Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches | |
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Abbreviation | UU |
Classification | Old Catholic |
Theology | Ultrajectine |
Governance | Episcopal |
Leader | Archbishop Joris Vercammen, Metropolitan of Utrecht |
Associations | Anglican Communion (since 1931) |
Region | Europe |
Headquarters | Utrecht, Netherlands |
Origin | September 1889 Utrecht, Netherlands |
Separated from | Roman Catholic Church |
Members | 73,600 |
Official website | utrechter-union |
The Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches (UU) is a federation of Old Catholic churches, nationally organised from 1870 schisms which rejected Roman Catholic doctrines of the First Vatican Council; its member churches are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The 1889 is one of three founding documents together called the Convention of Utrecht. The UU is in full communion with the Anglican Communion through the 1931 Bonn Agreement; and, with the Philippine Independent Church, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church, and the Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church through a 1965 extension of the Bonn Agreement. As of 2016,[update] the UU includes six member churches: the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands (OKKN), the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany, the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, the Old Catholic Church of Austria, the Old Catholic Church of the Czech Republic, and the Polish Catholic Church in Poland.