Willibrord Society
Encyclopedia
The Willibrord Society is an umbrella term for a group of national societies with the aim of promoting awareness and cooperation between Anglicans
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 and Old Catholics
Old Catholic Church
The term Old Catholic Church is commonly used to describe a number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of Papal Infallibility...

. There are currently active Willibrord Societies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 and the United States. The aim is achieved through publications, meetings, special events and church services, and common projects in such fields as liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

, youth work, charity giving, encouraging representation at synod
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...

s and other events. The British SSW currently supports the Anglican Chaplaincy at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, in which Old Catholics are also involved.

The name recalls St Willibrord
Willibrord
__notoc__Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands...

, the English missionary who acted as "Apostle to the Frisians," and was consecrated the first bishop of Utrecht in 695. Most national societies organize special events and services to coincide with St Willibrord's Day, 7 November.

History

The English Society of St Willibrord was founded in 1908 with the aim of fostering closer relations between the Church of England and the Old Catholic Church. Its activities were at first aimed at promoting full communion
Full communion
In Christian ecclesiology, full communion is a relationship between church organizations or groups that mutually recognize their sharing the essential doctrines....

 between the two churches, which came about in the Bonn Agreement
Bonn Agreement (religion)
The Bonn Agreement of 1931 is a document that established full communion between the Church of England and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, including the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands...

 of 1931. In 2009, it was decided to include the Celtic Churches (the Episcopal Church of Scotland; the Church of Ireland and Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru / the Church in Wales, too. It is now the British Society of St Willibrord.

It has as its patrons the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

 and the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

 (of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands
Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands
The Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands; , is the mother church related to the Old Catholic Churches. It is sometimes called Ancient Catholic Church, Church of Utrecht or Dutch Roman Catholic Church of the Old Episcopal Order...

). The Bishop of Lichfield is itts Chairman.

External links

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