A major TLC article on the recent conluded ACNA College of Bishops meeting

The communiqué also announced the failure of negotiations between the church’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop, Edgar’s diocese, and the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. The two dioceses were attempting to conduct a panel inquiry into the court’s troubled private proceedings during the trial of the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch, who was acquitted of episcopal negligence last year.

“Despite good-faith efforts on all sides, the parties were unable to agree on protocols for the panel’s work that would both address the questions raised by the two dioceses and satisfy the Court’s interest in protecting its independence. This effort has therefore concluded,” the communiqué said.

On October 1, the standing committee of Edgar’s diocese called the communiqué’s explanation “insufficient” and published documents detailing correspondence between the panel, the court, and the denomination’s Executive Committee.

According to those documents, negotiations broke down between the court and the six-lawyer panel—including chancellors from the dioceses of the Living Word, Canada, South Carolina, the Gulf Atlantic, and the Mid-Atlantic, and the Rev. Canon Andrew Rowell, chair of the province’s governance committee—when the court declined to provide access to the record of the Ruch trial after failing to gain the consent of Bishop Ruch and both sides’ counsel.

“We are ready to complete the task requested of us, but we are unable to do so without access to the Record of the Trial Court in the Ruch matter. We express deep concern about the practice of closing trials to the public without clearly articulated reasons,” the panel wrote in an August 21 letter to the Executive Committee.

South Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic had been prepared to challenge the court’s view of its independence earlier this year by bringing resolutions to the Provincial Council’s June meeting that aimed to compel the public release of the trial’s transcripts.

Edgar withdrew the resolutions before they came to the floor in favor of attempting the negotiated inquiry, but noted the diocese might reintroduce them to the Council in the event of failure. The Council’s next meeting is scheduled for June of 2027, though special meetings may be called by the archbishop, a majority of the Executive Committee, or by any fifteen Council delegates.

Read it all.

ICYMI on the ACNA Ruch trial review: the chancellor panel, which was drawn from a variety of dioceses, was denied access to the transcripts and trial record and could not move forward without that access. https://t.co/JU5UtpAaGU pic.twitter.com/GjsTslmtPm

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) October 2, 2026