(RNS) — When church buildings cut up from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in 2009 to kind the Anglican Church of North America, the denomination’s church leaders hoped for a recent begin. Although they’d damaged with their mainline Protestant church our bodies due to their conservative views on LGBTQ+ clergy, same-sex marriage and ladies’s ordination, ACNA additionally aspired to be a extra nimble, much less hierarchical church, freed from the infighting that got here with an excessive amount of oversight.
However lately ACNA has suffered repeated clashes over clergy misconduct protocols, bishop accountability and girls’s ordination. On Monday (Sept. 22), one other disaster broke out, because the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy moved to exit the denomination and tried to take its chaplains with it. The JAFC, a nonprofit group, is the physique that formally “endorses” ACNA chaplains, offering them a mandatory credential to serve navy personnel and in different settings.
On Sunday, Archbishop Steve Wooden, who heads ACNA, briefly restricted Bishop Derek Jones, who oversees the JAFC, from ministry, citing “credible complaints” alleging “abuse of ecclesiastical energy.” However by the point he introduced the restrictions, the JAFC had already introduced its departure from ACNA.
Leaders at JAFC and within the ACNA differ on what led to the conflict and on the place it has left these concerned. Jones informed Faith Information Service that since he had already withdrawn from ACNA by signing a letter to that impact on Sept. 20, he’s not beneath its jurisdiction. ACNA leaders declare that even when Jones and JAFC leaders depart, ACNA retains the ability to endorse its chaplains and the 300-odd chaplains affiliated with JAFC.
JAFC leaders responded in a cease-and-desist letter directing Wooden and different ACNA leaders to cease claiming “any ecclesiastical or sensible proper of supervision over the Jurisdiction or its chaplaincy program.”
Thursday night, the ACNA introduced that its endorsing physique will likely be led by newly elected Bishop Jerome R. Cayangyang, who serves as deputy chaplain of the Marine Corps for Reserve Issues. “Bishop Cayangyang will present management, pastoral care, and oversight for Anglican clergy serving as chaplains in the US Armed Forces, federal and state companies, hospitals, and different specialised establishments,” the announcement stated.
Anglican Church in North America brand. (Courtesy of ACNA)
“It’s an evolving scenario, and there’s ongoing conversations with all these concerned,” stated David Wake, government director for the Armed Forces Chaplains Board on the Division of Warfare, on Friday. “And, chaplains shouldn’t be involved about their certifications to serve.”
Jones faces a number of allegations, together with that he misused ACNA’s clergy misconduct protocols and fabricated or back-dated official church paperwork. Six individuals have stated Jones inflicted psychological and emotional stress on individuals beneath his care.
Jones spoke to those allegations in a video name with JAFC chaplains Monday night. Throughout that decision, which has now been made public, Jones denied fabricating or backdating paperwork and stated the confusion over doc modifications was as a result of they have been edited by a number of individuals.
“We’ve got counselors. We’ve got psychologists. We’ve got deans and deaneries to assist with emotional and psychological issues,” stated Jones within the video name concerning the stress allegations. “And once they come to me and also you’re in search of assist from me, if I’m not offering good emotional and psychological assist for you and I’m solely stressing you, you don’t have to speak to me.”
Bishop Derek Jones. (Photograph © Anglican Chaplains)
He later informed RNS that the six individuals’s claims have been nebulous and unfounded and charged that a minimum of one was a product of society’s “woke” mentality.
The Rev. William Barto, an lawyer and priest within the Reformed Episcopal Church, a subjurisdiction of ACNA, stated that the misconduct allegations are substantial. “It quantities to abuse of clerical authority, extortion and, if we have been in a civil enviornment, intentional infliction of emotional misery,” he stated. “These usually are not issues that the archbishop ought to ignore.”
Jones believes he has been focused by ACNA leaders partly as a result of he has been a vocal critic of the archbishop’s management and due to his makes an attempt to realize better autonomy and formal standing for JAFC. The bylaws at the moment deal with the Particular Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces as an entity with out the independence of a diocese. In protest, Jones stated, they lately withheld direct monetary assist to ACNA.
A spokesperson for ACNA informed RNS that there’s “no documented settlement or understanding” that any of JAFC’s choices involving tithes to the denomination associated to bylaw considerations.
Jones stated that, regardless of these disputes, he was prepared to take part when Wooden informed him on Sept. 12 {that a} third-party investigator could be trying into the allegations. That modified, Jones stated, when church legal professionals knowledgeable him that the archbishop wasn’t licensed to order an investigation, particularly at that juncture. As a substitute, formal prices should first be introduced in opposition to Jones and referred to a Board of Inquiry, a 10-person physique chargeable for overseeing any investigation.
ACNA leaders defended the proposed investigation, saying, “It’s customary for the province to finish an preliminary investigation into credible claims to find out if any rise to the extent of a presentable offense,” a spokesperson informed RNS by way of e mail. (ACNA, although an impartial denomination, calls itself a province of a gaggle of dissenting church buildings.)
Believing the proposed investigation to be illegal, nonetheless, JAFC’s church legal professionals and government committee reportedly instructed Jones and anybody affiliated with the JAFC to not cooperate. In keeping with an announcement from the JAFC, the nonprofit is at the moment “in discussions with a number of provinces within the world Anglican Communion to supply continued connection between the JAFC and the Communion.”
Jones believes these occasions are a part of a broader theological conflict between Anglican complementarians — who sometimes limit management roles to males — and egalitarians, who’re extra in favor of ladies in church management. ACNA doesn’t enable girls to be made bishops however permits its regional our bodies to find out whether or not to ordain girls clergymen and deacons.
Jones, a complementarian, alleges that Wooden has been sluggish to bridge variations. “(Archbishop) Steve promised that he was going to navigate these waters properly, however in truth, has employed nothing however egalitarian employees, in coaching bishops, has nothing however egalitarian bishops. He’s attempting to push an agenda,” stated Jones.
However Barto stated the conflict is extra about ACNA’s want for extra clear, complete and clear bylaws.
“I believe that what this disaster illustrates is the bounds of authority on the a part of the Province, the Anglican Church in North America, and notably the Archbishop and the problem of holding bishops accountable for misconduct,” he stated. “This underscores the necessity for canonical reform in ACNA.”
