Forming Clergy for the Ancient Faith. Free of Charge. Open to All Who Are Called.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Old Catholic Institute is the official seminary of the Old Catholic Churches International, founded in 2015 to provide rigorous, theologically grounded formation for men and women called to ordained ministry in the Dutch Old Catholic tradition. We are a fully online, self-paced seminary offering graduate-level theological education at no cost to our students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We exist because we believe that a genuine call from God should never be turned away for lack of funds. Too many men and women who are truly called to serve the Church have been unable to pursue ordination simply because they cannot afford the cost of seminary education. The Old Catholic Institute was founded to change that. Every course, every resource, and every element of our formation programs is free. Always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Old Catholic Churches International stands in the tradition of the ancient Catholic Church as it was preserved and transmitted through the Church of Utrecht, which has maintained its independence from Rome since at least 1122. We hold the faith of the undivided Church: the seven sacraments, the threefold order of bishop, priest, and deacon in apostolic succession, the authority of the seven Ecumenical Councils, and the patristic consensus as the norm of Christian doctrine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not Roman Catholic. We are not Protestant. We are Old Catholic, holding the ancient faith as it was held before the divisions of the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, and proclaiming it to a worldwide community of clergy and faithful. The OCCI is a global body with no connection to the Union of Utrecht, carrying forward the Dutch Old Catholic tradition in a form that is accessible, inclusive, and faithful to the apostolic heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Old Catholic Institute is not an academic institution in the conventional sense, and we make no apology for that. We are not accredited by any regional or national accrediting body, and we do not seek accreditation. Our focus is not on producing academics. Our focus is on forming quality clergy: men and women who know the Scriptures, who can celebrate the sacraments with theological understanding and pastoral sensitivity, who can preach with fidelity and care, and who are prepared to serve real communities with real needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our curriculum is rigorous. It is grounded in the biblical text, the Church Fathers, and the theological tradition of the Dutch Old Catholic Church. Students engage graduate-level coursework in Scripture, systematic theology, liturgics, sacramental theology, homiletics, and pastoral care. They complete supervised practica that bring their formation into direct contact with ministry. They write research papers, sit for examinations, and are held to a high standard throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the measure of that standard is always pastoral and ecclesial, not academic. We ask not whether a student can write a publishable article, but whether they are ready to stand at the altar, preach the Word, accompany the dying, and care for a congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bishop Greer Godsey serves as the Presiding Bishop of the Old Catholic Churches International and as the sole instructor and formation director of the Old Catholic Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1979 into a Roman Catholic family, Bishop Godsey spent their childhood and youth moving through many expressions of the Christian faith, including Pentecostal, Holiness, Southern Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, and independent communities across Kentucky. This early breadth of experience gave them a deep appreciation for the variety of Christian witness and a searching mind that would eventually lead them toward the ancient Catholic tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1999, Bishop Godsey had begun to question a call to the priesthood within the Roman church, finding themselves unable to reconcile their convictions with the magisterium’s positions on clerical celibacy, papal infallibility, and closed communion. That searching brought them to the Independent Sacramental Movement, and ultimately to the Old Catholic tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2002, Bishop Godsey co-founded the Ancient Apostolic Communion alongside Bishop John A. Parker Jr., Fr. David S. Jennings, and other clergy, serving communities and producing theological work that received recognition across the movement and in mainstream denominations. Following a period of consolidation and growth, that communion merged into what would become the Old Catholic Apostolic Church. In 2012, Bishop Godsey was installed as the first Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, serving Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In May of 2015, following the departure of the founding Presiding Bishop, Bishop Godsey was elected and installed as the second Presiding Bishop. Under their leadership, the church voted to rename itself the Old Catholic Churches International, and in that same year Bishop Godsey founded the Old Catholic Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bishop Godsey has served as an on-call hospital chaplain at Augusta University Health Systems in Augusta, Georgia, bringing sacramental and pastoral care to patients and families in moments of profound need. They are the Senior Pastor of Saint Francis Parish and Outreach in Augusta, a parish whose mission reaches the homeless, the marginalized, and the LGBTQIA+ community through direct service, including nutrition and toiletry outreach to those experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bishop Godsey is the founding editor of Convergent Streams, a publication serving the Independent Sacramental Movement, and the founder of the Independent Sacramental Movement Database. They are a passionate advocate for social justice, inclusion, and the conviction that all people bear the image of God and deserve to be treated accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They bring to the Old Catholic Institute not only theological learning and episcopal experience, but the kind of pastoral formation that comes from actually doing the work: serving the poor, sitting with the dying, preaching Sunday after Sunday, and caring for communities on the margins. That is the formation they intend to pass on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more about the Old Catholic Institute, to inquire about our programs, or to begin a vocational discernment conversation with Bishop Godsey, please visit our Contact page or use the application form to begin the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Church needs the ministers God is calling. We are here to help form them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Old Catholic Institute, Seminary of the Old Catholic Churches International<\/em>, was founded in 2015 | oldcatholicinstitute.org<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About the Old Catholic Institute Forming Clergy for the Ancient Faith. Free of Charge. Open to All Who Are Called. Who We Are The Old Catholic Institute is the official seminary of the Old Catholic Churches International, founded in 2015 to provide rigorous, theologically grounded formation for men and women called to ordained ministry in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-38","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/38\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldcatholicinstitute.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nWho We Are<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOur Tradition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nOur Approach to Formation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAbout Bishop Greer Godsey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nContact and Inquiries<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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