ACNA Finds Probable Cause Against Archbishop, Calls For Church Trial
An official church inquiry has found probable cause the head of the Anglican Church in North America violated his ordination vows, committed sexual immorality, and gave “just cause for scandal.”
A denominational board of 10 clergy and lay people recommended last Friday that Archbishop Steve Wood be tried in a church court.
Two women have accused Wood, 62, of sexual harassment. A former children’s ministry director at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, told the Washington Post that Wood forcibly tried to kiss her in April 2024. Another woman, identified in church documents as “Jane Doe 1,” alleges that Wood pressured her to be alone with him and drink alcohol, even after she said it made her uncomfortable.
Other people who have worked with Wood in the past say he also bragged about a woman “he could have … any time he wanted.” And they have accused him of plagiarizing a sermon, spending more money than he needed to on himself and cursing at church staff.
Hamilton Smith, a South Carolina minister who served under Wood, told him he did not have the “moral authority required to hold the office of Bishop.”
Wood has denied the allegations “unequivocally, categorically, and emphatically.” He told his home church in a letter that he’s confident the denomination’s judicial processes will find him innocent.
“The truth will come to light in due course,” Wood wrote. “Even in this challenging circumstance, I am confident that the Lord will use all things for His glory and for the strengthening of His Church.”
Wood is the first archbishop in the 16-year history of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) to face formal accusations, which the Anglicans call a “presentment.” He was elected the third archbishop of the ACNA in October 2024.
A year later, in November 2025, Wood took a voluntary leave of absence while the church’s board of inquiry looked into allegations of misconduct. He was subsequently suspended. No trial date has been set.
A growing denomination
The ACNA is one of few denominations that is currently growing in America. Denominational records show Anglicans have planted more than a dozen new churches every year since COVID-19 and from 2022 to 2024, weekly attendance increased more than 25% to 96,148.
Some of the growth can be attributed to innovative outreach from worship services on the beach in South Carolina to modern circuit riders in rural parts of Colorado and Wyoming. But many new members also talk about being drawn to a church that is rooted in tradition and has a well-established authority structure beginning with its bishops.
But the tumultuous trial of Bishop Stewart Ruch, who faces allegations of mishandling sexual abuse allegations in the Upper Midwest Diocese, has challenged that view.
Church leaders, including Wood, have said the denomination’s policies for handling clergy misconduct needed to be overhauled. One proposal would replace ACNA’s current 11-page document with a 48-page revision, which would, among other things, lower the bar for complaints against bishops.
The Anglicans who wanted to make a complaint against Wood had to find 10 people to sign on to the presentment. According to the Washington Post, they sent their draft to four ACNA bishops. All four refused to sign. Two declined to even read it. One suggested that the appropriate thing to do would be to go to Wood himself with the allegations and let him start an investigation.
“The complaint of a vulnerable woman should not hinge upon whether or not a bishop can navigate the canons,” the Anglicans wrote in the formal charges they ultimately filed with the church. “She should not have had to recruit ten strangers to be taken seriously.”
Chip Edgar, bishop of the ACNA diocese of South Carolina, wrote that efforts to file a complaint against Wood were “stymied” for six months. This is more evidence, he said, that the canonical structures built to provide accountability in ACNA are in dire need of reform.
Other bishops, including Jacob C. Worley from the Diocese of Cascadia in Washington state, have focused on the problem of people going public with complaints.
“A trial is happening in the court of public opinion. This is wrong,” Worley wrote. “But, unfortunately, it is the way things are done in our culture. … The Church today in the West exists and must function in a deeply broken culture that is looking for reasons to be aggrieved.”
Pleas for trust
Worley urged Anglicans to trust the official process. Other clergy have said the same thing, even making the argument that allegations against the archbishop are a sign of health for the young denomination.
Bryan Hollon, dean of Trinity Anglican Seminary, in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, said people who care about ACNA should be encouraged to see “discipline actually taking place.”
“The fact that we’re willing to scrutinize and correct our own leaders is evidence that we’re taking God’s Word seriously,” he wrote. “We must proceed carefully and justly …. But we can trust that a just process is being established. This process deserves our prayers and patience.”
When ACNA’s bishops met in Plano, Texas, in early December, though, they acknowledged the process needed reform. In a joint statement released after the meeting, the bishops noted “a lack of clarity in certain areas of our disciplinary canons.”
The bishops said they were also aware of a “a significant deficit of trust.”
“We received this soberly,” the statement said. “We will endeavor to grow in grace so that, by God’s help, we may become increasingly trustworthy.”
Wood, now faces trial and potential defrocking, was not at the December meeting of bishops.
Before he took a leave of absence, however, he also advocated reform. He addressed the need in letters and speeches.
Speaking at Provincial Council 2025, Wood said research he read showed that improved reporting systems could reduce abuse in churches by up to 70%.
“I take it seriously,” he said. “It’s why you’re going to hear a lot about safeguarding from me this year.”
This article was originally published by The Roys Report.
Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.