In the hallowed halls of Anglicanism—where ancient creeds clash with modern scandals—the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) finds itself adrift in uncharted waters. Just months after electing its third archbishop, the denomination born from a righteous schism is now grappling with a presentment of charges that strike at the heart of its moral authority. At the center: Archbishop Stephen Wood, the South Carolina bishop whose rapid ascent to the primateship has been overshadowed by explosive allegations of sexual misconduct, financial impropriety, and a pattern of abusive leadership.
The story, first broken in an exclusive Washington Post investigation by reporter Ian Shapira on October 23, 2025, paints a portrait of a church leadership entangled in its own contradictions. Drawing from affidavits, interviews, and church documents obtained ahead of the presentment’s formal submission, Shapira’s reporting reveals not just isolated incidents but a systemic malaise that threatens the ACNA’s hard-won credibility. “The ACNA has never before had to deal with serious allegations of misconduct by the archbishop,” Shapira quotes former communications director Andrew Gross as saying. “This is a crisis without precedent.”
For those who fled the Episcopal Church in 2009 over its embrace of progressive innovations—most notably the consecration of the openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson—such turmoil feels like bitter irony. The ACNA was forged in the fires of orthodoxy, a bulwark against what its founders decried as moral compromise. Today, with 128,000 members across more than 1,000 congregations in 49 states, Canada, and Mexico, it stands as a beacon for global Anglican traditionalism. Yet Shapira’s piece, co-reported with Reshma Kirpalani, lays bare how power unchecked can erode even the sturdiest foundations.
The Allegations: A Former Employee’s Harrowing Account
At the epicenter of the storm is Claire Buxton, a 42-year-old divorced mother of three and former children’s ministry director at St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina—Wood’s longtime parish. Buxton’s affidavit, one of six supporting the presentment, chronicles a disturbing escalation of unwanted attention beginning in October 2021, shortly after her promotion.
What started as lingering hugs and “excessive praise,” Buxton told Shapira, soon veered into territory that left her unsettled. In September 2022, during an office visit, Wood allegedly gossiped about sexual affairs among staff, boasting about firing an employee who “slept with everyone.” Weeks later, he handed her a $1,500 check from the church’s “Rector’s Mercy Fund,” signed by his own hand, claiming it came from an anonymous admirer who thought she was “doing an amazing job.” Buxton, strapped for cash as a single parent, accepted it—though she noted bonuses were typically formal and direct-deposited.
The gifts continued: a $500 bank deposit in July 2023, an envelope of $1,500 in cash that December, and an offer for a luxury resort getaway complete with spa treatments and a babysitter. Wood’s pet name for her—”Claire Bear”—rang out publicly, drawing whispers and prayers from colleagues who sensed the imbalance. “We are taught to trust someone in his position,” Buxton reflected in her affidavit, “so it often felt wrong for me to question or say no to him, even when I felt uncomfortable.”
The crescendo came on April 23, 2024, in Wood’s third-floor office, adorned with taxidermied trophies from his hunting pursuits. Buxton, dreading an upcoming church mission trip to the Bahamas where Wood and his wife would join, confronted him vaguely: “I’m so tired. I can’t do this.” His response, per her account, was effusive: “You know how special you are to me. You’re my favorite person in the world.” As she rose to leave, he allegedly pulled her into an “intimate” hug, then placed a hand on the back of her head, drawing her face toward his for a kiss. She averted it, mumbling “Ok, bye” before fleeing.
Buxton immediately confided in a colleague and later shared her story with four other staffers named in the affidavits. She resigned in June 2024, just before Wood’s election as archbishop. “I was devastated when he became archbishop,” she told Shapira. “It was the responsibility of the bishops to vet him and they failed at it, horribly.”
Wood, 62, a married father of four and rector of St. Andrew’s, has denied the allegations. In a statement to The Post, he said: “I do not believe these allegations have any merit. I place my faith and trust in the process outlined in our canons to bring clarity and truth in these matters.” A church spokeswoman emphasized that the alleged misconduct predates his archiepiscopal tenure, and a Board of Inquiry will soon determine if it warrants a trial—where Wood could face defrocking.
Echoes of Broader Turmoil: The Ruch Trial and a Church in Reckoning
Buxton’s charges are but one thread in a tapestry of controversy. The presentment also accuses Wood of plagiarizing sermons, bullying staff with curses and public shaming, and violating ordination vows—offenses that could bring “scandal and offense” to his office. These claims echo a 2019 letter from Rev. Hamilton Smith, then-rector of St. Thomas’ Church in Mount Pleasant, who challenged Wood’s “moral authority” over similar issues, including a $60,000 diocesan truck used for personal hunting trips while some clergy lacked basic health insurance.
Shapira’s reporting situates Wood’s woes against the backdrop of Bishop Stewart Ruch III’s ongoing ecclesiastical trial in the Upper Midwest Diocese. Accused of shielding men with histories of violence and sexual misconduct, Ruch’s case—concluded in mid-October 2025—has seen two prosecutors resign amid conflicts and procedural disputes. A verdict from a seven-member panel is pending, but the trial has already fueled public despair. On the podcast Anglican Unscripted, co-host Rev. George Conger lamented: “Can we now say that the ACNA has integrity at the very top anymore?” His colleague Kevin Kallsen replied: “You have evolved from something glorious into something hideous.
“This isn’t isolated. Recent years have seen a bishop defrocked for sending 11,000 texts to a married woman; another removed for pornography use; and admonitions for mishandling youth minister abuse at the influential Falls Church Anglican in Virginia—a congregation boasting ties to Trump-era conservatives like Mike Pence’s former chief of staff. Even Rev. Austin Becton’s June 2025 suspension for a Facebook post urging repentance toward LGBTQ+ exclusion underscores the ACNA’s rigid canons: same-sex relationships are deemed sinful, women barred from episcopal roles, and abortion opposed.
As Gross told Shapira, “The problems at the highest levels of the ACNA are deeper, wider and more entrenched than many of its own parishioners realize.” The presentment’s endorsers—10 priests and laypeople—faced a last-minute hurdle: a demand to re-sign under “penalties of perjury,” which Rev. Rob Sturdy, a Citadel chaplain and affiant, decried as “noncanonical” intimidation. “A church that can’t do right by victims of sexual abuse should not exist,” Sturdy said.
A Path Forward? Calls for Accountability
Wood’s election in June 2024 vested him with sweeping powers: chairing governing bodies, appointing trial boards (from which he’d recuse himself), and voting on episcopal punishments. Yet in his address at the ACNA’s annual assembly earlier this year, he touted “safeguarding” reforms amid growing attendance. “I take it seriously,” he said, clad in episcopal purple. “It’s why you’re going to hear a lot about safeguarding from me this year.”
For Buxton and her allies, words ring hollow without action. “It’s just bizarre to me how far we—the Anglican Church in North America and its leadership—have gotten away from basic morals and principles,” she told Shapira. Becton, in his resignation letter, called the issues “symptoms of a structure designed… to protect itself at all costs.”
As the Board of Inquiry convenes and Ruch’s verdict looms, the ACNA stands at a crossroads. Will it reclaim the prophetic zeal that birthed it, or fracture under the weight of its own failings? Anglican.ink will continue monitoring this unfolding drama, urging transparency and justice in equal measure. For now, prayers for truth—and for the vulnerable—must suffice.
This article draws extensively from Ian Shapira’s Washington Post exclusive, including interviews, affidavits, and church correspondence. Anglican.ink commends Shapira’s rigorous journalism in illuminating these vital concerns for the global Anglican family.