Joris Vercammen

Archbishop Joris Vercammen

Joris August Odilius Ludovicus Vercammen (born October 14, 1952 in Lier , Belgium ) is the sixteenth archbishop emeritus of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands . As Archbishop of the Utrecht Church Province , he was also president of the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Union of Utrecht .

Life

After studying theology, Vercammen was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic diocese of Antwerp in 1979 .

In 1988 he transferred to the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands and worked initially as a pastor in Rotterdam , from 1989 as a pastor in Eindhoven . From 1989 to 1999 he headed the revitalization project for church communities . Since 1996 he has also been a lecturer at the Old Catholic Seminary in Utrecht, where he taught practical theology. At the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht he received his doctorate in 1997 on the subject of community development .

Archbishop of Utrecht

On March 11, 2000, he was elected Archbishop of Utrecht and on July 1, 2000, he was ordained episcopal in Utrecht Cathedral by the Bishop of Haarlem Jan Lambert Wirix-Speetjens ; as co-consecrators seemed the bishops Wiktor Wysoczański (Poland) and Joachim Vobbe (Germany). His motto is: “So that they have life in abundance” ( Jn 10,10  EU ).

In his function as President of the International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference , the Archbishop also regularly visited the member countries of the Union of Utrecht, for example Austria in 2003 and Croatia in 2013. Archbishop Vercammen is very interested in ecumenism, as an example of the establishment of the International Roman-Catholic-Old Catholic Dialogue Commission (IRAD) during his term of office, which was able to start its work in 2004 in accordance with the Pontifical Unity Council Walter Cardinal Kasper .

In 2006 he was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches . Archbishop Vercammen took part in 2008 at the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church, which takes place every 10 years and in which the Union of Utrecht also has a seat and vote.

As the official representative of the Union of Utrecht, the Archbishop was invited to the inauguration of Pope Francis on March 19, 2013. At the private audience on March 20, the new pontiff was presented with a Christian Catholic missal as a sign of spiritual solidarity, and the importance of the international Roman-Catholic-Old Catholic dialogue was emphasized. Also in 2013, he represented the Old Catholic Church at the inauguration of the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby .

Under the leadership of Archbishop Vercammen, the entire International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference was received in a private audience by Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2014.

On January 11, 2020, he resigned from his office as a bishop in a service in St. Gertrudis Cathedral in Utrecht.

Joris Vercammen is married to Hilde Witters, the couple have three children, two sons and a daughter.

Web links

• Website of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands
• Website of the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches

Individual evidence

1. ^ Old Catholic Primate in Austria Website Österreichischer Rundfunk ORF, accessed on December 2, 2013.
2. ^ With two bishops by Croatia Website Union of Utrecht, accessed January 17, 2015.
3. ^ Church and church fellowship. Report of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission. Paderborn and Frankfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-89710-456-3 .
4. ↑ Angela Berlis , Matthias Ring (ed.): Casting anchor in heaven. Conjectures about Church in the Future. Alt-Katholischer Bistumsverlag, Bonn 2008, p. 435.
5. ^ An experience report from the Lambeth conference website Christians Today - Newspaper of Old Catholics, accessed on January 17, 2015.
6. ↑ Inauguration of Pope Francis . Utrecher Union website, accessed April 12, 2013.
7. ↑ Impressions from the enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Christian Catholic Church website, accessed January 17, 2015. 
8. ^ Old Catholic Bishops' Conference: Working visit and private audience in Rome Website of the Utrecher Union, accessed on January 17, 2015.
9. ↑ Pope receives Old Catholics website Vatican Radio, accessed on January 17, 2015.
10. ^ Union of Utrecht - Archbishop Joris Vercammen to retire. Retrieved January 11, 2020 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Antonius Jan Glazemaker	Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht 2000–2020	Bernd Wallet