The
Declaration of Utrecht
September 24, 1889
1. We adhere faithfully to the Rule of Faith laid
down by St. Vincent of Lerins in these terms: “Id
teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus
creditum est; hoc est etenim vere proprieque catholicum.”
For this reason we preserve in professing the faith
of the primitive Church, as formulated in the oecumenical
symbols and specified precisely by the unanimously
accepted decisions of the Oecumenical Councils held
in the undivided Church of the first thousand years.
2. We therefore reject the decrees of the so-called
Council of the Vatican, which were promulgated July
18th, 1870, concerning the infallibility and the universal
Episcopate of the Bishop of Rome, decrees which are
in contradiction with the faith of the ancient Church,
and which destroy its ancient canonical constitution
by attributing to the Pope the plentitude of ecclesiastical
powers over all Dioceses and over all the faithful.
By denial of this primatial jurisdiction we do not
wish to deny the historical primacy which several
Oecumenical ouncils and Fathers of the ancient Church
have attributed to the Bishop of Rome by recognizing
him as the Primus inter pares.
3. We also reject the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
promulgated by Pius IX in 1854 in defiance of the
Holy Scriptures and in contradiction to the tradition
of the centuries.
4. As for other Encyclicals published by the Bishops
of Rome in recent times for example, the Bulls Unigenitus
and Auctorem fidei, and the Syllabus of 1864, we reject
them on all such points as are in contradiction with
the doctrine of the primitive Church, and we do not
recognize them as binding on the consciences of the
faithful. We also renew the ancient protests of the
Catholic Church of Holland against the errors of the
Roman Curia, and against its attacks upon the rights
of national Churches.
5. We refuse to accept the decrees of the Council
of Trent in matters of discipline, and as for the
dogmatic decisions of that Council we accept them
only so far as they are in harmony with the teaching
of the primitive Church.
6. Considering that the Holy Eucharist has always
been the true central point of Catholic worship, we
consider it our right to declare that we maintain
with perfect fidelity the ancient Catholic doctrine
concerning the Sacrament of the Altar, by believing
that we receive the Body and Blood of our Saviour
Jesus Christ under the species of bread and wine.
The Eucharistic celebration in the Church is neither
a continual repetition nor a renewal of the expiatory
sacrifice which Jesus offered once for all upon the
Cross: but it is a sacrifice because it is the perpetual
commemoration of the sacrifice offered upon the Cross,
and it is the act by which we represent upon earth
and appropriate to ourselves the one offering which
Jesus Christ makes in Heaven, according to the Epistle
to the Hebrews 9:11-12, for the salvation of redeemed
humanity, by appearing for us in the presence of God
(Heb. 9:24). The character of the Holy Eucharist being
thus understood, it is, at the same time, a sacrificial
feast, by means of which the faithful in receiving
the Body and Blood of our Saviour, enter into communion
with one another (I Cor. 10:17).
7. We hope that Catholic theologians, in maintaining
the faith of the undivided Church, will succeed in
establishing an agreement upon questions which have
been controverted ever since the divisions which arose
between the Churches. We exhort the priests under
our jurisdiction to teach, both by preaching and by
the instruction of the young, especially the essential
Christian truths professed by all the Christian confessions,
to avoid, in discussing controverted doctrines, any
violation of truth or charity, and in word and deed
to set an example to the members.
8. By maintaining and professing faithfully the doctrine
of Jesus Christ, by refusing to admit those errors
which by the fault of men have crept into the Catholic
Church, by laying aside the abuses in ecclesiastical
matters, together with the worldly tendencies of the
hierarchy, we believe that we shall be able to combat
efficaciously the great evils of our day, which are
unbelief and indifference in matters of religion.
Source:
Old Catholic Resource Center |
| 1.
The “Union of Utrecht” is a union of churches
and their bishops governing them who are determined
to maintain and pass on the faith, worship, and essential
structure of the undivided Church of the first millennium.
On September 24, 1889, at Utrecht this determination
was recorded in three documents that form the “Convention
of Utrecht”: the “Declaration”, the
“Agreement”, and the “Regulations”.
By their uniting to form a Bishops' Conference, which
other bishops joined later, the full communion of the
Churches represented by them found its expression.
2.
In the “Declaration of Utrecht”, fundamental
for Old Catholic doctrine, the communion of the Union
of Utrecht which came into existence in the context
of the First Vatican Council confesses the catholic
faith as expressed in the Church in the east and west
by the seven Ecumenical Councils. It approves of the
historic precedence of the Bishop of Rome as primus
inter pares, but rejects the papal dogmas of the said
council and a number of other papal pronouncements as
far as they are at variance with the doctrine of the
Ancient Church. It affirms its faith in the essence
and mystery of the Eucharist. Furthermore the Union
of Utrecht shows its awareness of its obligation to
do everything that will help to overcome the divisions
in the Church, and, based on the faith of the undivided
Church, to seek and declare unity and communion with
other Churches.
3.
As has been recognized and expressed ever more clearly
in the course of time, the Union of Utrecht and the
Convention of Utrecht (whose parts “Agreement”
and “Regulations” were revised twice in
1952 and 1974) imply a specific ecclesiology.
3.1 It presupposes that each fellowship and communion
of people, which by the reconciliation in Jesus Christ
and by the outpouring and the continuous work of the
Holy Spirit is constituted as a unity in a given place
around a bishop with the eucharist as its center, is
a complete church that carries out its tasks autonomously
in that given place. Each local church living the common
faith and having its indispensable synodal structures,
uniting the ordained ministry and the laity, which bring
to bear her communion and unity, is a representation
of the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”,
as confessed by the ecumenical creed of Nicaea-Constantinople
(381).
3.2 Each of them is “catholic” because on
the one hand, it participates in the whole reality of
salvation and truth that comprises God and humans, heaven
and earth and finds therein its unity, and because on
the other hand, it is linked in unity and communion
with other local churches, in which it recognizes its
own essence. Thus the catholicity of each local church
becomes manifest in the unity and communion with other
local churches perceived in faith as being identical
in their foundation in the redemptive work of the Triune
God. The unity and communion of local churches in their
supra-diocesan link - i.e., usually in national churches,
ecclesiastical provinces, patriarchates - is a representation
of the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”
as well - however, not as a kind of super-diocese of
supra-regional or even universal dimensions, but as
a communion of episcopally and synodally organized local
churches. It is in this perspective that the relationship
between autonomy of the local church (as to the self-government
in the broadest sense) and supra-local obligation of
each local church (as to the communion of local churches)
should be viewed.
That this unity and communion has for a long time has
not existed universally among all the churches, is a
consequence of human shortcomings and sin, which eclipses
the fact that in Jesus Christ God has reconciled and
called to partnership all humans who hear his call.
This entails the obligation for each church, in obedience
to the will of God and in faithfulness to the common
tradition, to investigate whether existing separations
must continue to be regarded as unavoidable or whether,
on the contrary, its own catholicity should be recognized
in a hitherto separated church.
3.3 Each local church is the Body of Christ in which
the members, baptized and confirmed in the name of the
Holy Trinity and united in the Eucharist, are called,
authorized, and sanctified by the various gifts of the
Holy Spirit to live a multifaceted common life in martyria,
leitourgia, and diakonia. In communion with the other
local churches they are the people of that God who has
elected Israel to be a sign of salvation and has opened
up the blessing promised to Abraham to all peoples in
the power of the Gospel. Being the manifestation of
the renewal of creation that has its origin in Jesus
Christ, it is on the way to its fulfillment which all
its members have to go in repentance and hope.
3.4 In continuity with its soteriological-trinitarian
foundation, the catholicity of the Church is expressed
by those elements and processes which are signified
by the comprehensive term “apostolic succession”.
This means that whatever the Church is doing in word
and sacrament, doctrine and ministry, has and must have
its origin, in space and time, in the mission of Jesus
Christ and the apostles, operated by the Spirit. This
includes preeminently the passing on of the ordained
ministry by prayer and the laying-on of hands. The apostolic
succession of the Church requires the full communion
of the catholic churches that are headed by the bishops
in unison with the college of presbyters and exhibit
a synodal structure. It finds its particularly clear
expression in the ordination of a locally elected bishop
by the other bishops.
4.1
Regarding the Union of Utrecht all this means that it
is primarily the task and service of the bishops to
maintain the catholicity of the church in the unity
of the tradition of faith, to respond to arising new
problems and to take decisions concerning the relationships
to other churches. For they are at the intersection
of primarily belonging, as individuals, to their local
or national church on the one hand, and of taking, as
a college, primary responsibility for the fellowship
and communion of the local and national churches on
the other hand. The conciliar unity and committed communion
of autonomous catholic churches - be they individual
dioceses or national unions of dioceses - is expressed
in the bishops’ synodal assemblies, i.e. the IBC
meetings.
4.2 The reception by the church is a manifestation that
the decisions of the bishops, prepared and taken in
a comprehensive conciliar process, have been initiated
by the Spirit of God and correspond to the will of God
for the mission of his Church. Reception therefore includes
the participation and joint responsibility of the baptized
(clergy and laity) in this process both within each
local or national church (synods or other responsible
organs) and within the Union of Utrecht as a whole.
But being a process led by the Spirit of God, it cannot
comprehensively, let alone conclusively, be put into
juridical terms or mechanical finalization.
5.
Wherever, congruent with the ecumenical self-obligation
of the Union of Utrecht, communion with churches outside
the Union of Utrecht does exist or seems possible and
necessary on account of theological clarifications,
the bishops of the Union have to take care, in consequence
of the explications above, that mutual consultations
be initiated and maintained with these churches.
6.
In order to maintain their communion and to fulfill
common tasks, the bishops of the Union of Utrecht establish,
in accordance with the foundations above, the following
Order and thereafter the required Rules. By doing so
they presuppose that they as well as all the faithful
be led by that mind that has been expressed in the words
of the holy bishops Cyprian of Carthage and Ignatius
of Antioch: Do not decide without the counsel of the
presbyterium and the consent of the people (Ep. 14:4);
do nothing without the bishop (Phld. 7:2). |
