This week on Anglican Unscripted George Conger said “Right now, people are taking great delight, almost glee, in sending me…emails recounting how the ACNA essentially is North Korea at prayer. It’s a dear leader type church.”
What does he mean?
First, on Bishop Jones, Conger says, “Jones’s accusers believe he’s psychotic and they also believe there is a demonic element in all of this…And they have provided evidence in the form of emails, documentation, letters from two star generals in the Army to verify their version of events that shows that it is alleged that Jones engaged in a pattern of deceitful conduct towards the ACNA. The Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy never really was in the ACNA. They thought it was but it wasn’t. It was part of the Church of Nigeria. Jones tried to keep his foot in both camps.”
Conger continues: “Jones if somebody crossed him would engage in an action of behavior that it is alleged was cruel, vindictive, dishonest. Hiring private investigators to trash people. Hiring private investigators to investigate other bishops in the ACNA who spoke to him when somebody came to him with a concern. It is alleged. I’ve not seen the canceled checks and so I’m just repeating what I have been told.”
Second, on Bishop Sutton, Conger continues: “There’s a great deal of Biblical illiteracy and theological illiteracy at the very highest ranks of the ACNA’s bishops. A favorite thing to trot out is Matthew 18. If there’s a problem, they bring out this little thing. ‘Well, you know, you need to speak to a person in private. You don’t take it to outsiders. You this and that.’
“Now, the actual official safeguarding manual for the ACNA says that’s not what you do. No, you know, you do not do that except when it involves a bishop. Then the bishop’s response is that, as Ray Sutton is accused of telling a whistleblower: ‘We have no whistleblowers. You cannot say bad things about a bishop and not expect to come back and bite you.’
“Ray Sutton denies having said this. However, we’ve seen documentation that Ray’s memory may not all be what it should be.”
Third, on Archbishop Wood, Conger says: “In response to Ian Shapira’s article about Steve Wood, the Chief Operating Officer (of St. Andrews) upbraided him for the insinuation that there was something untoward in $3,500 being given from the discretionary fund to Claire Buxton. Now you and I, Kevin have come at this differently. You have a copy of the internal guidelines for St. Andrew’s Mount Pleasant, which says that you only give money to people who ask for it.”
“She never asked for it. Yet she was given this money.”
“Second, if you give this money from an employer to an employee—she was still an employee of St. Andrews—Even if it’s from the discretionary fund, that must be reported on a W2 as taxable income. You cannot just hand somebody money who’s on your staff. A parishioner who’s in need, a hobo at the door is in need. That’s completely different. But …somebody on your employee, your payroll, may not receive this extra money.”
“And then they receive it but it must be reported as taxable, and St. Andrews didn’t do it.”
“So …they get you on tax evasion. They get you on the financials and the simple stuff. And here we’ve got some straightforward—here’s what the paperwork says. Here’s what the transaction register shows. Did this comply with IRS tax code and St. Andrews operating principles? The answer is no.”
Kallsen and Conger discussed Bishop Ray Sutton taking over in the interim, and said: “Some of the survivors complainants are livid that Ray Sutton is now overseeing the Steve Wood issue because they blame Ray Sutton in their anger—Might be misdirected anger. I’m not, I don’t know. We don’t know yet—for slow walking the Derek Jones case.”
“Now Ray Sutton denies this but is Ray Sutton the right person to oversee the Steve Wood issue when there are questions raised in the Derek Jones affair of his ability to handle this properly?”
Kallsen added: “…here’s how we can look at the difficulty of the situation the ACNA and its leadership has put itself in. The ACNA had a trial for uh Stuart Ruch and the lead prosecutor quit when he saw what he considered to be misconduct within the courtroom.
“His assistant Rachel Thebeau quit when she saw the same thing and had people in the ACNA headquarters access her private files. She quit and also said very ironically at this point: ‘There’s corruption at all levels of the ACNA.’ Now, looking back even further, kind of hindsight 20/20 here, she may be more right than she knows because I had a conversation with three people of high distinction. I don’t have permission to use their names. One may do an interview with me next week. And I said, “Is there a bishop in the ACNA that I can trust?”
“Nobody could come back with a name of a person that I could trust.”
“And…I offered up names and said, ‘yeah maybe him.’
“I mean, I have a couple that I know I can trust, but the fact that these prominent people within the ACNA can’t come back with an answer because some people have skeletons in their closet is very difficult for me to comprehend when you think about what Rachel said where the corruption is at all levels.”
“So, I don’t know how the ACNA gets itself out of this. I don’t think it can without a little bit of restructuring.”
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