Our Mission

The Catechesis Institute (formerly the Institute for the Renewal of Christian Catechesis, or IRCC) is a research center that promotes catechesis in the church and in academic research. At present, the main work of the Institute is collating print and digital resources related to the history, theology, and practice of catechesis.  

Above all, the Institute seeks to serve churches in building up believers in the faith so that “we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). Our hope is that through a renewal of catechesis in the church, we may see a renewal of the church’s capacity to bear witness to God’s kingdom and to be a sacrament of Christ’s healing and life-giving power to the world.

Denominational Affiliation

The Catechesis Institute is an ecumenical organization, rooted in the Anglican tradition but seeking to learn from and promote catechesis across denominational traditions. The intent is not to downplay the real differences that exist between such traditions. In fact, sound catechesis can serve the church by making clear where and why such differences exist, leading to more constructive disagreement.

The director’s affiliation is with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), and much of our work comes out of and serves that tradition. Anglicanism at its best seeks to hold in common what the church has held “always, everywhere, and at all times.” There is an ecumenical impulse there that is neither sentimental nor naive, but historically and theologically rooted in the Great Tradition.