The Old Catholic Church is very much a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith referenced in the Nicene Creed. The Old Catholic Church is One, as its member communities believe in the One Triune God and in Jesus Christ, Who is the Head of the Church. It is Holy because its Founder, our Lord Jesus Christ is Holy. Furthermore, its mission, the salvation of humankind is Holy, achieved through the Sacraments, which are Holy institutions. This Church is Catholic or Universal, as it adheres to and teaches the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ as He left it. This Gospel is everlasting and unchanging. Finally, the Old Catholic Church is Apostolic, as its spirit of instruction, authority and institutions are founded in the Apostolic traditions.

Old Catholics are a historic part of the ancient Catholic Church of the Netherlands. The area of Europe known as the Low Countries was missionized by St. Willibrord in the Seventh Century, who firmly established the Catholic Faith and Tradition in the Netherlands and other countries in that region. Initially, three principal dioceses were established in the cities of Utrecht, Deventer and Haarlem to administer the affairs of the Church in the territory. Utrecht eventually became the archepiscopal See with supervision over Deventer and Haarlem.

Following the First Vatican Council in 1870, a considerable dissent arose among Catholics, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, over the dogma of papal infallibility. These dissenters, while holding the Church in General Council to be infallible, could not accept the proposition that the Pope, acting alone, in matters of faith and morals is infallible. As a result, many formed independent communities that came to be known as Old Catholic. They are called Old Catholic because they sought to adhere to the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church reflected in the post-Apostolic era, that is, the first two centuries of the early Church. The Old Catholic communities came under the authority of the Archbishop of Utrecht who consecrated their first bishops.

We affirm and profess the Nicene, Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds as ancient, true and sufficient statements of the Christian Faith. These express our belief in one God in Three Persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Anything outside of this is heresy. We believe, along with our Orthodox brethren, that the addition of the Filioque (the assertion that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son) in the Nicene Creed is an inovation and not part of the original text of the Creed as it was solemnly and infallibly approved by all of Christendom in Ecumenical Council. We therefore omit the Filioque when reciting the Nicene Creed.

The Rule of Faith of the Old Catholics is steadfast devotion to the Sacred Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, and the declarations and doctrinal formulations of the Ecumenical Councils held prior to the Great Schism between the Churches of the West (Rome) and East (Constantinople) in 1054 AD. We declare our belief in the dogmatic decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Ancient and undivided Christian Church (the Council of Nicea in 325, the Council of Constantinople in 381, the Council of Ephesus in 431, the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Second Council of Constantinople in 533, the Third Council of Constantinople in 680 and the Second Council of Nicea in 787) to be infallible and therefore binding on all Orthodox Christian Catholics. That is not to say that certain dogmatic decrees proclaimed and taught by the See of Rome are unworthy of belief, just that they are not binding on all of Christendom.

In order for the Church to perform its Salvific mission, Christ entrusted the ministry to His Apostles. This is a divine right. This ministry is transmitted by the imposition of hands and with the invocation of the Holy Spirit. All the faithful participate in a general priesthood which they receive through Baptism and Confirmation.

We believe that Christ's death and resurrection liberate us from sin. His actions enable us to enter into a divine alliance. The Sacramental life of the Church continues Christ's salvific work on our behalf. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, we become co-operators with God, on Whose authority we share in His life and divine action, and are made holy. We comply with salvation through faith, faith which manifests itself in love.

All members of the Church are saints by the grace of Christ. Among these are individuals who have distinguished themselves and attained a level of perfection. The Church venerates them, celebrates their memory. In particular, we profess the doctrine proclaimed by the third ecumenical council that Mary is the virgin Mother of God, entitling her to special veneration and love.

The Sacraments of the Old Catholic Church are: Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The most important of these are Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.

We believe that Baptism in the Trinitarian formula is the first and foremost Sacrament of Christian Initiation. Baptism is birth into the new life of Christ. In accordance with the Lord's will, it is necessary for salvation (Matthew 3:11, Acts 2:38 and 22:13-16, Romans 6:3-4, and 1 Peter 3:20-21), as is the Church itself, which we enter by Baptism. The fruit of Baptism, or Baptismal grace is a rich reality that includes the forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which a person becomes an adoptive child of the Father, a member of the Body of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person Baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ. Since earliest times, Baptism has been administered to children (sometimes called Christening), for it is a grace and a gift of God that does not presuppose any human merit. Children are baptized in the faith of the Church. Entry into Christian life gives access to true freedom. Those who die for the Faith, those who are Catechumens, and all those who without knowing of the Church, but acting under the inspiration of Grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill His will, are saved even if they have not been water Baptized. The reference here is to Baptism of desire and Baptism of blood.

We affirm that Baptism, the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, whose unity must be safeguarded. The reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of Baptismal Grace (Acts 8:14-17). Confirmation perfects Baptismal Grace. It is the Sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the Divine filliation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian Faith in words and deeds.

We affirm that the Eucharist is the heart and the summit of the Church's life, for in it Christ associates His Church and all her members with His sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving offered once for all on the Cross to His Father. By this sacrifice He pours out the graces of salvation on His Body which is the Church. The Holy Eucharist completes Christian Initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation participate with the whole community in the Lord's own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic celebration always includes: the proclamation of the Word of God; thanksgiving to God the Father for all His benefits, above all the gift of His Son; the consecration of bread and wine; and participation in the liturgical banquet by receiving the Lord's Body and Blood. These elements constitute one single act of worship. We believe in the REAL Presence of the Holy Eucharist. We believe that Christ becomes truly, really, and substantially present in the consecrated Bread and Wine - Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. We believe that the Orthodox definition of Mysterion best describes this Divine Mystery. For such an intimate and Divine Grace cannot be explained or made subject to human logic and chemistry. Because Christ Himself is present in the sacrament of the altar, He is to be honored with the worship of adoration. To visit the Blessed Sacrament is a proof of gratitude, an expression of love and a duty of adoration toward Christ our Lord.

Penance is the sacrament through which those who have faith and desire to repent, receive pardon for all sins committed since their Baptism. This sacrament is administered in the form of a general confession of the people in the presence of a priest, or in private confession between penitent and a priest. Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

We affirm the Sacrament of Holy Unction or Anointing of the Sick, which has as its purpose the conferral of a special grace on the Christian experiencing the difficulties inherent in the condition of grave illness or old age. "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven" (James 5:14-15).

We affirm the sanctity and indissolubility of Christian Marriage. The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature, it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as being the normative state for the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament. The Sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved His Church. The grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life. We, therefore, affirm that divorce is not in accordance with the Word of God except for reasons of marital unfaithfulness (Matthew 19:1-9). Within this meaning, divorce is not generally an impediment to remarriage and does not bar one from the reception of the Sacraments. This differs from the Roman Catholic position on this matter; but agrees completely with the Greek Orthodox Churches. This means that this was also the position of the Church of Rome prior to the Great Schism.

We affirm that Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to His Apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of Apostolic Ministry. It includes three grades or degrees: Episcopate, Presbyterate and Diaconate. "Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them, one cannot speak of the Church." (St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch and Martyr, c.AD 107). The ministerial priesthood differs in essence from the common priesthood of the faithful because it confers a sacred power for the service of the faithful. The ordained ministers exercise their service for the People of God by teaching, divine worship, and pastoral governance.

We affirm that the efficacy of the Sacraments and the Grace of God's Gifts received therein are not in any way hindered or diminished by the unworthiness or the sinfulness of those ordained to minister them.

The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay People, for both parts of the Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian people alike.

We believe that any Catholic or Orthodox Christian who has been baptized and chrismated in any jurisdiction of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and who believes in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Divine Mysteries, may receive communion.


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