Another Ruch Trial Open Letter to ACNA
Yes, we do care about church discipline.
Once again, to be fair, since I’ve posted adversarial letters in my last two posts, I am posting yet another open letter concerning the Bishop Ruch trial in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). But this one from the former Deputy Prosecutor, Rachel Thebeau, tops them all. She even aims fire at Archbishop Wood for his actions concerning the trial. I will let you read for yourself. And here is the brief reply of the Archbishop’s office.
Both Thebeau’s letter and what it apparently reveals indicates that this situation in ACNA is worse than I thought. So you can take with a grain of salt my comments in the previous two posts.
After it being proven that what I don’t know really is a lot more than what I do know and with the current situation being so awful, I do not want to say much at this point.
I mainly want to address one variety of ignorance that I am seeing here and there. I’ve seen a fool or two jump to the conclusion that ACNA doesn’t care about church discipline.
Nothing is further than the truth. In our short time as a denomination, quite a number of clergy, including a bishop or two, have been dismissed for a variety of disciplinary issues of both orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
Part of the problem in this case is that the Bishop Ruch situation is more disputed and less clear cut than other situations, and he is the first bishop to go to trial [See CORRECTION below]. Yes, this is our first church trial of a bishop. Obviously, it should be handled better, much better, anyway. But at least we are willing to put a popular bishop to trial. That’s more than The Episcopal Church could say fifty years ago. And they had much more reason to put Bishop James Pike to trial.
And if we didn’t care about discipline, then why are we tearing ourselves up over this?
We certainly have our disagreements over church discipline. But we take it seriously. And do not be surprised if we are about to show all the more how seriously. Lay and clerical leaders across the spectrum of ACNA are not happy about what has just transpired.
That’s all I feel comfortable saying at this time. To repeat myself, please pray for ACNA. We need it.
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CORRECTION: Bishop Todd Atkinson was deposed from Holy Orders by the College of Bishops after a Trial for a Bishop in 2024. I was aware he was deposed. I forgot that there was a trial first. That trial was much less disputed than the Ruch trial.
Father George Conger’s comments about the lack of serious training and guidance for new bishops is spot on. Bishop Ruch, of his own admission, thinks he should have done more. The question is whether it was a breach of office level oversight worthy of removal from said office. There has to be a sliding scale of discipline, not launching into hair on fire level screeching.
Rachel Thebeau has released an insightful bold letter of commentary on the messy ACNA-Ruch trial. She has revealed an institution in apparent disarray with weak but officious leadership and soft on theological doctrine and practice. In other words the same issues plaguing TEC and other mainstream denominations are beginning to plague ACNA. That is sad! In law the strict adherence to established legal definitions and procedural rules is our best assurance of a just, fair and truthful outcome. That is integrity. That appears to be what is missing.