The Liberal Catholic Apostolic Church

The Church stands in a long tradition of educational outreach through its antecedents the Catholic Apostolic Church (Catholicate of the West), the Free Protestant Episcopal Church and the Pre-Nicene Gnostic Catholic Church, each of which had its own universities or academies operated for the benefit both of ordinands and the general public, primarily via correspondence-based learning.

Mar Georgius writes on this topic, "Universities and academic degrees were originally of ecclesiastical institution, brought into being as part of the fulfilment of the Church's commission to teach all nations. In more recent times the State has trespassed upon the ecclesiastical prerogative, and has set up secular academic institutions. Where there is an established Church, such as in England, all State educational institutions are, at least to some extent, somewhat flavoured by the dominant religion. In England, for example, there is an Anglican atmosphere hanging around the established universities, though today it may be less marked than formerly. Secular schools too, as any Roman Catholic will testify, have either an Anglican or non-religious ethos. A rite which does not adhere to the principles of the dominant church, or with those of secularism, cannot safely entrust its children, or the academic training of its clergy, to institutions such as these, and the only alternative is to establish its own, imperfect though they may be. This it has a perfect right to do, and so far from being attacked on this score, should be applauded for its courageous efforts in furtherance of its principles, even by those who may say that they disagree with these." (Mar Georgius: Episcopi in Ecclesia Dei and Father Brandreth, p40).  

The Catholic Apostolic Church under Mar Georgius chartered the Western Orthodox Academy on 1 August 1945 in succession to the former University of Sulgrave, and this was incorporated along with the CAC as the Western Orthodox University in India under Act XXI of 1860 on 20 February 1950, with its degrees being known as "Glastonbury degrees" after Mar Georgius' see. Mar Georgius also chartered the Universite Philotechnique Internationale, founded under Primate Heard and later under the charge of Richard, Duc de Palatine, and the St John University in India was also part of his Catholicate. He was Chancellor of The International University.

The Free Protestant Episcopal University was founded in 1897 under Bishop Primus Leon Checkemian and until 1967 was based in Tottenham, north London, under Bishop Primus Charles Boltwood. This institution was also associated with St Andrew's Ecumenical Research Foundation, which sponsored theological and other enquiry.

Two Nazarene Colleges have existed from a common foundation in 1890 by Archbishop James Martin, one allied to the FPEC, and the other chartered de novo in 1953 by Mar Georgius (who mistakenly believed he had inherited the original body) in favour of Richard, Duc de Palatine, of the Pre-Nicene Gnostic Catholic Church.

Archbishop Bertil Persson, Emeritus Primate of the Apostolic Episcopal Church, was co-founder in 1974 of St. Ephrem's Institute for Eastern Church Studies with the Revd. Professor Yousef Said (Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate) and Archbishop Dr. Daniel Moody, which recognised achievement principally at the postgraduate level in theology and related disciplines until its closure in 2008. Its work has included the promotion of the study of Aramaic and the assistance of refugees from the Middle East following war in Kurdistan. It has also published much in the way of scholarly work on the independent churches.

St David's Oecumenical Institute of Divinity was founded in 1985 by Archbishops Viktor Schoonbroodt of the Religious Society of the Good Shepherd of the Catholic Orthodox Patriarchate of Vienna and Illtyd Thomas of the Celtic Catholic Church of the Utrecht Succession. It continues as the seminary of the CCC.

It should also be mentioned that at one point the Theosophical Society had its own Theosophical University at its community in Point Loma, California (Lomaland), which was founded in 1919 and graduated students whose degrees were accepted by UCLA and Berkeley, among others. Its former site was sold and is now occupied by Point Loma Nazarene University.

In 2008, the work of the Society for Humanistic Potential, an ecumenical interfaith body that had developed from the former English Liberal Free Church in 2006, was placed under the auspices of the LCAC. The SHP grew significantly and now stands as a seperate entity and  works for educational outreach in the form of European-American University. The LCAC used the EAU as their seminary until 2009 and still enjoys good relationships with them. However, the growth of the church, and the demands generally for the quality learning of the EAU lead to a limitation of available places for LCAC seminarians. Since then, the LCAC seminarian training is undertaken by the Sophia School of Divinity, a branch of the Catholic Church of Antioch, with whom we have an intercommunion agreement.