He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Marymount College in Salina, Kansas, in 1971 while working at the St. Francis Boys Home in nearby Ellsworth.
On May 30, 2020, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree by Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
Ackerman was ordained as a deacon in 1974 at the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin at Nashotah House in Wisconsin and to the priesthood the same year in Freeport, Long Island, by Bishop William Davidson of the Diocese of Western Kansas.
He served as a curate at the Church of the Transfiguration in Freeport, New York, and worked at the parochial school as an instructor, coach and counselor from 1974 to 1976.
He was active in diocesan life, serving as president of the standing committee and as deputy to General Convention.
In 1989, Ackerman was called to be rector of St. Mark's Church in Arlington, Texas, in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.
[1] During his fifteen-year episcopacy a significant emphasis was placed on the spiritual life of the clergy and lay leaders, including the Diocesan School for Ministry.
While he was immediately thrust into an international, national, and regional ministry that included greater ecclesiastical chaos, he sought to establish order based on the principles of the Anglo-Catholic revival and the Oxford Movement.
[5] In 1995, Ackerman welcomed and incorporated into the life of the Diocese, St. Benedict's Abbey, an Ecumenical, orthodox Monastic Order, located in Bartonville, Il.
[7] Ackerman was previously (until 2012) the president of Forward in Faith North America, a conservative Anglo-Catholic movement operating in a number of provinces of the Anglican Communion.
Ackerman serves as episcopal patron and member of the board of trustees of the North American branch of the Society of King Charles the Martyr.
[9] In 2020, he served as interim bishop of the Diocese of the Southwest during the vacancy between Mark Zimmerman and Steven Tighe.