We’re part of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, which is part of the international Old Catholic Church. Don’t let the ‘old’ throw you off though – it means ‘connected to the church of all time’, not ‘conservative’. Quite the contrary: we want to connect to the world as it is today, and be an open and inviting community where everyone is welcome, irrespective of your background, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or any other division people have created over the ages.
The ‘catholic’ in our name means ‘general’ or ‘universal’ – we connect to the universal church, composed of all churches worldwide, and are strong proponents for the ecumenical movement. Of course, that does not mean that everyone should be the same, we also celebrate diversity.
We hold to the tenet that no-one can prescribe what someone should believe – each person’s convictions are their own. As such, we have no dogmas. However, we are inspired by the motto that ’truly catholic’ is ’that which has been believed by everyone, everywhere and always’. It is no easy task defining what exactly falls under that category, and searching for it is part of our life journey.
In style, we resemble the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. We celebrate mass on Sundays and some high feast days. Our English services of evensong and evening prayer follow formats also followed in Anglican churches. Within those formats however, we have the freedom to make choices fitting to the local church and community.
In addition to the liturgy we celebrate in our services, we also highly favor the community – including the ‘eighth sacrament’, the meeting after the service.
While our church is episcopal (i.e., we have bishops), a bishop is elected, not appointed. Moreover, the bishops govern the church not only jointly with each other, but also with the synod, a meeting of representatives of all parish churches. The local church is led by a priest, but again jointly with a board composed of members of the community.