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To the Media
On 26 and 27 June 2015, the St. Paul Cathedral of the Lusitanian Church (Anglican Communion), in Lisbon, will host the celebratory event of the 50th anniversary of full communion between the Lusitanian Church, the Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church and the Utrecht Union - Old-Catholic Churches.
The event will have the presence of the Archbishop of Utrecht, Dr. Yoris Vercammen and will be a time of celebration and gathering.
The program, which starts on Friday, 26th June, at 14:30, will have time to contemplate the historical and theological knowledge, the discernment of the same ecclesial identity and time for prayer and joint Eucharist celebration.
It will be presented the theological document "Belonging together in Europe" a joint statement on aspects of ecclesiology and mission produced by the Anglican Old Catholic International Coordinating Council.
Speakers will be Bishop Fernando Soares, Bishop Emeritus of the Lusitanian Church, the Master Antonio Manuel Silva, Anglican Institute of Theological Studies, Bishop Carlos Lopez Lozano, Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church, the Archbishop Joris Vercammen, Union of Utrecht and the theologian Jenny Knudsen.
The event will end on Saturday, June 27, at 15:00 in the Cathedral, with a Mass of Thanksgiving, co-chaired by the Bishops Pina Cabral, Lozano and Vercammen.
It can be found most current information in the Lusitanian Church site: www.igreja-lusitana.org and Facebook: www.facebook.com/igrejalusitana
Diocesan Center of the Lusitanian Church
Communication Department
Apartado 392
4430-003 Vila Nova de Gaia
Portugal
Tel .: (351) 223 754 018 - Direct contact: 914 687 858
E-mail: comunicacao@igreja-lusitana.org
A brief presentation
Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church (Anglican Communion)
It came in the second half of the century. XIX in March 1880, due to the religious and social environment that then lived in Portugal, refuting the dogmas of universal jurisdiction and infallibility of the pope and also the excesses of popular marianismo, advocating reading the Bible for believers, a liturgy in Portuguese government and the Church shared between clergy and laity.
Since 1980 Lusitana Church is a member of the Anglican Communion, with the Metropolitan Authority Archbishop of Canterbury, in his capacity as visible focus of unity that communion.
The Anglican Communion is a family of churches that brings together 84 million people on every continent, in more than 160 countries, and consists of about 39 provinces and autonomous or national churches, heading for themselves, responding to needs and particularities of each people.
The Lusitanian Church has maintained since the 60s of the last century, an ecumenical stance, participating in dialogues, meetings and celebrations with the Roman Catholic Church and other churches.
The Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches
"While the Old Catholic Church of Holland is much older, Catholic or old name" altkatholisch "appeared only in the nineteenth century in the movement of those Catholic Christians from German-speaking countries who protested against what they considered news unauthorized in Catholic ecclesiology . These new features, create them, they were created in the very Roman Catholic Church and concerned the dogma of the immaculate conception of Mary (1854) of infallibility and universal jurisdiction of the pope (First Vatican Council - 1871).
The bishops who founded the Utrecht Union met for this purpose in 1889 in Utrecht. They agreed on a statement in which he exposed what they had in common and formulated the criteria for how to live with each other. Also they made a constitution for the Union of Utrecht, which initially was thought of as an assembly of bishops who informed each other.
Concordat of Full Communion
It was September 22, 1965 the representatives of the Iberian churches at the time, Bishop Luis César Rodrigues Pereira (Lusitanian Catholic Apostolic Evangelical Church) and Bishop Santos Molina (Spanish Episcopal Reformed Church) signed, together with then Mr. Archbishop of Utrecht, D. Andreas Rinkel a concordat of full communion (based on the so-called Bonn Agreement of 1931) which states that:
- Each Church recognizes the catholicity and independence of the other, and maintains its;
- Each church agrees to admit members of the other to participate in the sacraments;
It is also stating herein that "full communion does not require another church acceptance of all doctrinal opinion, sacramental devotion or liturgical practice characteristic, but implies that each believes the other has" what is essential to the Christian faith " .