A confidential November 12, 2020 report and set of Godly Judgments issued by the Most Rec. Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America has emerged as a central exhibit in the federal defamation lawsuit the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs filed against the Rt. Rev. Derek Jones.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama as Exhibit N in Dobbs v. Jones (Case 2:26-cv-00267-MHH), the document records a thorough provincial investigation into the very financial allegations Bishop Jones has publicly repeated since 2025. Those allegations—centered on claims that Bishop Dobbs mishandled or “absconded with” tens of thousands of dollars in chaplaincy funds sent to the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA)—form the heart of Bishop Dobbs’ lawsuit. The 2020 investigation concluded that the specific presenting charge of $3,750 in misdirected checks did not support a finding of impropriety or personal diversion of funds. The report and Archbishop Beach’s accompanying judgments therefore speak directly to the truth or falsity of the statements now at issue in court.
The document’s appearance in the docket captures the ACNA’s formal response, after hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars spent, to complaints first raised by Jones and the Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplains (SJAFC) against Dobbs and the Diocese of the Living Word (formerly CANA East). Six years later, those same complaints have been revived in public forums, Zoom calls with chaplains, court filings, and media interviews, prompting Dobbs to sue for defamation.
CANA was created by the Church of Nigeria as a missionary jurisdiction to serve orthodox Anglicans in North America during the realignment of the early 2000s. It became a founding partner of the ACNA in 2009 while retaining formal ties to Nigeria. Over time it developed constituent structures, among them CANA East under Bishop Julian Dobbs and a chaplaincy that evolved into the Special Jurisdiction under Bishop Derek Jones.
In 2013, at GAFCON in Nairobi, Archbishops Robert Duncan of the ACNA and Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria signed a Second Protocol that addressed the chaplaincy’s future. Paragraph 7 stated that the parties were working in good faith to transition the existing CANA Missionary Diocese for the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy fully into the ACNA as a diocese or diocese-in-formation, so that it would “no longer be affiliated with CANA as a subjurisdiction of the ACNA.” The protocol was signed in October 2013 but understood to take effect from June of that year. Dobbs signed it when he became CANA Missionary Bishop in January 2014.
Practice, however, diverged sharply from the text. The Special Jurisdiction continued participating in CANA meetings, events, and financial contributions for years, treating itself as a deanery of CANA on the basis of an earlier draft that never entered the final protocol. Archbishop Okoh continued referring to the chaplains as “his Chaplains.” Provincial Chancellor Scott Ward, who also served as CANA chancellor, spoke at a 2017 CANA Council meeting as though the chaplains remained part of the structure. The Jurisdiction itself cited the practical need for continued Nigerian Anglican Communion connections for overseas chaplains until the Church of England recognized ACNA orders in 2016. Contributions from the Special Jurisdiction to CANA continued, exceeding $40,000 over the period.
Meanwhile CANA’s corporate governance withered. Its board, chaired by the Church of Nigeria Registrar, did not meet after 2017. No annual budgets, formal financial accountability processes, or corporate minutes appear after that date. The latest available profit-and-loss statement, from 2018, showed a $36,000 loss. CANA was dissolved as a legal entity on October 6, 2020.
Against this backdrop, Bishop Jones and the SJAFC brought specific charges to Archbishop Beach. The presenting issue was $3,750 in checks written to CANA that had been stamped “CANA EAST” and appeared to have been deposited into a CANA East bank account. Broader concerns involved designated contributions and the failure to implement the 2013 protocols.
Beach assigned the inquiry to Bishop David Anderson (who stepped down for health reasons in September 2020), Assistant Chancellor Jeff Garrety, and certified forensic investigator Leah Turner.
On the $3,750 checks, investigators found that CANA East had used two accounts as the original CANA structure evolved into separate dioceses. CPA Paul Cusano reviewed the records and determined that funds were placed in appropriate bookkeeping accounts and spent accordingly. The bookkeeper had mis-stamped the checks, but there was in fact no separate CANA East account receiving the money; the funds were appropriated for CANA and properly recorded as such. The report concluded that the stamping error was improper and could theoretically be prosecuted under federal banking law, yet the monies were used for the intended CANA ministry and recorded correctly.
CANA East argued that it had itself supplemented CANA’s budget deficit by approximately $27,000 because other dioceses were not contributing adequately, and requested return of those funds if any repayment to SJAFC were ordered.
A 2014 email from Jones had requested that SJAFC contributions to CANA be “designated” solely for office support. No evidence showed that Dobbs acknowledged the email or that the designation was honored in the accounting. The funds were not recorded as restricted under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; they were treated as general income. The report noted that this constituted a potential violation that could render CANA liable, and that the SJAFC had a valid complaint against CANA and its Board of Trustees for improper accounting of designated funds. Fiduciary responsibility rested with the Board, of which the Missionary Bishop and the CANA bishops—including Jones—were ex-officio members.
The report also documented the widespread failure to circulate or implement the 2013 Second Protocol. There was no evidence that Duncan, Okoh, or Dobbs shared it with CANA bishops or the CANA Council. Parties continued acting as though the chaplaincy remained a CANA deanery. A pre-protocol letter from Duncan in April 2013 had already described any arrangement short of full transfer of the chaplaincy to the ACNA as “politically and ecclesiologically unsustainable.”
On corporate governance, the report found the CANA Board’s inactivity after 2017 constituted negligence under U.S. nonprofit law by the Chairman. Because the Chairman and Treasurer were Church of Nigeria officials under Okoh’s supervision, and because Dobbs as Missionary Bishop received direction from and was accountable to Okoh, the report stated that the Primate of Nigeria would also be considered negligent in fulfilling legal and fiduciary responsibilities as de facto CEO. Notes in the report carefully qualified these determinations: they assumed sufficient grounds for a federal investigation or trial but did not presume any particular verdict.
Additional concerns about use of a 501(c)(3) status and a $10,000 contribution from The Falls Church Anglican for a CANA audit were addressed. DOLW produced documentation of its own New York and IRS filings. On the Falls Church gift, Dobbs testified that a review rather than a full audit had been performed at the request of the outgoing bishop, with remaining funds used to establish the accounting system thereafter employed. The chaplains shared the same EIN at the time, limiting access. The report directed any dissatisfied party to pursue explanation or remedy through canonical and legal channels.
After reviewing the investigative report and conducting further conversations, Beach issued a series of Godly Judgments and Admonitions to Bishops Dobbs, Jones, Mark Nordstrom, and Mike Williams, invoking the bishops’ oath of canonical obedience.
He required Dobbs to have the Diocese of the Living Word Standing Committee commission a full CPA audit of the final year of CANA East and the first year of DOLW, to be shared with the Standing Committee, synod, and the Archbishop by November 2021. He further directed the development and adoption of diocesan financial policies consistent with generally accepted practices. These steps aligned with the ACNA Constitution’s requirements for financial responsibility and accountability at every level and with DOLW’s own canons requiring annual independent audits.
On the $3,750 matter, Beach affirmed the investigation’s conclusion that the funds had been used for CANA ministry. If the SJAFC remained unsatisfied, it could petition for a Provincial Tribunal. Citing Matthew 5:25–26 and 1 Corinthians 6:1–8, he urged Jones to pursue ecclesiastical rather than secular remedies, warning that litigation would publicly involve the bishops, the Church of Nigeria and its primates, the ACNA, the Diocese of the Living Word, and the SJAFC itself—damaging the Church’s witness.
Pastoral directives followed. Dobbs was ordered to undertake counseling for spiritual abuse inflicted by Archbishop Okoh (with Beach offering to fund it if necessary) and to take a minimum three-month sabbatical or leave of absence in early 2021. Multiple pairs of bishops—Jones and Dobbs, Jones and Dave Bena, Mike Williams and Dobbs, Mark Nordstrom and Dobbs, and Dobbs and Felix Orji—were directed to meet with a bishop mediator to work on their relationships in a Christian and biblical manner, with status reports due by the June 2021 College of Bishops meeting. Beach repeatedly invoked Matthew 5:24 on reconciliation before offering gifts at the altar.
Regarding residual financial claims against the dissolved CANA, Beach asked the parties to consider that gifts had been used for Kingdom work and to leave concerns with the Lord. If that proved unacceptable, Christian mediation rather than secular courts should be employed, with the parties bearing the cost. Finally, he observed that all involved parties—including Okoh, the CANA Board, Dobbs, Jones, Williams, Nordstrom, Orji, and Bena—had been confused or ignorant regarding the protocols’ meaning and application. All were complicit. Ultimate responsibility for CANA rested with Archbishop Okoh. Beach called those still in the ACNA to move forward in the Holy Spirit with humility and grace, leaving past concerns of complicity and deception at the foot of the Cross.
The document concludes with Beach’s signature at Holy Cross Cathedral in Loganville, Georgia, on 12 November 2020.
The 2020 report and judgments represent a sustained provincial effort to address real accounting irregularities, corporate governance failures, and the practical non-implementation of a signed protocol, while insisting on biblical process, financial transparency, and relational reconciliation among bishops. It found that the specific $3,750 allegation did not support the claim of misappropriation into personal or improper accounts. At the same time, it did not whitewash systemic problems in designated-fund accounting, board inactivity, or the long ambiguity surrounding the chaplaincy’s status.
That the same document now appears as a court exhibit illustrates how unresolved personal and institutional tensions from the CANA era continue to shape ACNA life years later. The public witness of the Church—precisely the concern Archbishop Beach sought to protect by directing parties toward ecclesiastical rather than secular forums—has been drawn into civil litigation. The 2020 record remains the primary source for understanding both the substance of the earlier dispute and the Province’s attempted resolution of it.