After two weeks’ delay in validation by the Anglican Church in North America’s provincial workplace, formal ecclesiastical disciplinary complaints in opposition to Archbishop Steve Wooden have been formally filed—and expanded.
A gaggle of 4 monks and 7 lay ACNA members first submitted signed and sworn allegations of sexual, monetary, and behavioral misconduct in opposition to Wooden on October 20, however the grievance was initially returned by the province, with requests that every complainant embody particular language testifying to the reality of the statements “beneath penalties of perjury.”
The complainants, who initially refused to adjust to the request and referred to as it a “noncanonical requirement,” resubmitted their amended grievance on November 6, together with new signature language in addition to new prices in opposition to Wooden and a brand new cowl letter.
“Since clergy and laity of the Province haven’t seen the primary presentment, we expect that it can be crucial for them to know that it was initially submitted with the precise language of our present canons,” stated a canopy letter obtained by The Dwelling Church.
The Rev. Drew Miller, a complainant and priest within the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, informed TLC that the province has confirmed profitable submitting of the costs, and {that a} Board of Inquiry, which can decide whether or not there are cheap grounds to strive Wooden, has been impaneled.
In keeping with a November 7 report in The Washington Submit, the amended grievance now incorporates the assertion of a girl recognized as “Jane Doe 1,” who alleges that Wooden sexually harassed her, together with by pressuring her to drink alcohol with him in non-public, regardless of her objections. The girl stated she would “cooperate with official proceedings and investigations” on situation of her anonymity.
Additionally included is a brand new affidavit by the Rev. Andrew Gross, the ACNA’s former communications director. Gross, who has labored for all three of the church’s archbishops, alleged that Archbishop Wooden was unusually involved within the aftermath of his election that prices could come in opposition to him, to the purpose of providing to “secretly contribute $10,000” to ship a priest on sabbatical as a result of he feared the priest would deliver prices.
Gross’ affidavit additional stated that whereas he was working for Wooden, he heard a reputable report of a dialogue between Wooden and the Most Rev. Ray Sutton, Dean of the Province, that “float[ed] the chance” of appointing a “bishop-friendly” Board of Inquiry ought to such prices come.
“I heard concerning the conversations proper after they occurred from separate sources, with first-hand information,” Gross stated in an announcement offered to TLC. “The ACNA membership desperately wants this course of to be, as a bishop is meant to be, above reproach.”
Bishop Sutton, who’s performing as archbishop throughout Wooden’s lately introduced depart of absence, denied to the Submit that any such dialog ever occurred.
On the night of November 7, the ACNA introduced that Sutton recused himself from the Wooden matter “to make sure the utmost objectivity in these proceedings,” and that Sutton had appointed the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs to nominate, in flip, a three-member panel of bishops to “evaluate and approve the composition” of the already-selected Board of Inquiry.
“If the Board of Inquiry has already been impaneled, we’ve got each cause to consider that Bishop Sutton was concerned, [and] we’ve got no cause to consider that such a board is reliable,” Miller informed TLC. “As keen as we’re to see this transfer rapidly, a brand new board, organized with out the involvement of the archbishop’s workers, nor of Bishop Sutton, should be appointed.”
“There’s no good transferring rapidly in case you’re headed within the unsuitable course,” he stated, including that Sutton’s recusal and the three-member panel’s future evaluate of board members could be a “step in the correct course” if the panel members had been identified.
Along with these new prices, the complainants’ cowl letter criticizes communications by the ACNA’s provincial workplace and by some particular person bishops that urged the complainants took their allegations to the Submit earlier than trying to make use of the canonical disciplinary channels of the church.
A timeline within the letter outlines the method the complainants say they adopted. Claire Buxton, who alleges that Archbishop Wooden made continuous sexual advances towards her, alerted one priest of her grievance 4 days after Wooden’s election in June 2024, and one other priest a month later, who knowledgeable the Rt. Rev. Chip Edgar, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, the doc stated. Edgar’s diocese overlaps with Wooden’s Diocese of the Carolinas.
In September 2024, the timeline provides, a priest approached Edgar on Buxton’s behalf about supporting a proper grievance in opposition to Wooden, which might be filed by three bishops or by ten clergy and lay folks beneath ACNA canons. Edgar declined, saying it was “not canonically doable for him to help such an motion,” the letter stated.
In November, Edgar allegedly urged continuing by pressuring Wooden “to provoke an investigation into himself,” an motion doable beneath a special disciplinary canon designed for quashing unfaithful rumors. The complainants refused. “Somewhat than serving to us report an allegation of sexual misconduct in line with the canons, he would successfully be framing us as rumormongers,” they wrote.
Lastly the complainants stated, Edgar agreed in March to sponsor the costs and search different bishops to do the identical. Two bishops refused to learn the costs outright; one learn them, however joined the 2 in suggesting both “private reconciliation” with Wooden or that the grievance be submitted to Dr. Tiffany Butler, the ACNA’s director of safeguarding and canonical affairs.
Two of the bishops stated that submitting the costs to Dr. Butler was the “new provincial coverage, and the one approach ahead that bishops will settle for.” The complainants discovered no written proof of that coverage, and as an alternative moved to arrange the canonically permitted 10-person path to submitting the grievance. (The director of safeguarding and canonical affairs has no official function within the ACNA’s canons.)
“The ACNA formally communicated a false narrative about our efforts, stating repeatedly that we had not approached any bishops however went on to the media. Bishops who knew we had approached them first then declined to right the report, even when requested to take action in writing,” the duvet letter stated.
Bishop Edgar confirmed to TLC that the duvet letter’s timeline was “mainly right” and characterised the months-long interval as a dialogue of “the assorted methods a cost may go ahead” beneath the canons. He stated that extra data was delivered to him over time and that he didn’t have a full image of the allegations till March.
“My intent from the very starting was to see these prices go ahead, however the many complexities of overlapping jurisdictions (significantly acute right here in South Carolina), and the issues that our present Provincial Canons pose—gladly, now acknowledged and being addressed—made this course of tougher to navigate,” Edgar informed TLC.
“I’m relieved that they’re now in course of and shall be adjudicated, and I’ve made my help for this Presentment clear to the Province.”
Bishop Edgar additionally expressed frustration with the disciplinary canons in an October 29 pastoral letter, written a 12 months after the occasions of the complainants’ timeline and within the wake of an earlier Submit article detailing the allegations in opposition to Wooden. Edgar lamented a “troublesome spirit of delight” on the formation of the ACNA in 2009 that, in his view, has hobbled the ACNA.
“I bear in mind laughing about how the Structure and Canons of the Episcopal Church ran to the lots of and lots of of pages; we didn’t want that, we had been righteous, we had been mission centered, we had been on fireplace for the Lord! We didn’t see that evil lurked inside us, every one,” he wrote.
The complainants additionally described the involvement of provincial workers within the delayed dealing with of their case as a battle of curiosity. ACNA Chancellor William Nelson can be the chancellor of Wooden’s Diocese of the Carolinas; Dr. Tiffany Butler stories on to Archbishop Wooden; and Govt Director Deborah Tepley allegedly “breach[ed] trial protocol” within the “irreparably tainted” trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch, they stated.
Tepley careworn in an October 28 letter that Nelson and different provincial workers aren’t working immediately with Wooden within the disciplinary matter, however Gross expressed doubt that independence was doable with no particular effort to “firewall off” workers members.
“The Archbishop’s chancellor and workers and the Provincial chancellor and workers … aren’t barely overlapping circles in a Venn diagram, they’re one circle,” his assertion stated.
Up to now, although he has taken a depart of absence, Archbishop Wooden has not been inhibited from ministry—a step the complainants say is critical to guard the accused from the temptation to misuse authority, defend the church from an look of impropriety, defend all potential victims, and encourage a immediate decision.
“The ACNA management has to cease anticipating folks to blindly belief them. That ship has sailed,” Miller stated. “They’ve to start out demonstrating that they’re completely reliable, that they’re nicely above reproach, in the event that they anticipate our denomination to outlive.”
Arlie Coles is a lay Anglican from the Diocese of Dallas who writes about trendy Episcopal historical past and polity. She can be a machine-learning researcher serving on Common Conference’s Process Drive on Synthetic Intelligence and Mental Property.
