ACNA is fatally flawed

Duality on women's ordination is a compromise to Scripture 

By Mary Ann Mueller 

VOL Special Correspondent 

www.virtueonline.org 

July 31, 2025 

THE Anglican Church in North America has been fatally flawed from its inception. Incorporating women's ordination into the fold though the diaconate, much less the sacerdotal priesthood; this is ACNA’s Achilles heel. Never mind that women are barred from ACNA’s episcopate.

The built-in flaw did not start in 2009 when ACNA was officially founded; the spiritually deadly flaw – Women's Ordination (WO) – initially began in 1974 when the Philadelphia 11 were irregularly ordained to the Episcopal priesthood. At that point the Anglican fabric started to fray when The Episcopal Church was infected and that contagion has spread not only throughout the Episcopal Church but now across the Anglican world.

Even the Anglican Church in North America was not immune. WO became a founding principle with the founding Diocese of Pittsburgh bringing its priestesses into the fold with it. This has led to a schizophrenic approach to the ACNA priesthood.

Other founding dioceses from The Episcopal Church (TEC) – Fort Worth, San Joaquin and Quincy – as well as the dioceses of the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) – Mid-America, Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Central States – still do not ordain women to the priesthood. Although the Reformed Episcopal Church does have a non-ordained women's deaconess order. Dedicated women trained and commissioned for mission and ministry.  

However, the dioceses of Quincy and San Joaquin do ordain permanent female deacons while the dioceses of All Saints and Fort Worth commission deaconesses.

Other Continuing Anglican jurisdictions which commission deaconesses include: the Diocese of the Holy Cross which is a part of the Anglican Catholic Church; the Anglican Province of America (APA); and the Missionary Episcopal Church (MEC) which is the outgrowth of the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) which morphed into Forward in Faith - North America (FiF/NA).

The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) is also a founding ACNA diocese which has women in ordained ministry. The females in the Anglican priesthood in Canada started in 1976, a scant two years after the Philadelphia 11 first kicked open the door. WO then crossed over international and provincial borders into Canada and on to the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC),

Women's Ordination has been the elephant in the room and the Trojan horse since the beginning. The latest available stats on ACNA dioceses’ stance on WO dates back to 2018. Since then, the issue has been dealt with a hands-off approach to detailed record keeping.

In 2018, when ACNA did release information on diocesan women's orders, seven dioceses forbade women's ordination on any level including: All Saints, Central States (REC), Fort Worth, Mid-America (REC), Northeast & Mid-Atlantic (REC), and Southeast (REC) and the Diocese of the Living Word. All Saints was founded in 2011.

Eight dioceses ordained female deacons only including: Christ Our Hope, Living Word, Quincy, Rocky Mountains, San Joaquin, the South, Upper Midwest, and Western Gulf Coast.

Bishop Keith Ackerman (VIII Quincy) explains how the Diocese of Quincy ended up with women in the diaconate.

“I inherited two female ‘deacons’ ‘ordained’ by Bp. MacBurney,” he told VOL. “I obviously did not ordain any.”

In 2007 retired Bishop Edward MacBurney (VII Quincy) ran into trouble with then Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori. He was inhibited because of his decision to travel to the Diocese of San Diego for Confirmations without the permission of the then local ordinary James Mathes (IV San Diego). This caused conflict when his son Paige died of cancer. The aging bishop was barred from conducting his son's funeral rites. A furor quickly arose and the Presiding Bishop relented long enough to temporarily lift his suspension so he could participate in his son's funeral service. 

Bishop MacBurney joined the ACNA College of Bishops in 2009; he went home to the Lord in 2022.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego now has a bishopette – Susan Brown Snook (V San Diego). 

Eleven ACNA dioceses have priestesses including: New England, Canada (ANiC), Church for the Sake of Others (C4SO) the Carolinas, Great Lakes, Gulf Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Pittsburgh, South Carolina, Southwest, and Western Anglicans.

The Carolinas also have a caveat that its priestesses cannot become rectors 

The Anglican Diocese of the Carolinas

Policy for Women in Orders states: “The Diocese of the Carolinas has supported the ordination of women as deacons and priests in the church, with the provision that women may not serve in the office of rector. This provision grew out of our engagement with Scripture which is silent on who may preside at the Table and celebrate Holy Communion while it is not silent on who may assume the teaching/overseeing office of a congregation.”

In 2018 the Diocese of Cascadia, the International Diocese, and the Armed Forces Chaplaincy ordain women deacons only but “licensed female priests to serve.”

The International Diocese has been defunct since 2024.

Meanwhile Cascadia considers itself a founding ACNA diocese. In early 2009 it was being formed under the bishopric of Richard Boyce (I Diocese of the West in the Anglican Province of America). In 2008 Bishop Boyce led his APA diocese into the Reformed Episcopal Church. Then he undertook helping with the formation of the Diocese of Cascadia. For two years he served as the developing diocese’s vicar general until Kevin Allen was consecrated as the first Bishop of Cascadia in 2011 by Archbishop Robert Duncan (I ACNA). At that point Cascadia was considered a full-fledged ACNA diocese without the Reform Episcopal Church diocesan ties.

VirtueOnline contacted ACNA asking for more information on the breakdown of the percentage of ordained women among its ranks including the separation between transitional and vocational deacons.

ACNA reports that it doesn't have that sort of detailed information and plans on developing those stats and releasing them in 2026.

“The numbers you are requesting are numbers that we are also interested in,” Dan Hassler responded. “We are hoping to begin reporting on this information with next year's Congregational Report.”

Hassler is the Director of Administration and Operations for the Anglican Church in North America.

For ACNA women's ordination is its hot button issue. The bishops are deeply divided on the scriptural, spiritual and theological pros and cons. And the issue is tearing at ACNA’s very heart and core. The practice of allowing two diabolically opposed understandings on the same divisive issue is called “dual integrities.”

A decade ago, the Church of England tried its own version of dual integrities called “Mutual Flourishing.” 

In 2014 when bishopettes were about to join the CofE House of Bishops General Synod had to agree to the Bishops’ Declaration which was a scheme to make it possible for all to flourish within the Church of England – to prosper, thrive and grow through respecting the theological positions of those who are opposed to WO, this assuring them of a safe place in Anglicanism’s Mother Church.

Libby Lane (VIII Stockport) broke the stained glass ceiling in January 2015 when she became the bishopette in Stockport.

Two years later (January 2017) when Philip North – an Anglo-Catholic – was selected by the Archbishops of Canterbury (Justin Welby) and York (John Sentamu) to become the VIII Bishop of Sheffield he was hounded and bullied so badly by liberal activist clergy who were opposed to a conservative traditionally-minded male bishop that he “succumbed to the intensely personal attacks being leveled against him and stepped down.”

The CofE’s attempt at mutual flourishing failed in Philip North’s case. He is now the X Bishop of Blackburn.

In ACNA the practice of “dual integrities” purports to allow both those who support priestesses and those who categorically oppose the ordination of women to coexist within ACNA. Individuals, congregations, bishops and dioceses are expected to respect and honor each other's diverse perspectives, while maintaining Anglican unity through acknowledging their divergent beliefs. 

“In an act of mutual submission at the foundation of the Anglican Church in North America, it was agreed that each Diocese and Jurisdiction has the freedom, responsibility, and authority to study Holy Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition of the Church, and to seek the mind of Christ in determining its own convictions and practices concerning the ordination of women to the diaconate and the priesthood,” Archbishop Foley Beach (II ACNA) wrote in 2017 stating the College of Bishops stance on WO within the Province.

“It was also unanimously agreed that women will not be consecrated as bishops in the Anglican Church in North America,” the archbishop continued. “These positions are established within our Constitution and Canons and, because we are a conciliar Church, would require the action of both Provincial Council and Provincial Assembly to be changed.”

For the late Bishop Jack Iker (III Fort Worth) women's ordination was a make or break issue – the straw that broke the camel's back. The spiritual life or death issue upon which he would stake his claim. He was emphatic about his position.

“We are in a state of impaired communion because of this issue,” he told his diocese in 2017 after the College of Bishops accepted its double-minded approach to WO.

“I informed the College of Bishops that I will no longer give consent to the election of any bishop who intends to ordain female priests, nor will I attend the consecration of any such bishop-elect in the future,” he continued. “I have notified the archbishop (Beach) of my resignation from all the committees to which I had been assigned to signify that it is no longer possible to have ‘business as usual’ in the College of Bishops due to the refusal of those who are in favor of women priests to at least adopt a moratorium on this divisive practice, for the sake of unity.”

Setting aside the scriptural and theological arguments over women's ordination, ACNA has ignored wisdom from Scripture and as a result the Anglican Church in North America is faltering.

The Anglican principle of "what affects all is decided by all" doesn't seem to hold when it comes to WO in ACNA. 

With the practice of dual integrities ACNA is a house divided against itself.

Three times the Gospels warn about that in Matthew 12:25; Luke 11:17, and Mark 3:23-25.

MATTHEW 12:25: “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.’” (Matthew 12:25)

LUKE 11:17: “Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: ‘Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.’”

MARK 3:23-25: “So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: ‘How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.’”

Words of wisdom from Jesus Christ, Himself.

James also advises: “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8)

Now ACNA is seeing the turmoil of a double-minded and divided house play out with chaos and instability within the College of Bishops.

In 2020 Bishop Ronald Jackson (II Great Lakes) was stripped of his ordination for violating various sections of Canon IV.2 pertaining to sexual morality.

Then four years later Todd Atkinson (I Via Apostolica) faced a similar fate.

ACNA Canon IV.2.4 prohibits bishops from "conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, including the abuse of ecclesiastical power."

When he was removed from Holy Orders it signaled the demise of his diocese which collapsed in 2023. 

Currently Bishop Stewart Ruch (I Upper Midwest) is in the throes of a contentious Trial of a Bishop for also violating various parts of Canon IV.2. He is alleged to have mishandled a clerical sex abuse case. He has been on a leave of absence since 2021. His diocese is without a sitting bishop.

Bishop Ruch’s trial has become chaotic, generating headlines in the Anglican world.

Following the 2024 Mere Anglican Conference where firebrand Anglican priest Calvin Robinson tripped over the WO issue and was barred from further participation, 296 ACNA priests signed The Augustine Appeal, an eight-point public letter pleading with the Anglican Church of North America to call for a moratorium on women's ordination as a prelude to seeking a common mind on the issue.

“We call upon the college of bishops, under the leadership of the next archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, to agree to a moratorium on the practice of the ordination of women in order to facilitate full communion throughout the province as we come to a common mind on this issue,” states the Public Appeal to the College of Bishops of the ACNA over Holy Orders in ACNA. 

The 2024 appeal was signed on the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury (May 26) who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597 AD. The Church of England has been seeking his next successor since January.

The “next archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America” is Steve Wood (III ACNA) who was elected on June 22, 2024 by the College of Bishops, revived the passing of the primatial crozier on June 28, 2024 but was not enthroned until October 30, 2024.

The disagreement within the Anglican Church in North America over WO coupled with the various Canon IV.2 violations within the bishopric may be the one-two punch which will hobble ACNA from achieving its full stature as envisioned by Archbishop Robert Duncan at his 2009 Provincial enthronement.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline