In our Sunday intercessions we regularly pray for our own bishops, Geoffrey Rowell and his suffragan, David Hamid. When we do this, we affirm among other things that we are part of the Anglican Diocese of Europe, with all its 121 "official" chaplaincies, stretching from Las Palmas to Moscow and beyond. Some of you may be puzzled by the regular inclusion, along with Bishops Geoffrey and David, of Fritz-René Müller, Bishop of the "Christkatholische Kirche der Schweiz".
I have left the name of the church untranslated (French-speakers may prefer "Église catholique-chrétienne de la Suisse") because in the mess of our Christian divisions, the name "Christian Catholic" has been taken by a Canadian sect. The "official" translation, "Christ Catholic" is not (to my mind at least) a good one, and the alternative, "Old Catholic", ignores the fact that our Swiss sister church has chosen its name deliberately as something different from "Altkatholisch" (or "vieille-catholique").
So what is this church, and why are they "our sister church"? The Swiss, German and Austrian branches broke away from the Roman Catholic church shortly after 1870, when the first Vatican Council made a number of statements about the power of the Pope, including the declaration of Papal Infallibility. They received support at this time from a number of churches, including our own Anglican church, and in particular from the Dutch Old Catholic Church. The Dutch had separated from Rome in 1724 in a dispute centred on free will and ethical choice which we in the 21st century would find almost incomprehensible.
In time, the Swiss, German, Austrian and Dutch churches drew together in the Declaration of Utrecht, agreed in 1889. Later, groups from within the Polish and Croatian churches joined them. They shared a common faith, rejecting most of what they saw as the "excesses" of Roman Catholic dogma - an over-institutionalized view of authority, an over-mechanical definition of the way Christ is present in the Eucharist, an exaggerated view of Jesus' mother's place in the process of salvation, and an over-precise view of the path to be followed among moral choices.
In Switzerland, the division led to some Roman Catholic church buildings being given to the new church - in Berne, the Petrus- und Pauluskirche was transferred, though the main centre of the church was in the cantons of Aargau and Basel-Landschaft.
The churches of the "Utrecht Union" remain true to their origins. But, because of their origin in dissent (and dissent over issues which are not exactly topical today!!), they lack the attraction of the main state churches, and depend partly on the charisma of their ministers. They are thinly spread, much as we Anglicans are thinly spread.
In July 1931, the Church of England entered into "full communion" with the Old Catholics, on the basis of an agreement signed at Bonn. This means that we recognize each other's ministry and are happy to share with each other in the sacraments. This was the culmination of a process which had started, as mentioned above, in 1870, and which had been strengthened by the formation of the Willibrord Society in England in 1908, to foster good relations between the two churches.
But the process did not end in 1931. Today there is greater need than ever for churches to work together, and the Swiss Willibrord Society was formed a couple of years ago to look for fields where we can co-operate: mission, charitable work, use of staff and buildings (the church at Göttibach in Thun, built as an Anglican church, given to our sister church, but now served by Lars Simpson, an Anglican priest working for the Old Catholics, is a good example), youth work, publicity, all are openings where we can work together, as sisters, as partners, without losing our own talents and identities. May God show us the way forward.
HD