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The American Anglican scene just got yet another fracture—this time from the inside out.

After being suspended by his former church, Bishop Derek Jones has founded the Anglican Reformed Catholic Church (ARCC), a self-proclaimed “classic Anglican” body formally incorporated in Alabama on December 10, 2025, as a response to doctrinal confusion within broader Anglicanism, as The Living Church reports.

The ARCC emerged just three months after Jones’ jurisdiction split from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), citing theological differences, leadership disputes, and unresolved disciplinary action.

Bishop Jones Begins Anew Amid Church Dispute

Despite being under inhibition from the ministry since September due to misconduct allegations, Jones wasted no time pivoting. The ARCC, anchored in Jones’ original Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy, is already reporting a network of 14 parishes, 15 chapels, and plans to serve North America through two dioceses—east and west of the Mississippi.

While Jones retains the reins within the new group as “Archbishop (elect) and Prime Bishop,” his military chaplain endorsement responsibilities are being handed over to another bishop, signaling a break with the operational infrastructure of his former church.

Things turned adversarial quickly. On December 16, ACNA formally indicted Jones for ecclesiastical trial, charging him with promoting schism, disobeying church canons, and causing scandal—essentially the trifecta of institutional burn-it-down behavior.

Legal Fights And Allegations Escalate

Back in September, ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood had suspended Jones over chaplain misconduct claims. But only weeks later, in a twist straight from a clerical soap opera, Archbishop Wood himself was inhibited due to separate allegations.

In response, Jones didn’t just separate quietly—he sued. His jurisdiction filed a federal trademark lawsuit accusing the ACNA of unfair competition and misusing intellectual property, including confidential chaplain data.

The case currently sits before the United States District Court in South Carolina. In November, Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sided with Jones’ team on three counts of injunctive relief, barring the ACNA from using ARCC’s branding or terminology in the interim.

ARCC Aligns With Conservative Old Catholic Body

Trying to avoid the church drift that’s gripped other mainline groups, the ARCC quickly aligned itself with the Union of Scranton—a confederation of churches formed by the Polish National Catholic Church in 2008 to preserve traditional doctrine.

That alliance is no mere white flag to Rome. As the ARCC’s website explains, the PNCC “rejected papal supremacy” but maintained apostolic succession and pre-modern orthodoxy, breaking from Rome in 1897 not to reform, but to conserve.

“We are not merely establishing another Anglican jurisdiction,” reads an ARCC statement, “but pioneering a pathway back to authentic catholicity.” Make of that what you will, but it’s clear the group wants distance from what it sees as Anglicanism’s theological fog.

Progressive Trends Push Anglo-Catholics To The Edge

This isn’t just a turf war; for leaders like Jones, it’s an objection to what he sees as the Anglican communion’s drift into confusion. The Union of Scranton itself was founded as a response to the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht’s increasingly progressive choices, from same-sex blessings to the ordination of women.

The Nordic Catholic Church, another Union member formed by former Norwegian Lutherans, has likewise criticized these moves. NCC Bishop Ottar Mikael Myrseth recently denounced such developments, calling on disillusioned Anglicans to join those keeping the faith “of the undivided church.”

Calvin Robinson, a conservative priest and commentator formerly ordained by the Free Church of England and later received into a Union of Scranton parish, represents the kind of figure gravitating toward these more traditional realignments.

Assets, Authority, And Anger In Courtroom Drama

The courtroom mudslinging hasn’t been gentle. ACNA legal counsel described Jones’ exit as an unceremonious break: “If Jones desires to establish a new ‘Anglican’ church and call himself Bishop, Potentate, or Archpoobah, he is free to do so,” they said in a December 8 court filing. “But … he leaves all property behind.”

Jones has hit back. In a new pleading filed December 22, his camp alleged the ACNA misused trade secrets and private chaplain data, turning what started as a theological rift into a full-blown dispute over ownership and privacy.

With no clear timelines for ecclesiastical trials—Jones' hearing won’t likely precede that of the already-suspended Archbishop Wood—both sides are settling in for a drawn-out legal and canonical battle.

ARCC Plans International Expansion As Battle Rages

Despite—or perhaps because of—the turbulence, ARCC continues to press forward. The group’s leadership says it aims for international growth in areas like Asia and Africa while offering regional provinces semi-autonomy under its Old Catholic alignment.

In their own words, ARCC leaders claim, “We seek to provide a stable church home characterized by clear leadership accountability, uncompromising doctrinal standards, biblical stewardship of resources, and an abiding connection to Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Noble goals, though reaching them while fending off lawsuits will be no simple task.

As the dust settles, one truth becomes clear: while the ACNA tightens its grip, groups like ARCC are testing whether orthodoxy, not bureaucracy, might be the real path forward for a faithful few.