REC Missionary Accuses Bishop Ray Sutton of Negligence Over German Camp Dispute
By George Conger Anglican Ink November 9, 2026
A Reformed Episcopal Church missionary dismissed from the leadership of the church’s retreat centre in Germany has publicly accused the REC’s Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Ray Sutton, and the chairman of its Board of Foreign Missions of failing to act on his complaints against the German convocation’s bishop. He has offered to help bring a presentment against Bishop Sutton.
In an essay titled “Do Not Now Be Negligent,” published on his Substack on 8 November 2026, the Rev. Lee Nelson said that he, his wife Ela and their seven children had been left close to homeless after his dismissal in May as director of Knüllcamp in Schwarzenborn, Hesse. He blamed “negligence by bishops of the ACNA.” By the following day the post had been restricted to subscribers.
The allegations are the latest in a series of public complaints from clergy about the Anglican Church in North America’s (ACNA) College of Bishops. That body deposed the former chaplaincy bishop Derek Jones in September and is awaiting the verdict in the trial of Archbishop Steve Wood.
Knüllcamp is run by the Anglikanische Kirche in Deutschland (AKD), a convocation of the REC with about ten congregations and missions. The Rt. Rev. Gerhard Meyer, consecrated in 2006, and his wife, Grace, were responsible for the camp for many years. The Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders described them as having led it for five decades.
In February 2025 the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders announced that Fr. Nelson would become the camp’s director. The REC Board of Foreign Missions and the Diocese of Fort Worth were to be his sending bodies. His brief was to develop a training centre for church planting across Europe. Fr. Nelson is a priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth and a former chairman of the ACNA’s Committee for Catechesis, which produced To Be a Christian.[6][7]
At a service on 3 August 2025, Bishop Meyer installed Fr. Nelson as director. The Rt. Rev. John Boonzaaijer of the Board of Foreign Missions honoured the Meyers for their years of service, and the local newspaper reported plans to move the camp from Euro Ruf Mission gGmbH to the AKD. The board’s 2026 report to General Council listed Fr. Nelson as camp manager and said the board was “soon to own” EuroRuf GmbH.
Fr. Nelson wrote that he found “a chronically dysfunctional system.” He said the Meyers “refused to let go and retire” after their retirement party. He also said:
– He was refused employment contracts and financial records, even though the board had given him authority to hire and fire.
– He received letters from a lawyer that he believed were sent “at the behest of Bishop Meyer,” warning him about seeking repair quotes and stopping renovations to housing for his family.
– Two staff members smoked tobacco and marijuana in a building where his older children lived.
– Bishop Meyer let himself into Fr. Nelson’s office and, when challenged, threatened to cancel his contract, which would have ended the family’s visa, and to have him arrested.
Fr. Nelson said his “very small stipend” was withheld for weeks or cut without explanation. He said Bishop Boonzaaijer gave Bishop Meyer directives that were ignored. He said he was dismissed in May 2026 after his complaints reached “a fever pitch.”
He wrote that after his dismissal, a former AKD priest gave him a document from 2021 proposing reforms of the convocation. Fr. Nelson said the document described drug use at the camp and claimed that Knüllcamp had housed a known paedophile. He later refers to the same report as dating from 2020. He said he was told that German police had opened an inquiry after an anonymous tip and that the REC had investigated, but he has not seen either report. Anglican.Ink has not seen the document, and no police inquiry has been publicly confirmed.
Fr. Nelson said Bishop Sutton told him he had no reason to doubt the leadership transition and assumed Fr. Nelson had seen the earlier report. Fr. Nelson said he had not. He said a new REC investigation into Bishop Meyer has been running since July and that his requests for documents have gone unanswered. He argued that “unless Bishop Meyer is removed from ministry … the whole investigation was a waste of time.”
He also described a dispute over a vehicle he says he bought with his own money and left at the camp. He said the incoming director, whom he does not name, accused him of stealing it from the Board of Foreign Missions and then registered it in his own name. A second post on 9 November promised details of the planned sale of EuroRuf, which he said became a sale to the Board of Foreign Missions. It is behind a paywall.
Fr. Nelson wrote that the ACNA’s misconduct office was told it had no jurisdiction over bishops of the REC’s foreign convocations. He argues that “all bishops in the REC, including Bishop Meyer are subject to the ACNA disciplinary canons.”
The REC’s own documents describe a different structure for its overseas work:
– A 2017 pastoral letter from the REC bishops spoke of “a significant difference” between the situations of REC bishops in Germany, Croatia, Cuba and the Free Church of England and “those bishops whose Dioceses are part of the Reformed Episcopal Church in North America.”
– The 2026 Board of Foreign Missions report lists the “Convocation of Germany (Suffragan Bishop Gerhard Meyer, under NEMA oversight),” meaning the Diocese of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
– That diocese’s report says “the former AKD was no longer a diocese.” Its Standing Committee approved the title of bishop emeritus for Bishop Meyer on 26 March 2026, “until October of 2026.”
On 3 November, five days before Fr. Nelson’s essay appeared, the newspaper HNA reported that Bishop Meyer had marked 20 years as a bishop the previous weekend and had been released from his office as ordinary, taking the title of bishop emeritus. The paper reported that he had been trying for two years to retire, and that Edward and Melissa Fruin had taken over the camp with six staff.
In August the REC had announced on X that the Rev. Ed Fruin would arrive on 27 August as full-time camp director and that the English Camp would return in 2027.
Anglican.Ink found no public response from Bishop Sutton, Bishop Boonzaaijer, Bishop Meyer or the Board of Foreign Missions to Fr. Nelson’s claims.
Fr. Nelson linked his case to the chaplaincy scandal. He said his family’s experience “resonated deeply” with the account published by the Rev. Lance Lormand, a complainant against Derek Jones. He accused Bishop Sutton and “every successive Archbishop” of enabling Jones’s abuse.
In a statement to the College of Bishops, published on 5 November, Fr. Lormand wrote that Bishop Sutton “agreed with Derek’s assessments and findings and enshrined his abuse” in a 2021 case without speaking to the chaplain involved. In November 2025, chaplains accused Bishop Sutton of dismissing that 2021 whistleblower complaint. One timeline reports that on 24 July 2026 chaplains filed complaints against the Most Rev. Foley Beach, Bishop Sutton and Archbishop Wood, alleging habitual neglect of duty. Those complaints have not been publicly resolved.
The ACNA Court for the Trial of a Bishop found Jones guilty on four counts on 19 August. The College of Bishops deposed him on 23 September and said it was “deeply ashamed” that members who knew of his conduct “neither urgently nor robustly addressed concerns and complaints.” Fr. Nelson wrote that he feared Jones “was used as a scapegoat.”
Bishop Sutton stepped down as Dean of the Province on 15 November 2025, citing his several roles and recurring back problems. He appointed the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs to replace him. Archbishop Wood’s trial ended on 11 September, and the court must issue its opinion by 21 December 2026.
Fr. Nelson closed by telling the bishops he would share “any and all documentation” in support of a presentment against Bishop Sutton. The ACNA canons allow a presentment against a bishop to be brought by three bishops, or by ten priests and lay people.
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