The Test of a Church: How the ACNA Handles Its Own Judgment Will Define Its Future

The Rev. Dr. Ronald Moore

https://southernanglican.substack.com/

Oct 23, 2025

In the wake of recent allegations against Archbishop Stephen Wood, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) finds itself standing before a mirror. This is not a moment for triumphalism or defensiveness, nor for speculation about guilt or innocence. It is, rather, a moment for introspection—a proving ground for the very principles that gave the ACNA its existence. Every reforming movement eventually reaches the point when it must judge itself by the same standard it once used to judge others. That time has come for the ACNA.

A Church at a Crossroads

When the ACNA was founded in 2009, it was more than a protest against theological innovation. It was a reformation—a declaration that truth still mattered, that holiness was not negotiable, and that the Church must be accountable to Scripture rather than to the spirit of the age. It presented itself as a new beginning for orthodox Anglicanism in North America, a communion grounded in the creeds, the formularies, and the moral clarity that had once defined English Christianity.

Now, only sixteen years later, the movement born from that righteous rupture stands on uncertain ground. The presentment of formal charges against the Archbishop is not merely a scandal to be endured; it is a test of whether the ACNA’s canonical structures can uphold both justice and mercy without succumbing to clerical self-protection. In short: will this Church handle its own judgment better than the institutions it left behind?

The Issue Is Not the Person, but the Process

The moral and spiritual gravity of this moment does not rest on the details of any one case, nor upon the reputations of those involved. It rests upon the integrity of the process by which truth is sought and justice rendered. If the Church is to call itself holy, then its governance must be transparent, its procedures impartial, and its discipline measured by righteousness, not expedience.

Fairness and openness are not merely administrative virtues—they are theological ones. Justice is not a human invention but a divine attribute. A Church that conceals or manipulates truth for the sake of institutional stability forfeits the very credibility it claims to preserve. When Scripture declares, “He has shown you, O man, what is good… to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NKJV), it leaves no exemption for bishops, archbishops, or boards of inquiry.

If the ACNA wishes to remain a credible alternative to the decayed ecclesial order it left behind, it must prove that its canons are not mechanisms for protection, but instruments for holiness. The question is not whether the Archbishop is innocent or guilty—that will be for lawful process to determine—but whether the process itself will be just, transparent, and accountable to the light of day.

The Lessons of History

The Episcopal Church once faced a similar test. Its failure was not immediate; it was cumulative. It began not with heresy, but with partiality. The willingness to bend the rules for certain leaders, to shield institutions from embarrassment, to treat accountability as a public-relations problem rather than a moral necessity—these compromises slowly hollowed out the soul of the denomination.

The Church of England followed much the same trajectory, replacing prophetic witness with bureaucratic preservation. When the hierarchy fears scandal more than sin, it inevitably becomes an institution devoted to self-maintenance rather than sanctity. The Church ceases to be apostolic and becomes merely administrative.

The ACNA must avoid this pattern at all costs. A movement founded on moral conviction cannot afford to tolerate clerical privilege or opacity. If those who govern the Church treat justice as a threat rather than a grace, then the ACNA will indeed become “TEC 2.0”—a body orthodox in confession but compromised in conduct.

The Measure of True Reformation

True reform is not achieved by separating from corruption but by refusing to replicate it. The English Reformation was not simply a break from Rome; it was a call to repentance within England. Likewise, the continuing Anglican movement cannot content itself with having escaped theological liberalism—it must continually cleanse itself from hypocrisy and pride.

The Apostle Peter reminds us: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). This is not a threat but a mercy. Divine judgment purifies the Church so that it may again bear the image of Christ to the world. A Church that refuses to be judged by God will inevitably be judged by the world—and that judgment will not be gentle.

This moment, therefore, is not a crisis to be survived but an opportunity to demonstrate integrity. The credibility of orthodoxy does not lie in its creeds alone but in its character. The ACNA has long declared that it stands for truth. Now it must prove that it will submit to truth, even when that truth is painful.

Principles for a Righteous Process

If the ACNA is to emerge from this moment with integrity intact, certain principles must guide its path:

1.     Transparency – The Church must speak openly to its people. The faithful cannot pray intelligently for justice if they are kept in ignorance of what justice entails. Silence in the name of prudence easily becomes complicity.

2.     Independence – Those charged with investigating or adjudicating must be beyond the reach of influence or favoritism. Boards of Inquiry must be composed of those whose first loyalty is to God, not to hierarchy.

3.     Pastoral Justice – Justice without compassion becomes cruelty. The Church must care for the accuser and the accused alike, recognizing that both stand in need of grace and healing.

4.     Public Repentance – If failures of oversight are uncovered, the Church must confess them publicly. A willingness to say, “We were wrong,” is not weakness but strength. A Church that hides its sins cannot heal them.

5.     Hopeful Discipline – The purpose of discipline is not destruction but restoration. Even when judgment falls, it must always aim toward redemption and renewal.

In all of this, the Church must remember that justice is not the enemy of mercy; it is the means by which mercy becomes credible. Only when the truth is told can forgiveness be offered without deceit.

The Judgment That Saves

No human institution can avoid scandal forever. Sin will always find its way into even the most orthodox body, for the Church is made up of sinners redeemed by grace. What distinguishes the true Church from the false is not sinlessness, but repentance. The Church that kneels in humility before God can rise in holiness before men.

This, then, is the test before the ACNA. Will it face its own judgment with humility, or will it shield itself with the same clericalism that once corrupted its parent body? Will it let the light of Christ expose its failings, or retreat into the shadows of institutional self-interest? The answer will determine whether the ACNA remains a living movement of renewal or becomes another monument to lost conviction.

If the ACNA’s bishops, clergy, and laity choose the hard path of transparency and truth, this crisis could become its finest hour—a moment of purification that deepens its witness and restores confidence in the Church’s moral authority. But if it circles the wagons, silences its prophets, and hides its wounds, it will confirm every cynic who ever said that reformations always rot into replicas.

The Anglican Church in North America was born from conviction. It will endure only by confession. If this present trial leads it to humble repentance and renewed holiness, then judgment will have done its saving work. For the Church that judges itself rightly will not need to be judged by God. And the light that exposes its sin will also reveal its hope.

END