Nailing Truth to the Cathedral Door: A Response to Spiritual Abuse in the ACNA

For those of you who do not know me, I serve as the Canon to the Ordinary and Chief Operations Officer for the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC). I am also a retired Navy chaplain. I have served prayerfully for many years within the Anglican Church in North America, labored in GAFCON nationally and internationally to support our global primates, and worked on staff within two dioceses I love deeply. The Anglican Church has shaped my ministry and my life. It grieves me profoundly to write these words.

The JAFC has faithfully served as the endorsing body for Anglican chaplains for over fifteen years. We entered into affiliate status with the ACNA in good faith, trusting that Canon 11 — the canon that governs our work — would be brought into alignment with the realities of our mission. For years, we pressed for that correction. For years, we were promised it would come. Yet every attempt was delayed, sidelined, or blocked. Many of our chaplains have come to believe that this resistance was not procedural, but intentional — a response to our willingness to challenge the growing concerns and compromises within the ACNA.

Rather than resolving this in honesty, the ACNA has now chosen to target our bishop, Derek Jones. He has been inhibited on the basis of accusations, though no sworn complaints have been produced. One of the charges against him is that he released a priest from orders — an action he only took at the direct instruction of the Archbishop himself. To now attempt to punish him for following the Archbishop’s own counsel and direction is incomprehensible.

Even more troubling are the double standards. Several months ago, I wrote directly to Archbishop Wood in my (then) capacity as Director of Accessions, warning of dioceses drifting into heterodoxy and ordaining clergy who openly reject biblical teaching on life, sexuality, and salvation. What is more, these same dioceses were circumventing our process, knowingly ordaining such individuals, and then attempting to force the JAFC to receive them. The Archbishop read the message — yet offered no reply. Those same dioceses are now among those pressing charges against Bishop Jones. The silence in one case, and the sudden zeal in the other, speaks volumes.

That message became unmistakably clear at a recent synod dinner in the Diocese of the Living Word, when Archbishop Wood publicly declared that “the biggest problem in the ACNA is fussy priests.” In saying so, he dismissed faithful clergy who raise doctrinal concerns — not about preferences, but about fidelity to Scripture — as mere irritants. These so-called “fussy” priests are the very ones who have warned of theological compromise, of confusion regarding marriage, sexuality, ecclesial authority, and sacramental integrity. To call such men the problem while shielding those who undermine orthodoxy is not only unwise — it is a betrayal of spiritual discernment. He now claims to support the very people he has both privately and publicly dismissed and belittled.

We are also told that a new endorser could be installed within two weeks — a process that normally takes months. If this is true, then the plan to remove our bishop and replace him has been in motion long before any recent developments. What we are witnessing is not due process, but a carefully executed political maneuver. The investigation itself is being carried out by bishops with prior conflicts of interest or with no connection to chaplaincy at all. That is not impartiality. It is injustice.

Faced with these realities, the JAFC’s leadership, acting under our own canons and the independence of our 501(c)(3), voted to withdraw from ACNA affiliation. This was not done lightly, nor in haste. It was done because we cannot in conscience cooperate with an extra-canonical process designed to silence dissent, shield those in power, and punish those who speak inconvenient truth.

We welcome a fair, transparent, and canonical inquiry. We are not afraid of truth or accountability. But the Church deserves better than political maneuvering dressed up as discipline — and better than bishops who dismiss biblical appeals while consolidating control. Our chaplains deserve stability and integrity. And the Church of Jesus Christ demands that the same standards be applied equally to all — including to the Archbishop himself.

One of the charges against Bishop Jones is that he caused financial, emotional, or spiritual harm to six unnamed individuals. If accusations such as these alone are enough to justify immediate inhibition, then it must be said soberly and clearly: Archbishop Wood has done the same in this very matter to hundreds of identifiable individuals — not just in this case, but across several others left unaddressed. If we are truly to be a Church of justice and godly standards, then consistency requires us to ask: when will the Archbishop himself be inhibited?

I take no joy in writing these words. I write them with grief, not anger. I long for the Anglican Church I have loved and served to be purified of politics, to repent where needed, and to reflect the truth of Christ without fear or favor.

If these words cost me — if the ACNA comes after me personally, or attempts to threaten my Holy Orders for simply speaking the truth — then so be it. I would rather lose every privilege than retain them by silence. And if I — if we — cannot speak the truth plainly and publicly when justice is trampled and the gospel obscured, then we are not worthy to bear the yoke of these orders at all.

This is not the first time concerns about integrity in ACNA governance have been raised. Only weeks ago, Rachel Thebeau — a respected national leader within our Church — resigned her position with a public plea for spiritual health, institutional transparency, and moral courage. Her voice, though quiet and measured, echoed what many have felt: that power has too often been prioritized over holiness, image over truth. Though she and I come from different contexts, I recognize the grief in her resignation. I feel it now.

The Church must do better. And the time is now.

The Venerable Canon Ryan Davis