Antiochian Catholic Church in America
The Antiochian Catholic Church in America is an Independent Catholic Church. What sets the ACCA apart from most such Churches is that it espouses the theology and embraces many distinctive practices of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Indian Orthodox Church, from which the clergy of the ACCA claim to derive apostolic succession primarily via the lineage of René Vilatte. The orders of the ACCA are also derived from the Old Catholic movement, in this case by way of Arnold Mathew. The ACCA, however, is not in communion with any of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It ordains women to the diaconate and does not require celibacy of its bishops, allowing them, like priests and deacons, to marry. 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 trinitarian Christianity but is, at the same time, rooted in the Syriac Christian tradition, particularly with regard to such foundational matters as Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and Christian ethics.
The see city of the ACCA is Knoxville, Tennessee. It is led by a metran, or archbishop, Victor Mar Michael Herron. Herron, consecrated bishop in 1991, assumed the office of metran in 1996 upon the retirement of his predecessor and consecrator, Gordon Mar Peter Hurlburt. Herron is assisted by a suffragan bishop, Andreas Mar Cassian Turner.
Turner is the chancellor of the ACCA. Avva Gregory Ned Blevins is the ACCA's Ecumenical and Social Concerns Representative. Amma Caitlin Turner, formerly an itinerant missionary throughout the southeastern United States, is now retired.
