Joris Vercammen

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Archbishop Joris Vercammen is the current Old Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. Joris August Odilius Ludovicus Vercammen was born in Lier, Belgium, in 1952. In 1979, he was ordained a priest for the Roman Catholic diocese of Antwerp. In 1988, he left the Roman Catholic Church and joined the Old Catholic Diocese of Utrecht. He was principal of the Old Catholic Seminary when clergy and laity of the archdiocese elected him as the 83rd Archbishop of Utrecht. He was consecrated on July 1st 2000 in the former cathedral church of Utrecht, once the see of St Willibrord and his successors, but in the hands of the Dutch Reformed Church since 1580. In 2006, the ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre made Archbishop Joris a member of its central committee. Joris Vercammen is married with three children.