By Greta Gaffin THE LIVING CHURCH November 26, 2025   The American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature host an annual conference dedicated to the academic study of religion. This year it met on November 22-25 in Boston. The Living Church attended panels that included Anglican theologians, as well as one about Protestant relic collecting.   The Rev. Dr. Molly James, an Episcopal priest and interim executive officer of the Episcopal Church, gave a present

ACNA’s primate is prohibited from exercising any ordained ministry for two months By Mary Ann Mueller VOL Special Correspondent www.virtueonline.org November 18, 2025 The news was shocking but not unexpected. The Most Rev. Steve Wood (III ACNA) has been inhibited from exercising his ordained ministry in the Anglican Church in North America after a growing clamor calling for him being denied the opportunity to continue in his ordained ministry following at least two accusat

By Jeffrey Walton JUICY ECUMENISM November 17, 2025   Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) Archbishop Steve Wood has been suspended from the exercise of ordained ministry for 60 days, following the written consent of the five senior-most bishops of the denomination.   The restriction, canonically known as an inhibition, is the latest development in a string of communications from influential clergy and bishops following Wood’s self-imposed leave of absence announced on Nov

who faces allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism, announced his paid, voluntary leave of absence from the role last week Nov. 3   By Kathryn Post RELIGION NEWS SERVICE November 14, 2025 (RNS) — Clergy in the Anglican Church in North America are calling for the denomination’s archbishop, Steve Wood, to be inhibited, or temporarily suspended from ministry, in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism against him.   The archbishop a

By Mary Ann Mueller www.virtueonline.org November 14, 2025   The Episcopal Church has released its 2024 diocesan stats for Average Weekly Attendance figures. However, the complete statistics for all across the board metrics are still missing in action.   Perusing the domestic attendance stats revealed that 57 dioceses registered a drop in weekly attendance from 2023 with the dioceses recording a double digit plunge in attendance. They include: the Navajoland (21%); Georgia (1

By David W. Virtue, DD www.virtueonline.org November 13, 2025   The ACNA Bishop of South Carolina Chip Edgar has called for the inhibition of ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood, following revelations that include sexual misconduct, abuse of power and plagiarism.   In a letter to his diocese Edgar said, “I want to clarify my support for the Complainants in the matter concerning Archbishop Wood and I have urged the senior bishops to call for Archbishop Wood’s inhibition.”   Bishop Edga

The following letter was obtained by VOL, and we pass it along without comment to our readers.   November 6, 2025    Rev. Fathers in God of the College of Bishops, Provincial Executive Committee, Chancellor Nelson, Dr. Butler, and Ms. Deborah Tepley,   Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Am

By Archbishop Russell McClanahan New Orleans, Louisiana — October 3, 2025 — The Evangelical Episcopal Communion (EEC) gathered in New Orleans, Louisiana, from October 1–3, 2025, to celebrate its 30th anniversary and to reflect on three decades of God’s faithfulness and growth. Founded in 1995, the EEC has developed into a vibrant global communion that integrates evangelical faith, sacramental worship, and apostolic order. The 30th Anniversary Synod welcomed archbishops and bi

By Jeffrey Walton JUICY ECUMENISM November 3, 2025   Archbishop Steve Wood announced tonight that he is both taking a temporary leave of absence as Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and as diocesan Bishop of the Carolinas. In a separate letter to the congregation of St. Andrew’s Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Wood and his wife Jacqui wrote of his decision to retire as rector of the parish.   Wood has served as rector of St. Andrew’s for the past 25 year

By Sean Frankling ANGLICAN JOURNAL October 31, 2025   In the wake of the declaration by a coalition of conservative Anglican provinces of its intention to reorder the Anglican Communion around itself rather than Canterbury, two Canadian scholars with years of experience in the global South take different views on how much the apparent schism will divide the denomination in theory and in practice.    What both agree on is that it is not yet clear how many of the provinces with

By Mary Ann Mueller VOL Special Correspondent www.virtueonline.org October 30, 2025   The 2024 Episcopal Church’s Baptismal number is 19,624 down from 20,247 in 2023. Resulting in a -3.1% drop of 623.   However, Paul Paulson writing for the Episcopal News Service (ENS) missed the figure generating the headline: “Episcopal Church reports no baptized membership data for 2024, citing parochial report ‘confusion’.”   “The Episcopal Church has many members. In most years, it can p

Church fails forthcoming in revealing actual churchwide statistics  Church shows loss of 47 congregations nationwide TEC spent $2,545,648,636 leaving a deficit of $28,412,259   By Mary Ann Mueller  VOL Special Correspondent  www.virtueonline.org   October 29, 2025      The Episcopal Church is being cagey when it comes to the transparency of its 2024 statistics.   Last week at its fall Executive Council confab TEC released its summary of church stats entitled: The Episcopal Ch

Peter Hayward   By Muriel Porter The AGE 20 October 2025 YouTube The Rt Revd Peter Hayward, commissary for the Archbishop of Sydney THE statement from  Gafcon  that it had “reset” the Anglican Communion was developed at a meeting in Sydney last week, it has been revealed. In an interview posted on the website of the conservative Sydney organisation the Anglican Church League, the Archbishop of  Rwanda , Dr Laurent Mbanda, who chairs the Gafcon Primates Council, said that seve

By Canon Dr Jules Gomes MERE MATCHLIGHT Oct 24, 2025   Would you pretend something is authentic when you know it is counterfeit?   As a lad studying the violin under the virtuoso Melbourne Halloween, I was chastened for failing to distinguish between a fake and a real Stradivarius. Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier renowned for crafting the world’s finest violins. His most expensive violin sold for $20million in 2022.   I grew up thinking that my father owned a Stradi

An attempted kiss, cash payments and other allegations roil the Anglican Church in North America   WASHINGTON POST EXCLUSIVE   By Ian Shapira The Washington Post  October 23,2025     (Ian Shapira interviewed the priests and former employees who wrote affidavits in the presentment against the archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America. He and Reshma Kirpalani traveled to South Carolina, where Kirpalani took videos and photos for this story.)   The Anglican Church in No

Dear Friends, A complaint has been submitted to the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) relating to allegations made against Archbishop Steve Wood in his role as Bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas. In accordance with Canonical Law, as soon as the complaint is validated as a presentment, Bishop Ray Sutton, Dean of the ACNA’s College of Bishops, will convene a Board of Enquiry to consider whether it warrants further action. Because this is an on-going process, the War

17th October 2025 My brothers and sisters in Christ, I write , first and foremost, to thank you for your kind messages on my appointment as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. It means a great deal to me to have your encouragement as I respond to the call of Christ and prepare for this new ministry. This is a call that I accept with a sense of peace, because I trust not in myself, but in God, who has called me to the service of his Church. I am grateful for the support of my f

Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and People of God The Future Has Arrived — The Reordering of the Anglican Communion “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” – Jeremiah 6:16 (ESV) Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. On October 16, 2025—the day the Church commemorates the martyrdom of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley —my

Perspectives from a lay leader directly impacted by recent developments between ACNA and SJAFC .   By Danielle Shillingstad Adams www.virtueonline.org October 15, 2025   Three years ago, my husband and I walked into a stranger’s house with 3 kids, a piano, and a crockpot full of ziti to help out with a Sunday service targeted towards students at a local college and military families in the Virginia Beach area. Six weeks later, we left our local Anglican church, a place where

PRESS RELEASE Oct. 10, 2025  The Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy ("JAFC") filed a lawsuit on Oct. 6 against the Anglican Church in North America ("ACNA") for injunctive relief and damages, alleging that the ACNA violated federal and state trademark and unfair competition laws in an effort to effectively achieve a hostile takeover of the JAFC.  During an emergency hearing on Oct. 8, a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina noted that the AC