Anglican Catholic Church

The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) is a body of Anglican Christians in the continuing Anglican movement, separate from the Anglican Communion centered on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The continuing Anglican movement, and the Anglican Catholic Church, grew out of the 1977 Congress of St. Louis. The congress was held in response to the Episcopal Church's revision of the Book of Common Prayer, which organizers felt abandoned a true commitment to both scripture and historical Anglicanism. The decision to allow the ordination of women was one part of a larger theological position opposed by the Congress. As a result of the Congress, various Anglicans separated from the Episcopal Church and formed the "Anglican Church in North America" in order to continue the Anglican tradition as they understood it. The name was later changed to the Anglican Catholic Church. Its adherents have therefore claimed that this church is the true heir of the Church of England in the United States.

The Congress's statement of principles (the "Affirmation of St. Louis") summarized the new church's reason for being as follows: “…the Anglican Church of Canada and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by their unlawful attempts to alter Faith, Order and Morality (especially in their General Synod of 1975 and General Convention of 1976), have departed from Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”