Judge sides with Anglican Church in North America against breakaway chaplains group
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) by a chaplains group trying to break away from the denomination.
U.S. District Judge Bruce Hendricks of the District of South Carolina’s Charleston Division issued an order Monday dismissing the lawsuit filed by the leadership of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy against the ACNA.
Hendricks cited the church autonomy doctrine, a legal principle that bars secular courts from deciding disputes over a religious group’s doctrine or internal governance.
“Stated succinctly, the Court finds that Plaintiff’s claims clearly involve matters not only of Bishop Jones’ church discipline, but also fundamental questions of internal church organization and polity,” Hendricks wrote.
“Indeed, to adjudicate any of Plaintiff’s claims, the Court would be forced to wade into these ecclesiastical disputes and delve into, for example, the extent to which both Bishop Jones and Plaintiff are subject to the ecclesiastical control of Defendant, which the Court believes would run afoul of the First Amendment.”
The leadership of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC) sued ACNA last year over the denomination’s refusal to let the group disaffiliate. The group’s decision to cut ties stemmed in part from what it describes as the mistreatment of JAFC Bishop Derek Jones, whom ACNA has accused of abusing his power.
The district court “has neither the desire nor the authority to entangle itself in such an essentially religious controversy,” Hendrickson said, granting the ACNA's motion to dismiss "pursuant to the church autonomy doctrine.”
In September 2025, JAFC Chairman David van Esselstyn sent a letter to ACNA Archbishop Steven Wood saying the group was cutting ties with the denomination.
A JAFC spokesperson previously told The Christian Post that the move stemmed from the treatment of Jones, who the group said was the victim of “a targeted attack” by Wood because Jones was "critical of errors, missteps, and mismanagement within the Archbishop's office.”
In a letter published that same month, Wood wrote that the situation began that summer, when ACNA leaders “received credible complaints regarding Bishop Derek Jones, alleging abuse of ecclesiastical power.”
“These complaints did not involve physical or sexual misconduct, nor did they involve any doctrinal concerns,” Wood wrote. “Nevertheless, they were concerning because abuse of ecclesiastical power violates the trust that is essential for effective ministry.”
The two sides disagree over how much Jones cooperated with the investigation and whether his eventual refusal to keep cooperating was justified under canon law, the church’s internal body of rules.
Although JAFC said it cut ties with ACNA, the denomination did not recognize the disaffiliation and instead began appointing new leadership for the group.
JAFC sued ACNA in October 2025, accusing the denomination of “a failed corporate takeover” of JAFC when it tried “to suspend Plaintiff’s corporate president” and assume the group’s obligations.
In November 2025, Hendricks partly granted JAFC’s request for a temporary restraining order, a short-term order that blocked certain actions while a case moves forward. The judge wrote that while the court “does not intend to entangle itself into an internal canonical dispute over the Anglican Church’s ecclesiastical structure,” some issues raised by JAFC “may be ripe and appropriate for the Court’s consideration, such as Plaintiff’s trademark claims.”
Jones was deposed from the ACNA last week, after the ACNA Court for the Trial of a Bishop found Jones guilty of four charges of violating canon law in August.
