‘Season of Strain and Sorrow’: Anglican Bishops Inhibit Archbishop

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 November 3. Wood faces a formal complaint submitted by ACNA clergy and laity alleging bullying of staff, misuse of funds, and two separate allegations of inappropriate advances brought by a former children’s ministry director and an anonymous complainant.

“This action does not determine guilt or innocence, nor does it pre-judge any allegation or future proceeding,” Bishop Julian Dobbs, the Dean of the Province, wrote in the notice of inhibition. Dobbs, who was acting Dean, has assumed the full role after Reformed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton stepped down following 11 years as Dean (Sutton continues in his diocesan and REC roles).

The five diocesan bishops who signed the inhibition are Alberto Morales (Quincy), Foley Beach (South), Eric Menees (San Joaquin), Kenneth Ross (Rocky Mountains) and Clark Lowenfield (Western Gulf).

Bishop David Bryan, who serves as Bishop Suffragan for Wood’s Diocese of the Carolinas, will assume duties as acting bishop for that diocese, Dobbs wrote to the province on November 17.

Timeline

Influential voices within the denomination have raised concerns for weeks, not only about the allegations made against Wood but also regarding the denomination’s processes and canonical structures.

“To state the matter carefully: ACNA is in profound trouble, and I do not think that the people in charge of ACNA see how much trouble we are in,” Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Canon Theologian Kendall Harmon wrote to his diocesan standing committee on October 29 in a letter widely circulated across the ACNA. Harmon, a senior clergyman who served multiple tours as a deputy to Episcopal General Convention when his diocese was within the Episcopal Church, has a reputation as a reserved introvert and judicious thinker not prone to rash pronouncement.

“Almost everyone that I’ve seen in ACNA who is looking at the situation is looking at it backwards. They are saying things like trust the process, isn’t it terrible that people in the church felt it necessary to go to a secular newspaper like the Washington Post in order to do what they felt had to be done,” Harmon wrote. “To me that entirely upside down, the question everyone in active leadership should be asking themselves is supposing I was part of the group that made these allegations.”

Some of the complainants in the presentment filed in the Wood case are clergy and laity within the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, the largest diocese measured by membership in the ACNA, and which geographically overlaps Wood’s Diocese of the Carolinas.

Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Bishop Chip Edgar has written that he was among the four diocesan bishops first approached by complainants more than six months ago. Following a retreat with diocesan clergy, Edgar on November 13 wrote to this diocese stating “Those who brought these charges forward are credible and trustworthy, and the charges they bring are serious.”

“In my letter to the College of Bishops, I urged the senior bishops tasked with calling for an inhibition of the Archbishop to do so,” Edgar wrote his diocese.

Edgar’s call was later joined by the standing committee of his diocese.

“We, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, stand with our Bishop in full support of the victims. We, too, urge the College of Bishops to inhibit Archbishop Wood,” the committee of elected clergy and laity wrote in a November 14 message to the diocese. “While he [Wood] has placed himself on a leave of absence, such leave can be ended at his discretion. An inhibition—though not a statement of guilt or innocence—protects the integrity of the inquiry and ensures that the process needed to seek the truth can proceed without interference.”

Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic Bishop Chris Warner, who on November 15 disclosed that he was among the four bishops originally contacted by complainants, also joined in making a similar call. Warner met with his diocesan clergy November 13-14 outside of Baltimore.

“I have asked the senior bishops of the College, through the interim Dean of the Province, to consider placing an inhibition on Archbishop Wood,” Warner wrote on November 16 following the annual diocesan synod. Warner made an apology to the complainants, writing “Where my response contributed to further pain or trauma, I ask your forgiveness.”

Several clergy from both dioceses are signatories to an open letter to the ACNA College of Bishops. The call, which initially had 70 signatories, now counts more than 150 clergy from numerous dioceses of varying geography and churchmanship. Titled “Our Vows and the Protection of the Flock,” the letter asks that Wood be inhibited “until the conclusion of the trial that will determine his guilt or innocence.”

“Our goal is not to presume guilt, but to give space to investigate and discern guilt or innocence with all possible protections in place,” the letter’s authors write. “We believe that in this circumstance it would be prudent for the college as a whole to meet in council with those tasked to make this decision and inform them of your opinion on the matter to aid in their discernment.”

Next Steps

A hearing panel convened by the Dean of the Province (Dobbs) will evaluate the presentment to determine if it meets the criteria to move forward to a trial.

Harmon is among those stressing that the complaints against Wood are not the extent of the crisis.

“I appreciate the College of Bishops starting to do the right thing, even though it’s late but they need to realize that,” Harmon told IRD. “We need a process we can trust. Communication and transparency need to be vastly improved, and quickly. Both the [Diocese of the Upper Midwest Bishop Stuart] Ruch fiasco and this mess are but symptoms. What does that tell you about the disease?”

Dobbs, who will exercise the authority of the ACNA Archbishop during Wood’s inhibition from ministry, emphasized that despite tumult in the provincial structures, the ministry of the church “continues in every diocese, congregation, chaplaincy, and mission field.”

“In this season of strain and sorrow, let us fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who remains faithful, who governs His Church with steadfast love, and who sustains His people through every trial. We reaffirm our confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ continues to build His Church,” Dobbs wrote to the ACNA in his November 17 letter. “I invite you to join me in praying for all involved in these matters, and for the peace, unity, and purity of Christ’s Church.”

END