalcedon; Christ's foundation of the Church; the Holy Bible, the doctrine of the undivided Church and the Church fathers of the first ten centuries as the genuine sources of belief; and as criterion the famous sentence of Vincentius of Lerinum: "id teneamus, quod ubique, semper et ab omnibus creditum est " (The true faith is what everywhere, always and by everybody has been believed.) as a preferred method for historical research.
Reunion of the Churches had to be based on a re-actualization of the decisions of faith made by the undivided Church. One may conclude that this option implies a hermeneutical theological approach by which the fundamental decisions of the Councils and the early Church structure are accepted in their importance for the actual situation. In that way the original unity of the Church could be made visible again. According to these principles the later bishops and theologians of the Old Catholic Churches stayed in contact with (Russian) Orthodox and Anglican representatives in order to restore Church union.
Old Catholic involvement in the multilateral ecumenical movement formally began with the participation of two bishops, from the Netherlands and Switzerland, at the Lausanne Faith and Order (F&O) conference (1927). This side of ecumenism has always remained a major interest for Old Catholics, who have never missed an F&O conference. Old Catholics also participate in other activities of the WCC and of national councils of churches. The OCC believes the unity which the ecumenical movement seeks for the churches is one which needs to exist as a reconciled diversity of all, rooted in the common faith and order of the early church of the first centuries. To the ongoing study process of Faith and Order Christendom owes a number of initiatives that could lead to a breakthrough of stalemates. By its active participation in the ecumenical movement since its very beginning then, the OCC demonstrates its belief in the necessity of the continuation of this work.
[edit] The relationship with the Anglican Churches
From 1870 onwards, intensive ecumenical contacts, especially with the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox churches, resulted in Anglican-Old Catholic intercommunion, established by the 1931 Bonn agreement (the relationship was termed “full communion” in 1958).
The Bonn Agreement was an early bird in the ecumenical movement, but because it was applied to churches that were not in the same country, it was more of an agreement by local churches than of partners working together.
This intercommunion does not require from either Communion the acceptance of all doctrinal opinion, sacramental devotion or liturgical practice characteristic of the other, but implies that each believes the other to hold all the essentials of the Christian Faith.
The Bonn Agreement does not therefore include an extensive description of theological issues on which both churches agree. It describes a concise consensus by which each Church accepts the catholicity and autonomy of the other and will maintain both. It is the foundation for full communion, which will not imply that each has to share all the other’s doctrines, spiritual and sacramental practices, but rest on the assumption that each Church maintains the essentials of the faith. This full communion with the Anglican Communion has held until now. The Bonn agreement also formed the basis for the restoration in 1965 of equal relations with the Independent Philippine Church and two small Churches on the Iberian Peninsula, both of which originated in protest against the Dogmas of 1870. The Anglican Communion has supported these small groups in Spain and Portugal.
The Union of Utrecht is represented at the Lambeth Conference and the ACC.
In 1998 both Archbishops of Canterbury and Utrecht established the Anglican Old Catholic International Coordinating Council in order to stimulate contact and cooperation in the spirit of the Bonn Agreement.
[edit] The Old Catholic – Orthodox dialogue
The relationship between Old Catholics and Orthodox has developed in five phases.
- The first phase was 1871-88. While the Dutch Old Catholic church from the 18th century repeated the Roman anathemas against the Eastern Church, the young anti-Vatican movement in Germany began to take initiatives for a serious dialogue. Anglicans and Orthodox were both invited to the Bonn reunion conferences of 1874 and 1875. It was decided that agreement on the faith of the ecumenical councils, scripture and Tradition, the office of bishop and the seven sacraments was necessary for unity. Both the developments which had led to the declaration of papal infallibility in the Roman Catholic Church and those which in Protestantism had led to discontinuity with the early church were rejected. As for the filioque, it was agreed that the clause had been inserted wrongly into the creed but that it was possible to explain it in an orthodox way.
- The second phase was 1889-1917, i. e. from the establishment of the Union of Utrecht until the Russian revolution. In this period, dialogue commissions were formed in Rotterdam (Old Catholic) and in St. Petersburg (Orthodox). The commissions never met, but they exchanged memorandums on the filioque, the Eucharist, and the canonical validity of Old Catholic Episcopal orders. Conservative theologians like Bishop Sergius of Yamburg (later patriarch of Moscow) required that Old Catholics should first of all recognize the Orthodox Church as the one true church.
- In 1904 the Patriarch Joachim of Constantinople wrote an encyclical demanding an official and comprehensive confession of the faith of the Old Catholic churches. Because of communication problems this demand was not received in Utrecht (the demand was reiterated and met in 1970). In 1912 the Russian commission stated, with approval of the Holy Synod, that all questions put to the Rotterdam commission had been answered satisfactorily.
- The third phase was 1920-60. The initiative now shifted from Russia to Constantinople. Three months after the Anglican-Old Catholic Bonn agreement in 1931, an official Old Catholic-Orthodox conference met in Bonn. No serious dogmatic points of difference were found to remain, but the Orthodox delegates had no power to accept the conference’s decisions on behalf of their churches. None of them raised the matter of the recently concluded Anglican-Old Catholic intercommunion. Later Orthodox criticism of this relationship was disappointing for Old Catholics, as the chairman of the 1931 conference, one of the subsequent critics, was the fully informed Orthodox archbishop in England.
- The fourth phase was 1961-75, i. e. from the pan-Orthodox conference of Rhodes in 1961 and the official delivery by the Old Catholics to the ecumenical patriarch on 21 June 1970 of the Homologia (which was first requested in 1904) till the actual beginning of the “dialogue of truth” by the joint commission of Old Catholic and Orthodox theologians in 1975.
- The fifth phase comprised the direct dialogue held 1975-87 on the following subjects: (1) the doctrine of God: divine revelation and its transmission, the canon of holy scripture, the Holy Trinity; (2) Christology: the incarnation of the Word of God, the hypostatic union, the mother of God; (3) ecclesiology: the nature and marks of the church, the unity of the church and the local churches, the boundaries of the church, the authority of the church and in the church, the indefectibility of the church, the synods (councils) of the church, the necessity of apostolic succession, the head of the church; (4) soteriology: the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, the operation of the Holy Spirit in the church and the appropriation of salvation; (5) sacramental doctrine: the sacraments of the church, baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, the anointing of the sick, ordination, marriage; (6) eschatology: the church and the end of time, life after death, the resurrection of the dead and the renewal of the earth; and (7) ecclesial communion: conditions and consequences. Between 1975 and 1987 the two sides reached formal agreement on all these points.
With the completion of this dialogue, a sixth phase of the Old Catholic-Orthodox relationship has begun. Now the churches will have to decide what practical conclusions can be drawn from the theological agreement that has been reached. A major point for consideration is the relationship of full communion between the Old Catholic and other churches, and the extent to which in the present ecumenical situation Old Catholic-Orthodox communion could and should be an exclusive one. A remaining task therefore is to relate the positive results of this bilateral dialogue to the multilateral dialogue of the churches of the WCC.
The sixth phase of this dialogue has become characterized by new problems: the debate about the ordination of women in the Old Catholic churches, and the closer relationship of some Old Catholic churches towards churches of the Reformation. On the first issue, consultations were held in 1996, and the results. On the second issue, it has been emphasized that no full intercommunion has been established anywhere.
On the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Archbishop of Utrecht, a permanent working party for reflection and exchange was founded in 2004. The expectation is that this working party will stimulate joint projects, pastoral and theological.
[edit] The dialogues with Rome
By the rejection of the dogmata’s of the papal infallibility and universal jurisdiction, a “rapprochement” with the Roman Catholic Church, seemed not possible for the Old Catholics. That was the reason why Pusey, the famous Anglo-catholic, criticized the Bonner Conferences of 1874/75, because they were motivated by protest against the Roman Catholic Church. The controversy escalated by the practical problems for the Old Catholics caused by the Roman Catholic counteractions in the foundation of parishes and the acquisition of Church-buildings. In the development of the ecumenical movement the Old Catholics concentrated themselves more on contacts with Anglicans, Orthodox and Protestants - all ecumenical involved – rather than on the Roman Catholics who stood aloof.
This situation changed radically by the announcement of the Vatican II by Pope John XXIII who wished to give the new council an ecumenical stance. In the preparations, the Dutch theologian and later Cardinal Willebrands played an important role and it was he who visited the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht to invite Old Catholic observers to attend the Council. The result of this rapprochement was that on national local level, both Churches entered into new relations. In the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, dialogues were started not only aiming at a theological consensus but also at practical cooperation on parochial level in a restricted kind of communion. Soon a consensus on several theological issues came to light, the only great point of difference was the position of the Pope and the exercise of authority in the Church. The participants in dialogue wanted to legitimize the rising practical pastoral cooperation by an ecumenical agreement and pastoral rules. For the implementation in the local Churches the Roman Catholic
Partners needed the consent of Rome. Unfortunately this consent - when required - did not come into being in Western Europe during the Pontificate of Pope Paul John II, in contrast to the overture in the USA. In 1994 the PNCC and Rome declared that in special situations and under strict conditions a "communio in sacris” between the two Churches was possible according to the new Codex.
On international level, the contact between the Old Catholic Bishops conference and the Vatican remains. As a result of this contact one decided to resume and to continue the theological dialogue on international level. An international dialogue group has been appointed with that aim and started discussing some main issues already. In formal and informal contacts, it became clear that there are fewer differences in theological and pastoral issues between the recent Roman Catholic and Old Catholic theologians. As main issue remains the question of authority in the Church, culminating in the position of the Pope.
[edit] The contacts with the protestant churches
On the national level friendly contacts with the protestant churches were established by all the Old Catholic churches. But, compared to the relationships with Anglicans, Orthodox and Roman-Catholics, the contacts with Protestant churches do have another character because of the clear catholic identity of the Old Catholic Churches. Bearing this in mind, the recent declaration of the Old Catholic Bishops Conference concerning the participation in the consecrations of Anglican bishops - where also Lutheran bishops may be involved - is comprehensible.
The Old Catholic bishops declare their participation on the consecration of Anglican Bishops, whether non-Anglican (Lutheran) bishops are involved or not, must be seen within the communion both Anglicans and Old-Catholics share with one another. Their participation does not imply either the Union of Utrecht as a whole or that individual Old Catholic churches are in intercommunion with the churches represented by these non-Anglican bishops.
Although there is no church-communion between the Union of Utrecht and Lutheran and other protestant churches, the Old Catholic churches observe the developments on sacraments, liturgy and ministry within the protestant world with a lot of interest. It is the impression that we all may have much in common. The large acceptance of the so called Lima-report of the Commission of Faith and Order about Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Lima 1982), also by the protestant churches, is a sign of this. Therefore by the Union of Utrecht, it is seen as an obligation to look forward, in a way to that there is more concrete cooperation in concrete church-life and church-mission.
From this point of view one can say that the Old Catholic Churches follow the Anglican Communion in her effort to tide over differences that have almost historical roots. Therefore the Union of Utrecht continues to support e.g. the Porvoo common statement between the four British and Irish Anglican churches and the five Nordic Lutheran churches and the three Baltic Lutheran churches. During the whole process of setting up the agreement, as it started in 1989, the Old Catholic communion remained informed about the developments by the Anglican side. Until now an Old-Catholic observer participates in the consultations organized by the “The Porvoo Agreement Contact Group”, which are held on a regular basis. An old Catholic observer participates in the Anglican-Lutheran dialogue as well. And last but not least, recently both the Church of Sweden and the Union of Utrecht took the initiative to start some “exploring talks”.
