The Most Rev. Ray Sutton, Dean of the Province of the Anglican Church in North America, has stepped temporarily into the role of ACNA’s archbishop and primate—but a group of chaplains has objected, calling him unfit to lead the denomination.
The ACNA’s Provincial Office announced Sutton’s elevation to acting archbishop on November 3, two weeks after disciplinary charges alleging financial, sexual, and behavioral misconduct against Archbishop Steve Wood were filed. Wood has taken a voluntary and paid leave of absence pending resolution of the charges.
Less than a day after that announcement, a public letter released by a group of chaplains with histories in the ACNA’s chaplaincy jurisdiction decried the decision, claiming that Sutton’s appointment has “further aggravated” the church’s “crisis of credibility” in handling clergy misconduct.
Appeal_to_the_ProvinceThe chaplains’ public letter alleges that Sutton, among other senior ACNA bishops, repeatedly obstructed their previous complaints of misconduct against the Rt. Rev. Derek Jones, the denomination’s former chaplaincy bishop now under inhibition and investigation, over a period of at least four years.
“[T]he church has habitually failed to properly vet its leaders,” those identifying themselves as “The Chaplains” wrote, “and the College of Bishops has likewise habitually failed to hold each other accountable.”
“Recent statements to the effect that the Province and its leaders are responsible and quick to respond to credible complaints of abuse are also not supported by evidence … The reality is that the victims of the ACNA have been made to wait in silence for years after the original hearers of their reports dismissed them or failed to act.”
Bishop Sutton, who is also the Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church (a subjurisdiction of the ACNA) and the bishop of the Diocese of Mid-America, has served as Dean of the Province continuously since 2014, through the full term of previous archbishop Foley Beach and extending into Archbishop Wood’s current term. The Dean of the Province is the ACNA’s second-highest episcopal leader, serves “at the pleasure of the Archbishop,” and “may be authorized by the Archbishop to represent him in his absence.”
Before his leave began, Wood also appointed the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs (Anglican Diocese of the Living Word) to assist Sutton. Both appointments had the support of the church’s College of Bishops, Sutton wrote in a November 3 letter.
No whistleblower ‘in Scripture or our canons’
The chaplains’ letter highlights two instances of complaints against Bishop Jones that were allegedly exacerbated by Bishop Sutton and neglected by other bishops, beginning under former Archbishop Beach’s tenure and continuing into Archbishop Wood’s.
A first chaplain, the letter alleges, brought news of Jones stating that his chaplaincy jurisdiction was under the authority of the Church of Nigeria, not the ACNA—an issue now at the heart of the federal court conflict between Jones’ jurisdiction and the church—to Archbishop Beach in 2021.
Jones subsequently inhibited the chaplain, immediately jeopardizing his military position, and sought to require him to submit to a psychological evaluation, conducted by a rehabilitation counselor and member of Jones’ Executive Committee, for the inhibition to be lifted.
The chaplain sought relief from Beach, who had canonical authority as archbishop to lift inhibitions “upon a showing of good cause.” Beach recused himself and passed the matter to Bishop Sutton, who gave the chaplain’s complaint to Jones and refused to lift the inhibition. Sutton claimed the chaplain had violated his ordination vows, failed to submit to his bishop, and caused scandal by speaking to Beach about the Church of Nigeria subject, which Jones wished to keep secret.
“Your actions triggered a sequence of communications and miscommunications that have caused scandal and offense among the brethren and even bishops. It will take much effort over time to see reconciliation and resolution among some of them,” Sutton wrote to the chaplain via email obtained by The Living Church.
Bp Sutton on inhibitionSutton determined that speaking to Beach also constituted a violation of “Scripture and the canons based on the Word of God,” telling the chaplain he had “circumvent[ed] the Biblical process” for questioning a bishop. “As for your self-designation and appointment as ‘whistleblower,’ no such category appears in Scripture or our canons.”
The chaplain told TLC that, despite a later discovery that his initial letter dimissory had never been properly documented by Jones—thus freeing him from Jones’ jurisdiction—Jones’ court tried and convicted him in absentia, and Jones deposed him from the priesthood. According to the court order reviewed by TLC, Sutton’s reply to the chaplain was used as a basis to prosecute him.
“The whole business absolutely wrecked me emotionally and spiritually. For four years,” the chaplain told TLC. “Ask my wife and kids.”
A second chaplain, who had maintained a chaplaincy endorsement from the Reformed Episcopal Church, alleged that Jones had harassed him to join his jurisdiction for a decade and had claimed to the REC in 2022 that REC endorsements would soon stop being recognized by the Department of Defense.
Speaking to TLC, the chaplain said he visited Sutton in 2023 to help the REC maintain his and others’ endorsements, believing he could verify immediately with the Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Chaplains Board that REC endorsements were in no danger and could continue indefinitely.
“Sutton told me that he almost joined the military, and that in effect I should know when to salute smartly and shut up when ordered by superior officers,” the chaplain said. “Then he said that Jones was a fighter pilot and that if I challenged him, [Jones] would come after me in full force.”
According to the chaplains’ letter, the chaplain then applied to join Jones’ jurisdiction, but backed out upon discovering its unusual tithing requirements and ban on speaking to other endorsers. When the chaplain ultimately joined another Anglican denomination, Jones allegedly wrote him a backdated Godly Admonition and attempted to inhibit him despite having no jurisdiction, which threw his military position into question.
The chaplain appealed urgently to Bishop Dobbs, who was then head of the Provincial Tribunal, the ACNA’s highest court. That court had power to stay disciplinary actions and resolve canonical disputes, and had recently exercised it by granting a stay on proceedings against the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch during a dispute over the interpretation of an episcopal misconduct canon.
The chaplain hoped the tribunal would similarly stay any inhibition and determine that Jones had no jurisdiction over him, but Dobbs replied that the tribunal was “not authorized to investigate allegations against a bishop.” The chaplain copied Archbishop Beach on the request, who forwarded it to Sutton, the letter claims, but neither Beach nor Sutton responded.
Though the chaplain submitted complaints to Archbishop Wood’s new office in October 2024, no action on them was taken until September 2025.
“Even when bishops in good faith attempt to respond, structural issues exist which canon law has not fleshed out or anticipated, and that can bind even those who are willing to help,” the chaplains’ letter said.
The chaplain told TLC that Sutton recently apologized to him privately for his role in enabling Jones’ pursuit of him. “I genuinely forgive him and he was genuinely apologetic, and I think he’s a great preacher and scholar,” the chaplain said. “All I’m saying is he has made some big mistakes—who hasn’t? And those mistakes disqualify him from leading the province at this time.”
Next Steps
The chaplains’ objection to Bishop Sutton as acting archbishop comes at a critical moment for the ACNA as it pursues existing formal charges against Archbishop Wood and Bishop Jones. While the church’s canons provide for the Dean of the Province to serve in place of an incapacitated archbishop, there are no succession provisions beyond this.
While acting as archbishop, Sutton is responsible for evaluating any new individual complaints of episcopal misconduct that the Director of Safeguarding and Canonical Affairs, Dr. Tiffany Butler, and the Vice Chancellor for Safeguarding, Jeannie Rose Barksdale, pass along to him, said Calley Mangum, ACNA’s media relations manager.
Unlike in the Episcopal Church, in which any individual may open a Title IV process against a bishop by contacting an intake officer, the ACNA’s canons require three bishops or ten ACNA members—of whom two must be priests, one from the bishop’s diocese—to file formal charges against a bishop, leaving the path from individual complaints to formal charges up to the archbishop to discern and execute if he wishes.
Sutton will also be responsible for selecting a Board of Inquiry, a body of five priests and five adult ACNA members that will determine whether there are reasonable grounds to put Archbishop Wood on trial, once the province determines that the charges against Wood have been signed and sworn to in the correct form. That determination has not yet been made, Mangum confirmed.
According to an FAQ released by the ACNA, the length of time the church may need an acting archbishop is not yet clear.
“While we cannot say at this time with any specificity how long this process will take,” the FAQ says, “it is safe to say that all parties involved wish to see these matters addressed and resolved speedily and without any unnecessary delay for the good of the Church, the accusers, and Archbishop Wood.”
TLC has asked Bishop Sutton for comment and will post it when it receives a response.
Arlie Coles is a lay Anglican from the Diocese of Dallas who writes about modern Episcopal history and polity. She is also a machine-learning researcher serving on General Convention’s Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property.
