The Utrecht Cathedral grows as former Old Catholic center declines

(Netherlands) Church News Netherlands Reports: St. Agnes in Egmond,  has the largest concentration of Old Catholics, but it has the lowest Mass attendance out of all Old Catholic parishes in the Netherlands. Utrecht is a more ancient Catholic Mecca than Egmond, evidenced by statistics from the Old Catholic Church (OKKN).

Egmond is a historic center of the OKKN. Nearly one in five people in the North Sea coastal towns of Egmond and Alkmaar are Old Catholics. In 2009, the parish in Egmond had 981 Old Catholics, yet,  only 7% attend weekly Mass, which is the lowest number of all twenty nine Old Catholic parishes in the Netherlands. Nationally, 18% percent of all Old Catholic attend church on a weekly basis.

The loss of members in Egmond is also dramatically high: over the last five years the parish lost 9% of its members. Nationally, Old Catholic parishes lost only 5% of its members. In the last five years, half of the Old Catholic parishes have encountered substantial growth while some smaller parishes are struggling to stay open. 

Egmond is perhaps not the Old Catholic stronghold as of old. Therefore we may look to Utrecht, where the seat of Archbishop Joris Vercammen is located. The parish has 350 members there, but on Sunday there are over one hundred parishioners in the cathedral of St. Gertrude. In no other parish are people so faithful to the church. Parishioners donate on average 262 euros per year to the church. That's a big difference from the situation in Egmond, although some parishes receive even more generous donations.
 
There are 5,500 Old Catholics in the Netherlands. The Synod of the Church is gathering tomorrow, Saturday, November 20  in Hilversum. Let us pray for the success of the Synod.