A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit brought by a chaplains organization seeking to separate from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
U.S. District Judge Bruce Hendricks of the District of South Carolina’s Charleston Division issued the dismissal Monday in a case filed by leaders of the Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (JAFC).
In his ruling, Hendricks pointed to the church autonomy doctrine, which limits the ability of civil courts to intervene in disputes involving religious doctrine, discipline and 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.”
JAFC brought the lawsuit after ACNA declined to recognize the group’s effort to leave the denomination. The conflict was tied in part to ACNA’s investigation of JAFC Bishop Derek Jones, whom church leaders accused of abusing ecclesiastical authority.
The district court “has neither the desire nor the authority to entangle itself in such an essentially religious controversy,” Hendricks said, granting ACNA’s request for dismissal “pursuant to the church autonomy doctrine.”
JAFC maintained that it had ended its relationship with ACNA, but the denomination did not accept the separation and instead moved to install new leadership over the jurisdiction.
The chaplains group sued in October 2025, alleging that ACNA had attempted “a failed corporate takeover” by moving “to suspend Plaintiff’s corporate president” and take over the group’s obligations.
Jones was deposed from ACNA last week after the denomination’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop found him guilty in August of four canon-law violations.
