Antiochian Catholic Church in America

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The Antiochian Catholic Church in America or the ACCA, is one of the Independent Catholic Churches. The ACCA is distinct from most such Churches in that it largely embraces the theology and much of the practice of the Syriac Orthodox Church and that of its daughter Church, the Indian Orthodox Church, from which the ACCA primarily derives its apostolic succession via the lineage of Joseph Rene Vilatte. The clergy of the ACCA also derive their Holy Orders from the Old Catholic movement, in this case through Arnold Harris Mathew. However, the ACCA is not in full communion with the Oriental Orthodox Churches because it ordains women and because it does not require celibacy of its bishops, allowing them, like priests and deacons, to be married. The ACCA states that its approach to theology and practice is a process of "critical reappropriation" which is open to influences from all sectors of Christendom but is, at the same time, firmly grounded in the Syriac Christian tradition, particularly with regard to such basic matters as Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and ethics.

The current See City of the ACCA is Knoxville, Tennessee. It is led by a Metran, or Archbishop, Victor Mar Michael Herron (consecrated 1990, Metran since 1996), who is the pastor of St. Demetrios Antiochian Catholic Church. While attendance at the Sunday Qurbana (Eucharist) at St. Demetrios is small, averaging around 13 people (including the bishop, a priest, and a deacon), the congregation operates a food bank which serves up to 50 persons per month. Another small congregation, St. Elias, worships in nearby Kodak, Tennessee.

Another small congregation, Epiphany Fellowship, of nearby Powell, Tennessee, affiliated with the ACCA in late 2005. It worships according to the Anglican Rite of the American Book of Common Prayer of 1979.

[edit] External links

• Unofficial ACCA website Owned and maintained by Fr. Gregory Ned Blevins, the Ecumenical and Social Concerns Representative of the ACCA.
• Antiochian Catholic Publications Contains most of the ACCA liturgy, a variant of the Syriac Rite. Owned and maintained by Chorepiscopus Andreas Turner, ACCA Chancellor.
• Newspaper article concerning St. Demetrios (Registration is required but it is free)