Why ACNA will survive, but change is necessary. Confession and repentance are needed at this Kairos moment

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue DD

November 13, 2025

An insider told Virtueonline that the situation in ACNA is worse than we all know. I suspect he is right.

This week ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood stepped back from his job as archbishop, his bishopric and his pastoral charge. It was needed and necessary.

Two women have stepped forward alleging inappropriate sexual contact. One we know by name, the other we do not. The optics are horrible even if Wood beats the charges as he thinks he will. The other charges are equally brutal...abuse of power and plagiarism. Boasting about a possible sexual conquest only adds to the power dynamic. The brutal Washington Post stories will forever be archived as a reminder that ACNA was not only not perfect, but riddled with pride, power and imperfection.

Wood’s alleged behaviors have shattered the myth of righteous moral superiority that ACNA claimed ere it departed from The Episcopal Church over that church’s acceptance of homosexuality. That day is done.

The canonical cover ups that have followed with bishops covering for each other and Wood are indefensible. Whipping JAFC Bishop Derek Jones over abuse of power issues rings hollow when similar charges are laid at the feet of Archbishop Wood. If Jones’ hands are not clean, neither are Archbishop Wood’s. Pot and kettle come to mind.

And then there are the charges by women and some ten priests who took their concerns to the church before the Post story broke and got nowhere. Why did the bishops not act when all this started to bubble up? Head in the sand comes to mind, or worse, ‘how dare you tell us what to do, you laity just don’t know what we know, how dare you tell us our jobs.’

But as one missionary priest told VOL: “The bishops need to hear loud and clear, No. We don’t trust you. Make changes or you will lose us. Final warning.”

Well apparently, now we do know and it ain’t pretty. It is clericalism writ large. It is a group of men who love to dress up and put on a good show...in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

“My lord, Archbishop” is overblown BS and ecclesiastical grand standing. Anglican leaders like John Stott, J.I. Packer and others would have none of it.

In all the years I watched John Stott, only occasionally did I see a dog collar on him. He led an untarnished life even as he trotted around the world with young men educating them for the next pulpit generation. He was probably the greatest preacher of the 20th century yet he remained humble and self-effacing, influencing preachers like Rick Warren, who became America’s pastor.

ACNA bishops are popinjays. Second rate minds dressed up in first rate robes. To date more than 20 percent have been caught indeflagratio and fired from the church. That’s huge. Bishop Stewart Ruch III should have gone right after the first allegations surfaced. He is still holding on nearly six years later hoping a court will exonerate him. Well good luck with that.

Should the councils of the church be in the hands of bishops alone? Why are there no lay representatives; do they think we are dull of learning because we don’t have access to a miter. Dean Chuck Collins an ardent reform theologian and historian said he tried hard to believe them. “I was naive about what Bishop Chip Edgar (SC) calls ‘a troublesome spirit of pride’ which I have come to see as clericalism. The Anglo-Catholic (or three-streams) father-knows-best mindset has opened us to blatant abuses and a sick culture of secrecy.”

“Those who had their hearts set on becoming primate were not elected. Congregants in every ACNA church who were promised integrity that was sorely lacking in the church we left.”

Collins believes that our bishops need to hire outside independent church trauma experts to openly assess the cases in front of us and advise us on our disciplinary canons, “there might be hope for our future.”

“Bishops disciplining bishops behind closed doors is a silly unworkable solution. And the next time we elect a primate, we must call it an assembly, not a conclave. We are electing a leader, not a pope.”

Dr. Kendall Harmon, a canon theologian bemoans the situation and says it means that a group of people who love ACNA had such a profound mistrust of the existing process that they felt they had a better chance of beginning to get the truth into the light in a secular newspaper as opposed to the process provided by the church. “What we are looking at here, brother and sisters, is a colossal mess which has so many things out of kilter one hardly knows where to start.”

ARE TWO DIOCESES NECESSARY?

One of the presenting issues is why South Carolina has two dioceses virtually joined at the hip. Is there a need for the Diocese of South Carolina and the Diocese of the Carolinas comprising 42 parishes in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina (ADOSC) covers an area of 24 counties in the eastern part of the state of South Carolina. It has 47 parishes under Bishop Charles Francis “Chip” Edgar.

With Wood gone now might be the time to unite the two dioceses under Bishop Chip Edgar and engage a Suffragan bishop to assist him, with input from laity.

HOW TO REFORM THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

Matthew Wilcoxen writing for Mere Orthodoxy suggests a structural way forward as a solution for the ACNA.

He believes that the root of the Issue is something he calls Mimetic Rivalry.

“We are caught in ordinary human patterns of imitation and competition, and our structures often make them worse instead of better. Because diocesan and parochial boundaries overlap, the church’s life is shaped by constant comparison. What might have been neighboring fellowship has become overlapping jurisdiction, and rivalry seeps into every level of the system. We built a system designed for rapid church planting in a time of enthusiasm, but we did not build one capable of sustaining peace in a time of consolidation. The result is predictable: factions, suspicion, and chronic institutional anxiety.”

Wilcoxen, an Australian evangelical Anglican theologian, says that if we do not change our form of governance, no number of new statements, goodwill, or charismatic leaders will save us. What is needed is to reform ACNA to remove the structural incentives to rivalry. This reform must not only be a moral or spiritual aspiration but rather a constitutional reality.

He condemns what he calls structural rivalry. “The founding compromise between ‘geographical’ and ‘affinity’ dioceses was meant to preserve freedom; in practice it has bred competition. Multiple bishops may claim overlapping flocks, and clergy are encouraged to compare jurisdictions rather than inhabit a stable home. Without fixed boundaries, there can be no neighborly charity, only marketplace dynamics clothed in ecclesial language.”

“Bishops, rectors, and diocesan councils operate within unclear lines of accountability. Extra-canonical powers such as “godly admonition,” informal investigations, and unappealable episcopal decisions allow strong personalities to substitute for due process. When the law is elastic, every dispute becomes personal, and every personal dispute becomes a test of loyalty.”

Wilcoxen points to fragmented doctrine, dependent safeguarding, property patronage, insecure vocations and weak synodical life as a result.

Our public tolerance of divergent practice on women’s ordination has hardened into parallel theologies of holy orders. This lack of settlement keeps the church in a permanent state of negotiation; each diocese is tempted to justify itself by contrast with another. Until we resolve this, unity will remain procedural and not sacramental. You can read his full statement here: https://mereorthodoxy.com/how-to-reform-the-anglican-church-in-north-america?utm_campaign=13660601-Mere%20Orthodoxy%20%7C%20Weekly%20Digest&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_yD0FiOoymQyu_6ovsAI2dPNBeo4kQREOIs1QSz4780a0RxhnPqeKQ7s1JtaETbP4MoeFyRzSrLdkPxK7kN_xkzkPQpA&_hsmi=389678021&utm_content=389678021&utm_source=hs_email

This is not a call for schism but for repentance in the matter of our ecclesial form. We ask our bishops, clergy, and laity to risk their present securities so that our children might inherit a peaceful and fruitful church. If we take these steps together, ACNA can still become what it was meant to be: a faithful Anglican presence in North America for the next century and beyond.

Yes, the ACNA will survive a humbler denomination, hopefully learning from its lessons of pride and self-sufficiency, but the way forward will be rocky until all the facts are known.

END