Is anybody connected to an Indie Catholic Church? Many appear to be quite progressive and I'm specifically interested in the Catholic Church of Antioch. www.churchofantioch.org

Thanks.

I've never heard of independent Catholic Churches, but wow, if you read their principles according to that site, they do sound progressive!

There are actually a number of "Independent Catholic Churches". There was one at one time called the Independent Catholic Churches International that sought to bring them together. Their Bishop Fred Jones was invovled in a number of Progressive Christian projects (media related with people like Spong Reuther and so on). He was dually affiliated with the UCC.

There is the Apostolic Catholic Church that has a number of parishes http://www.apostoliccatholicchurch.com/
They note: "The Apostolic Catholic Church is one of the larger old catholic groups in North American. In contrast to most old catholic/ independent catholic groups the Apostolic Catholic Church has more active communities than it has clergy". They are progressive and diverse.

The Apostolic Catholic Church is a member of the International Council of Community Churches (who along with the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian USA, United Church of Christ and about five or six other make up Churches Uniting in Christ who are working for intercommunion and mutual recognition of ministries).

http://www.icccusa.com/

ICCC is itself a mainline and diverse denomination (if you will pardon the term). They are made up of many independent churches, ministries and missions. Some more conservative than others. ICCC is a member of the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.

{Note: I am not connected to the Apostolic Catholic Church. Thought I would make it plain so it does not look like self promotion for them. I am in a ministry connected to ICCC}. I will see if I can find some other links for you.

There is the Liberal Catholic Church. They seek to maintain valid apostolic succession, etc.

http://members.tripod.com/~LiberalCatholic/

One of their Churches

http://stfrancisliberalcatholicchurch.org/

The United Catholic Church (fairly good size for an Independent Catholic Church):

http://www.united-catholic-church.org/

I recently began as a seminarian in the Contemporary Catholic Church, which is a small and newer jurisdiction within the autocephalous movement: http://www.thecontemporarycatholicchurch.org/

Indie Catholicism is definitely much smaller and more diverse than it's origins in the Old Catholic movement, but I believe in the general premise of the movement - although there are people in the movement as a whole who are a little "quirky" and seem to like little more than being able to say high holy mass in their garage. But among the episcopoi vagantes, I've found people of tremendous spiritual depth.

Peace,
Joel