The History of the Apostolic Catholic Church in America

The story of the Apostolic Catholic Church in America begins not in a cathedral or a seminary, but in a conviction. A conviction that the sacraments of Christ belong to everyone, that the church exists for the margins as much as the center, and that authentic Catholic worship and radical inclusion are not in tension with one another. They are, in fact, inseparable.

Origins: 1984

The ACCA was founded in 1984 as the African Orthodox Church of the Moors by Fathers David Strong, Robert Neuman, and Christopher Reynolds. Its mission was deliberate and specific: to minister to the Black population and to create a sacramental community rooted in both the ancient faith and a commitment to justice and inclusion. From its earliest days the church was welcoming toward homosexuals, a position that was neither common nor without cost in 1984. Social justice was not added to this communion's identity later. It was present at the founding. It was the reason for the founding.

Growth and Transition: 1992 to 1996

The jurisdiction grew through the early 1990s, strengthening its apostolic foundation and expanding its theological identity. In 1994 the church elected its first bishop, placing the ACCA within a line of succession carrying both direct Vatican Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian apostolic authority.

Renamed the Orthodox Catholic Church of the Moor in 1995, the jurisdiction adopted its present name in 1996. The change was a theological statement as much as an administrative one. The church had grown into a genuinely multiethnic and multicultural body, and an emphasis on African origins no longer captured the fullness of who it had become. That same year the ACCA published its own rite of Mass, giving the communion a distinctive liturgical identity rooted in both Catholic tradition and its own particular spirit.

Identity and Mission

The Apostolic Catholic Church in America is an inclusive, multicultural, and affirming communion. It welcomes the divorced and remarried and holds as a foundational principle that all baptized Christians are entitled to the sacraments of Christ's church, without exception and without condition beyond the waters of baptism. It has been affirming of LGBTQ+ persons since its founding, not as a recent accommodation to cultural change but as an expression of its original theological commitments.

The ACCA accepts the teachings of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the ancient creeds, and adheres to scripture and tradition as the inseparable foundation of the faith handed down from the apostles. The church is organized with bishops, priests, and deacons serving alongside a laity recognized as a full and essential expression of ministry in its own right. It practices the seven sacraments and allows both Eastern and Western rites. While grounded in the depth and beauty of Catholic tradition, the ACCA does not use that tradition as a barrier. It meets people where they are.

Leadership and Continuity

The ACCA has been led by a succession of bishops who have carried its founding commitments through periods of growth, transition, and renewal. Among them, Bishop David Strong stands as a defining figure. He served as Presiding Bishop for many years, and his tenure shaped the communion in ways that will outlast his time in office. He was an unwavering champion of social justice, fought for the dignity and full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons when much of the broader church was still debating whether they belonged, and welcomed the marginalized and overlooked not as a program but as a personal and pastoral conviction. He invested deeply in the formation of clergy and laity, stood behind his clergy with loyalty, and never let go of the vision of what this church could be. That is the legacy on which this communion now builds.

The Present

Bishop Ryan Cox now serves as Presiding Bishop of the Apostolic Catholic Church in America. The church does not exist to preserve itself. It exists to love people into the kingdom of God. Under Bishop Cox's leadership the ACCA is committed to being forward thinking in the way Jesus was forward thinking, present, relational, and unafraid of the people everyone else has written off. Tradition is the ground this communion stands on, not the walls it hides behind.

Social justice remains the heartbeat of this jurisdiction. The marginalized, those excluded, diminished, or made to feel invisible by the broader church and by society, are not a ministry footnote. They are the people Jesus went to first, and they are who the ACCA goes to first. The communion is committed to meeting people in worship where they need to be met, and to deepening its inter-communion relationships across the Independent Catholic world, standing alongside partners who share the same commitments to extend the reach of this mission further than any one jurisdiction can reach alone.

The foundation laid in 1984 is strong. The best of what the Apostolic Catholic Church in America can be is still ahead.