Ecumenical Relations

As well as enjoying our fellowship with other Anglicans in the Netherlands, our church is committed to furthering Ecumenical relations with our brothers and sisters in other Christian denominations and to dialogue with other faith communities in Utrecht.  This engagement also challenges us to discover what are the unique contributions in thought and spiritual practice that Anglicans can bring to the wider Church and to those of other faiths.

We have two Ecumenical Representatives from our Church Council – Henk Korff and Sandra Sue – who participate in various inter-church bodies and our chaplain also participates in inter-church worship services and gatherings.  Henk is the chairman of the USRK (Utrechtse Stedelijke Raad van de Kerken – which means, Utrecht Ecumenical Council of Churches).

Henk Korff is also currently the Anglican representative to the Netherlands’ National Council of Churches (or Raad van Kerken in Nederlands).

Locally, we enjoy meeting for worship and other creative ways of sharing the gospel in the community with the two other local churches in our neighbourhood:  Wilhelminakerk (PKN) and St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church.  We also meet with our Old Catholic brothers and sisters in Utrecht for shared services and have joined in pilgrimages together.

Since 1931 the Church of England has had a special relationship of full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht.  For seven years Maryon Jagers, from our congregation and Church Council, has been one of the Anglican representatives in the Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council (AOCICC).  (See also the Willibrord Society.)  The Bonn Agreement expresses three principles:

  1. Each communion recognizes the catholicity and independence of the other and maintains its own.
  2. Each communion agrees to admit members of the other communion to participate in the sacraments.
  3. Full communion 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 Church of England also has special relations with Nordic Lutheran Churches through the Porvoo Agreement signed in 1992.  The close ties began in 1938 and the Porvoo Agreement is the result of the development of that relationship.  For the full statement in English of our relations with these churches, see the Porvoo website, (other language translations of the Agreement are also available there).

For upcoming ecumenical events check out our latest newsletter on the Newsletters page.