Archbishop of U.S. Anglican Church Is Accused of Sexual Harassment

The highest-ranking prelate of the Anglican Church in North America, a conservative denomination that broke from the Episcopal Church in 2009, has been formally accused of sexual harassment, plagiarism and bullying by former employees.

The accusations against Archbishop Stephen Wood, 62, came amid continuing turmoil in the small denomination, including the ecclesiastical trial of a bishop and other accusations of mishandling abuse.

In a document submitted to the denomination on Monday, Claire Buxton, a former employee of Archbishop Wood’s home parish, accused him of giving her an “intimate” hug and trying to kiss her in his office at the church in April 2024, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Ms. Buxton, the former children’s ministry director at St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, S.C., said Mr. Wood had given her unexpected cash and checks totaling $3,500, called her “Claire Bear” in front of other people, and offered to send her to a luxury resort for spa treatments and relaxation.

“I was literally trapped in a church that felt like hell,” Ms. Buxton told The Post. She turned her face to avoid the kiss, she said, and told a colleague about the incident immediately after it happened. She told at least four church employees about her other concerns about Mr. Wood’s behavior, according to The Post’s reporting on the document submitted to the church this week.

The document, known as a presentment, has not been made public. Archbishop Wood was elected to the church’s highest position in June 2024, two months after the incident in which Ms. Buxton said he tried to kiss her. He remains the rector of St. Andrew’s and a bishop overseeing a diocese of more than 40 churches in the South. He is married and has four sons.

“I do not believe these allegations have any merit,” Archbishop Wood said in a statement. “I place my faith and trust in the process outlined in our canons to bring clarity and truth in these matters, and respectfully decline to comment further at this time.”

In a statement, the denomination pointed out that the allegations predated Archbishop Wood’s tenure as top prelate, and said it “takes seriously any credible allegation made against a bishop, priest, deacon, lay leader or volunteer serving in the ACNA.”

The presentment was initiated by a group of Archbishop Wood’s former colleagues who were alarmed by his election to archbishop. They gathered six affidavits accusing him of abusive behavior, including bullying. The filing could prompt an ecclesiastical trial that could end in Archbishop Wood’s defrocking and forced resignation.

The accusations against Archbishop Wood emerged as the ecclesiastical trial of another leader in the denomination, Bishop Stewart Ruch III, drew to a close. Bishop Ruch, a popular figure who oversees a diocese in the Midwest, has been accused by parishioners and clergy of responding slowly to accusations of abuse and grooming against a lay leader.

The lay leader, Mark Rivera, was later convicted of felony child sexual abuse and pleaded guilty to felony sexual assault in a different case. A verdict in Bishop Ruch’s ecclesiastical trial is expected later this year.

The Anglican Church in North America was founded by former members of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, both members of the global Anglican Communion, which originated with the Church of England. Some 700 dissenting congregations broke from the historic Anglican Communion, accusing it of advancing progressive theology and social causes, particularly regarding sexuality and the roles of women. Women cannot serve as bishops in the ACNA, and the group describes same-sex relationships as sinful.

Sixteen years after its founding, the denomination includes more than 1,000 congregations, mostly in the United States, which have about 128,000 members.

“The uncomfortable truth is that it was a church based on what they were against and not what they were for,” said Abbi Nye, a spokeswoman for ACNAtoo, a watchdog group that works with victims of abuse in denominational settings. She said the organization was tracking more than 120 abuse cases spread across 17 of the denomination’s 27 dioceses.

The Episcopal Church has about 1.5 million active baptized members. But the larger international Anglican community to which it belongs is facing its own fractures. The Church of England named its first female leader this month, appointing Sarah Mullally to the post of archbishop of Canterbury, traditionally “first among equals” within Anglicanism. Shortly afterward, a breakaway cohort of conservative Anglicans, including many in Africa, announced that it had rejected the archbishop of Canterbury’s authority.

Archbishop Wood celebrated the break in a letter to his denomination last week. “The world may see division; Providence sees pruning,” he wrote. “What remains will bear fruit.”