CHARLESTON, SC \u2014 At long last Archbishop Steve Wood goes to trial for allegations that could derail his future hopes and aspirations and lead to a future of ignominy and shame. Exonerated, he will go back to leading a denomination struggling over the ordination of women and distrust by a growing number of laity disillusioned by his leadership. He faces a split among his fractious military chaplains, unresolved lawsuits and much more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America has ever stood in the dock of his own church. Wood is the first. The denomination that was born in 2009 out of a flight from the Episcopal Church \u2014 a flight undertaken in the name of holiness, orthodoxy, and the plain reading of Scripture \u2014 now finds itself asking whether it can hold its own primate to the standard it once demanded of Canterbury. That is the real question the six-day trial in Charleston will answer, and it is far larger than the fate of one man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court will not make it easy to watch. The proceedings, seated September 7 through 12 with extension dates reserved for September 21 through 26, are closed to the public. The Court for the Trial of a Bishop, presided over by the Rt. Rev. Ryan Reed, has given each side fifteen hours \u2014 no more \u2014 to lay out its case, examine and cross-examine witnesses, and argue before the bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Charges<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wood answers three formal charges: violation of his ordination vows; conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, including the abuse of ecclesiastical power; and sexual immorality. They are among the gravest a bishop can face, and they carry, on conviction, the prospect of deposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Allegations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Behind the three charges lies a presentment that ranges wider still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The case broke into public view in October 2025, when The Washington Post<\/em> reported that Wood had been accused of sexual harassment during his long tenure as rector of St. Andrew\u2019s Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina \u2014 the flagship parish he built over twenty-five years and the platform from which he rose to the archbishopric. Claire Buxton, a divorced mother of three who served as the parish\u2019s children\u2019s ministry director, alleges that Wood began behaving inappropriately toward her in the fall of 2021, showered her with attention and with money \u2014 more than three thousand dollars, she says, drawn from church funds \u2014 called her by a pet name, and, in April 2024, attempted to kiss her in his office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A presentment \u2014 the canonical instrument by which charges are brought \u2014 was filed that same month by a group of Wood\u2019s former colleagues, among them four presbyters and seven lay people. It carried not only Buxton\u2019s account but allegations that Wood bullied his staff and plagiarized sermons. In November it was resubmitted to add the account of a second woman, who said Wood had pressured her into situations that made her uncomfortable and had invited her to drink with him, and to add the claim of the province\u2019s former communications director that Wood had conspired with other senior leaders to tilt the church\u2019s investigative machinery in a \u201cbishop-friendly\u201d direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wood has denied the allegations, declining to comment on the most recent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> The Anglican Church in North America (@The_ACNA<\/a>) has never put a sitting archbishop on trial.
That changes next week when the trial of Steve Wood begins. He faces charges of sexual immorality, abuse of church power and violating his ordination vows.https:\/\/t.co\/9dP3rILsAF<\/a><\/p>— Roys Report (@ReachRoysReport) September 4, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>