Joris Vercammen
Joris Vercammen (* 1952 in Lier, Belgium, middle names: August Odilius Ludovicus ) is the sixteenth archbishop of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands and as Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Utrecht also President of the International Bishops Conference of the Union of Utrecht.
Life
Vercammen was ordained a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Antwerp to the study of theology in 1979.
In 1988, he stepped over to the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands, and was first in Rotterdam, from 1989 as a parish priest in Eindhoven active. From 1989 to 1999 he headed the revitalization project for church communities. Since 1996 he was a lecturer at the Old Catholic Seminary in Utrecht, where he taught practical theology. At the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, he earned his doctorate in 1997 on the subject of church growth.
On March 11, 2000, he was elected Archbishop of Utrecht and received on 1 July 2000 in the cathedral of Utrecht consecrated bishop by the Bishop of Haarlem January Lambert Wirix - Speetjens; as co-consecrators had the bishops Viktor Wysoczański (Poland ) and Joachim Vobbe ( Germany ).
Dr. Vercammen is very interested in the ecumenical movement, as an example, the equipment was during his tenure of the International Roman Catholic - Old Catholic Dialogue Commission ( IRAD ) mentioned that could begin its work in accordance with the Pontifical Christian Unity Cardinal Walter Kasper in 2004.
In 2006 he was elected to the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.
As the official representative of the Union of Utrecht, the archbishop was invited to the inauguration of Pope Francis on March 19, 2013. In the private audience on March 20, the new pontiff a Christian Catholic Missal was presented as a sign of spiritual connectedness, furthermore, the importance of the International Roman Catholic was - Old Catholic dialogue emphasized.
He is married to Hilde Witters, the couple has three children, two sons and a daughter.
His motto is: "That they may have life in abundance " (John 10:10 EU)