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 J. René 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. Independent Catholic Churches are, by and large, very small Churches which claim the traditional Apostolic Succession for their bishops. ... The Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East with members spread throughout the world. ... The Indian Orthodox Church (also known as the Malankara Orthodox Church, Orthodox Church of the East, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Orthodox Syrian Church of the East), is a prominent member of the Oriental Orthodox Church family. ... In Christianity, the doctrine of Apostolic Succession (or the belief that the Church is apostolic) maintains that the Christian Church today is the spiritual successor of the Church of the Apostles. ... Holy Orders in the modern Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, and Independent Catholic Churches, includes three degrees: bishop, priest, and deacon. ... The Old Catholic Church is not so much a religious denomination, as a community, part of whose member churches split from the Roman Catholic church in 1870. ... Bishop Arnold Harris Mathew Arnold Harris Mathew (1852–1919) was the first Old Catholic bishop in the United Kingdom. ... The term Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the churches of Eastern Christian traditions that keeps the faith of only the first three ecumenical councils of the undivided Church - the councils of Nicea, Constantinople and Ephesus. ... Celibacy may refer either to being unmarried or to sexual abstinence. ... This medieval map, which abstracts the known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography. ... Christology is that part of Christian theology that studies and defines who Jesus the Christ was and is. ... In Christianity, salvation is arguably the most important spiritual concept, second only to the divinity of Jesus. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Ethics (from Greek ethikos) is the branch of axiology – one of the four major branches of philosophy, alongside metaphysics, epistemology, and logic – which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to define that which is right from that which is wrong. ...

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 and two deacons), the congregation operates a food bank which serves 30-40 families per month. Another small congregation, St. Elias, worships in nearby Kodak, Tennessee. Eastern view of Knoxville Nickname: The Marble City, K-Town, Big Orange Country, Knox Vegas Motto: {{{motto}}} Official website: http://www. ... Holy Qurbana - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... The Eucharist or Communion or The Lords Supper, is the rite that Christians perform in fulfillment of Jesus instruction, recorded in the New Testament, to do in memory of him what he did at his Last Supper. ...

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. A Modern Prayer Book The Book of Common Prayer is the prayer book of the Church of England and also the name for similar books used in other churches in the Anglican Communion. ...

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)
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church