Bishop of the Carolinas
Shortly after joining ACNA, Wood became involved with efforts to create the Diocese of the Carolinas, which was formed with 14 congregations with an average Sunday attendance of over 2,700. According to its official policy, the Diocese of the Carolinas "has supported the ordination of women as deacons and priests in the church, with the provision that women may not serve in the office of rector" since its inception in 2010. [8] [9]
Wood served as vicar general of the diocese while in formation and, in 2012, he was elected to serve as its first bishop. [10] Wood was consecrated on August 25, 2012, at St. Andrew's by Archbishop Robert Duncan. Co-consecrators included Archbishop-elect Stanley Ntagali of Uganda and Bishops Roger Ames, John Guernsey, and Alphonza Gadsden. [11]
In April 2018, significant portions of the ministry center and office spaces at Wood's parish, St. Andrew's, were consumed by a structure fire. Local authorities were able prevent the fire from spreading to the historic chapel at St. Andrew's. [12] Then, in April 2020, Wood was hospitalized with COVID-19 and placed on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at East Cooper Medical Center in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wood lost 30 pounds from the experience but eventually made a full recovery. [13]
In May 2020, Wood joined three other bishops in the ACNA, Jim Hobby (Pittburgh), Todd Hunter (C4SO), and Stewart Ruch (Upper Midwest), in authoring a letter concerning the murder of George Floyd. In the letter, Wood and the other bishops called the murder "an affront to God" and wrote: "We mourn alongside the wider Black community for whom this tragedy awakens memories of their own traumas and the larger history of systemic oppression that still plagues this country." [14] [15]
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America
On June 22, 2024, Wood was elected by the ACNA college of bishops to succeed Foley Beach as the province's third archbishop. He formally took office on June 28, at the conclusion of the ACNA's provincial assembly. [2] The first year of Wood's tenure saw significant turmoil within the ACNA.
In November 2024, following an independent investigation which concluded that a youth minister employed by The Falls Church Episcopal during the 1990s and early 2000s "engaged in sexual abuse of students who participated in the youth program while he was employed," Bishop Chris Warner of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic took the unusual step of publicly announcing that he had issued "Godly Admonitions" to the current and former rectors of The Falls Church Anglican, one of the largest congregations in the ACNA. Warner criticized them for not opening an investigation into the allegations when first informed. In subsequent months, it was confirmed that the FBI had opened an investigation into the sexual grooming allegations. [16] [17]
In May 2025, Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton of the Reformed Episcopal Church, a founding member of the ACNA, granted a one-year ministry license to provocative priest and right-wing social media figure Calvin Robinson, who had been removed by the Anglican Catholic Church earlier in the year after ending a speech with a gesture his opponents characterized as a Nazi salute. [18] Wood responded by issuing a public statement expressing concern with the licensure: "I have concerns about Rev. Robinson’s ability to uphold the full commitments of our Anglican tradition, and his ability to model the Christ-like virtues of peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and love." Wood added: "I do not personally believe the Rev. Robinson is a good representative of the Anglican Church in North America." The following day, Sutton withdrew the license he had granted to Robinson just ten days earlier. [19] Robinson then posted the message from Sutton notifying him of the decision on his Facebook page.
In July 2025, an ecclesiastical trial commenced against Stewart Ruch, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest, for allegedly mishandling disclosures of sexual abuse and habitually promoting sexual abusive ministers within his diocese and at his cathedral parish, Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois. Two years earlier, a lay catechist in Ruch's diocese was sentenced to prison after allegedly committing felonious criminal child sexual assault against a 9-year-old parishioner, felonious criminal sexual assault against a woman, and grooming women and children by inebriating them with consecrated communion wine. It was alleged that Ruch failed to open an investigation nearly two years after being first informed of the alleged abuse against the nine year old child. [20]
Less than a week into the court proceedings, the trial was halted due to the unexpected resignation of the provincial prosecutor, Alan Runyan. Runyan wrote that "the trial process had been irreparably tainted," describing how a member of the trial court allegedly questioned one of the prosecution's witnesses for over an hour using external material that had not been admitted into evidence by the court before the trial. [21] Within days, Wood appointed archdeacon of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy Job Serebrov as a replacement prosecutor. One week later, assistant counsel to the prosecutor Rachel Thebeau issued a letter alleging that Chief Operating Officer of the ACNA Deborah Tepley and ACNA Chancellor William Nelson had improperly shared the inadmissible evidence with a court member using Dropbox. The College of Bishops and Executive Committee of the ACNA responded by releasing statements supporting the archbishop and his staff while denying misconduct. Nine days after being appointed, Serebrov resigned as prosecutor, was replaced by Thomas Crapps of the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, and the trial was placed on hold, first until August 11 and then until October 8. [22] [23] The trial resumed on October 8 and concluded on October 13. [24]
In September 2025, repeated clashes over misconduct allegations and ecclesiastical controversies gave way to a crisis in which the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC), the nonprofit overseeing chaplain endorsements in the ACNA, moved to formally disaffiliate from the ACNA. [25] [26]
In the lead up to the crisis, officials from the ACNA claimed that they received multiple "credible complaints" alleging "abuse of ecclesastical power" but not involving "any accusations of physical or sexual abuse or doctrinal concerns" by Bishop of the JAFC Derek Jones. At least six complainants alleged wrongful use of church discipline, at least two alleged interference with external employment, at least one alleged improper release of a priest from orders, and six alleged infliction of “financial, emotional, and psychological stress" by Jones.
On September 12, Archbishop Steve Wood informed Jones that a third-party would be conducting an independent investigation into the allegations. Jones told Religion News Service (RNS) that he was initially willing to cooperate with the investigation until JAFC canon lawyers informed him of their opinion that an investigation could not occur before the filing of a formal presentment and forming of a board of inquiry. (Officials from the ACNA later repudiated this understanding, defending the practice of opening an investigation before filing a presentment as customary.) On September 20, Jones told RNS, he signed a letter withdrawing from the ACNA. [27] The next day, on September 21, Wood issued a temporary inhibition against Jones, restricting Jones from ministry for 60 days in response to Jones' refusal to cooperate with the investigation. [28] One day later, the JAFC sent a letter to Wood announcing its formal disaffiliation from the ACNA.
That evening, in a video call with JAFC chaplains which was later made public, [29] Jones addressed the allegations and denied their veracity. Jones went on to claim that he was being targeted for what he described as his vocal criticism of Wood, citing a "woke" mentality and situating the dispute within a broader ongoing theological conflict between egalitarian and complementarian views in the ACNA regarding the ordination of women: "Steve promised that he was going to navigate those waters well, but in fact, has hired nothing but egalitarian staff, in training bishops, has nothing but egalitarian bishops. He’s trying to push an agenda." Officials from the ACNA pushed back on these claims, citing the case as an illustration of the need for more transparent bylaws and comprehensive canonical reform in the ACNA.
On September 25, the ACNA College of Bishops elected Bishop Jay Cayangyang to oversee what remained of the chaplaincy jurisdiction in the ACNA. [30] [31] The JAFC responded by sending the ACNA a "cease and desist" letter through its law firm, Nelson Madden Black, demanding the ACNA refrain from claiming to oversee the JAFC. The following month, on October 6, the JAFC filed a formal complaint in the Charleston Division of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, accusing the ACNA of multiple unfair business practices including alleged misrepresentation, false advertising, misappropriation, tortious interference, trademark infringement, defamation, and breach of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act. [32] [33] Chaplains in the JAFC who spoke with The Living Church alleged that Jones habitually threatened and shamed chaplains in hardship for their inability to pay 10% tithes. “The tithes are how Jones funds his organization,” one chaplain told TLC, “We are his money pot.” Jones' threats allegedly included loss of endorsement—the attestation required by the Department of War, without which a chaplain will lose a military job in 30 days—as well as ecclesiastical discipline, including deposition from the priesthood. [34]
