Declaration of Utrecht
Declaration of Utrecht
A foundational Old Catholic witness to the faith of the ancient Church
Issued in 1889 by bishops gathered at Utrecht, the Declaration of Utrecht stands as one of the defining statements of Old Catholic principle. It speaks with clarity about the faith of the undivided Church, the proper place of episcopal ministry, the centrality of the Holy Eucharist, and the duty of Christians to hold truth together with charity.
For Old Catholic Churches International, this declaration remains a vital witness to catholic continuity. It reflects a Church rooted in the ancient faith, serious about sacramental life, and committed to Christian unity without surrendering fidelity to the gospel once delivered to the saints.
The declaration is not merely a historical artifact. It is a living testimony to the kind of Church Old Catholics have sought to be: ancient in faith, reverent in worship, ordered in ministry, and charitable in spirit.
Ancient faith
The declaration grounds itself in the faith of the ancient and undivided Church, received through the ecumenical symbols and the common witness of the first millennium.
Sacramental life
It affirms the Holy Eucharist as the true focal point of catholic worship and maintains the ancient doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar.
Truth and charity
It calls the Church to speak truthfully, reject error, and yet conduct itself toward others in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
The heart of the declaration
The bishops at Utrecht declared their adherence to the principle of Saint Vincent of Lérins: that the Church should hold what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. From that foundation, they affirmed the faith of the ancient Church and the dogmatic witness of the ecumenical councils of the undivided Church.
They also rejected later doctrinal claims and ecclesiastical developments which, in their judgment, contradicted that earlier catholic inheritance. At the same time, they did not present themselves as enemies of the wider Church, but as bishops seeking to exercise their ministry in continuity with the ancient order and with due reverence for the truth.
In this way, the declaration is both confessional and pastoral: a statement of principle, but also a call to integrity in the life of the Church.
Principal affirmations
Faith of the undivided Church
The declaration affirms the ancient Church as the measure of catholic faith and places special weight on the ecumenical symbols and councils of the first millennium.
Historic primacy, not universal domination
While rejecting later claims concerning papal infallibility and universal plenitude of power, the declaration still acknowledges the historic primacy of the Bishop of Rome as primus inter pares.
The Holy Eucharist
The Eucharist is confessed as the true focal point of worship, and the faithful are said truly to receive the Body and Blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine.
Christian unity with charity
The bishops urge clergy to emphasize the truths Christians hold in common and to avoid violating either truth or charity in dealing with those from different confessions.
Fidelity against error and indifference
The declaration ends with a call to preserve the teaching of Jesus Christ, reject errors and abuses, and answer unbelief not with novelty, but with faithful witness.
An Old Catholic voice
The Declaration of Utrecht speaks in a distinctly Old Catholic register: deeply rooted in the Church’s ancient inheritance, sober about ecclesiastical excess, firm in sacramental theology, and hopeful about Christian unity. It does not imagine a Church cut off from the past, nor a Church reduced to modern opinion. Rather, it calls the Church back to what is ancient, catholic, and true.
That is why this document still matters. It helps explain the theological instincts and ecclesial posture that continue to shape Old Catholic identity in the present.
Opening words
In nomine ss. Trinitatis
Johannes Heykamp, Archbishop of Utrecht; Casparus Johannes Rinkel, Bishop of Haarlem; Cornelius Diependaal, Bishop of Deventer; Joseph Hubert Reinkens, Bishop of the Old Catholic Church of Germany; and Eduard Herzog, Bishop of the Christian-Catholic Church of Switzerland, assembled at Utrecht on 24 September 1889, after invocation of the Holy Spirit, addressed their declaration to the Catholic Church.
They stated that they had come together to summarize the ecclesiastical principles upon which they had exercised and would continue to exercise their episcopal ministry.
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Related faith pages
The Declaration of Utrecht belongs within the wider life of OCCI’s faith, sacramental theology, and catholic identity.
Questions
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If you would like help understanding the Declaration of Utrecht or its place within Old Catholic life and teaching, we invite you to contact us directly.
A final word
The Declaration of Utrecht remains one of the clearest historic expressions of Old Catholic conviction. It is ancient in its orientation, sacramental in its vision, episcopal in its order, and ecumenical in its hope.
For that reason, it belongs not at the margins but near the center of any serious presentation of Old Catholic faith.