An archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America faces allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate cash payments, bullying, and plagiarism of his sermons, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Archbishop Stephen Wood, 62, has been accused of bringing “scandal and offense” upon his office while overseeing more than 40 churches across the South, becoming the first person in his position to face a presentment—a report outlining accusations of canonical offenses against a church leader.
The sexual harassment allegation comes from the former children’s ministry director at St. Andrew’s Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where Wood has served as rector since 2010.
Claire Buxton, 42, told The Post, and detailed in an affidavit, that Wood had behaved inappropriately toward her since October 2021, calling her “Claire Bear,” making unsolicited cash payments into her bank account, and eventually allegedly trying to kiss her in 2024.
“He put his hand on the back of my head and tried to turn it up towards him while he slowly brought his face towards my face to kiss me,” Buxton wrote in her affidavit, describing how she dropped her head to avoid the kiss and ran out of Wood’s office.
Buxton told The Post that she really needed the checks he deposited in her bank account, which he told her were for a job well done, but she declined his offer in July 2023 to send her to a nearby luxury resort.
“With all his growing attention and affection, I was really terrified that if I went, he might come,” she wrote in the affidavit, as seen by The Post.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, the Anglican Church in North America said that all the allegations predate Wood’s tenure as archbishop and that they would not comment further on the submitted allegations, adding that it “takes seriously any credible allegation” made against the church.
The alleged incident occurred two months before the married father-of-four ascended to the church’s highest position in June 2024. Wood has been married to his wife, Jacqueline, since 1986 and they have four sons and eight grandchildren together.
Following Wood’s election as the Anglican Church in North America’s third archbishop, his former colleagues and priests at St. Andrew’s were reportedly rattled and decided to formally draft church charges against Wood after Buxton accused him of sexual misconduct.
The presentment, which was submitted on Monday, could trigger an ecclesiastical trial and force Wood to step down.
“We have out-of-control men with absolute power and leaders who refuse to hold them accountable,” Rev. Rob Sturdy, an Anglican priest who wrote one of the affidavits, told The Post, after the denomination asked the 11 endorsers of the presentment to re-sign the document and attest to the allegations’ truth “under penalties of perjury.”
Wood himself stated that he doesn’t “believe these allegations have any merit,” and declined to comment further.
The sexual harassment and plagiarism allegations against Wood suggest that he has violated at least two of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and “Thou shalt not steal.”
In 2019, Rev. Hamilton Smith, rector of St. Thomas’ Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, wrote a letter to Wood accusing him of bullying colleagues, plagiarizing sermons, and using a $60,000 car paid for by the diocese for personal use.
“I do not feel you have moral authority required to hold the office of Bishop,” Smith wrote at the time, when Wood was serving as bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas—a position he still holds as archbishop, which gives him the power to vote on disciplinary actions for any bishop found guilty in an ecclesiastical trial.
“You have told me numerous times that you are a sinner who had ‘a really bad year’/‘a horrible season’ in which you did things you now regret,” Smith wrote in his letter, prompting a response from Wood, who wrote that he has a “different perspective” on the situation.
The Ohio-born archbishop previously admitted that he initially wanted to go to law school to “put bad guys in jail,” and afterward, he “wanted to go to Congress and write good laws so that bad guys don’t hurt people.”
“We are taught to trust someone in his position, so it often felt wrong for me to question or say no to him, even when I felt uncomfortable,” Buxton said about Wood.
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