Calvin Robinson finds Safe Haven in yet Another Continuing Anglican Church Jurisdiction – his Sixth

Bishop Robert Giffin says he will defend Fr. Robinson to the hilt against all nay sayers 

By David W. Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller 

www.virtueonline.org 

June 5, 2025 

The peripatetic Calvin Robinson has made yet another denominational move – his sixth. He has connected with the Anglican Province of America. The other five include The Church of England; The Free Church of England; The Nordic Catholic Church; The Anglican Catholic Church; The Reformed Episcopal Church/ACNA; and now the Anglican Province of America.

The Anglican Province of America (APA) under Bishop Robert Todd Giffin (I Central & Western States) is willing to give Robinson and his displaced congregation safe harbor.

“Many have asked me about Fr. Calvin Robinson. I have met him only once, at the Joint Synods of 2023 in Orlando,” Bishop Giffin prefaces in a May 25 Facebook posting. “I have monitored the situation from afar and was very clear within the APA that I thought the situation was handled poorly. Moreover, due to this and other matters.”

“I believe Fr. Calvin potentially represents a pivotal piece in traditional Anglicanism. I would welcome him into my Diocese …”

However, Bishop Giffin feels his ability to openly welcome Calvin Robinson into his diocese would be contingent upon Robinson being “welcomed by the wider APA and G3/G2.” 

The first glimpse of what would eventually become the APA was initially founded as the American Episcopal Church (AEC) in 1968 as a way to preserve traditional Anglicanism since the Episcopal Church was starting to fall off the theological rails.

As is typical with Anglicanism, and the Continuing Anglican Movement, the AEC was fraught with internal and external battles over authority, theology and Anglican identity. Eventually the Anglican Province of America would emerge in 1995 with Walter Howard Grundorf as its first Presiding Bishop, a post he held until 2021 when Chandler Holder Jones (II APA) took the helm. Bishop Grundorf is currently Bishop-in-Residence at St. Alban’s Anglican Cathedral in Oviedo, Florida which is the cathedral church for APA’s Diocese of the Eastern United States. 

Bishop Giffin is the founding bishop of the APA Diocese of the Central & Western States, but he realizes that bringing Calvin Robinson on board could be problematic with other bishops within his sphere, as Reformed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Ray Sutton quickly found out when he attempted to provide Robinson safe harbor. His brother-bishop Steve Wood (III ACNA) immediately protested and Bishop Sutton backed down.

Bishop Giffin is concerned about the pushback which could be generated by the wider APA family particularly within his G3 connections.

“I believe Fr. Calvin potentially represents a pivotal piece in traditional Anglicanism,” Bishop Giffin posted. “I would welcome him into my Diocese if and only if he was welcomed by the wider APA and G3/G2.”

The G3 churches comprise a group of Continuing Anglican jurisdictions – the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC); the Anglican Church in America (ACA); and the Anglican Province of America (APA) – forming the Anglican Joint Synods, which are pursuing interchurch cooperation and eventual corporate unity. 

According to Wikipedia the Anglican Province of America is also in communion with the Diocese of the Holy Cross, (DHC); the Reformed Episcopal Church (REC); and the Traditional Anglican Church (TAC) – formerly the Traditional Anglican Communion.

Even though Anglicans splitter, they are always seeking ways to heal those rifts. That is how the Anglican Church in North America came into being. It was Bishop Robert Duncan’s (I ACNA) dream to seek the bringing together of various parts of fractured American Anglicanism. ACNA is the fruition of Bishop Duncan's Common Cause Partnership dream.

Bishop Giffin fully believes in the healing of fractured Anglicanism.

“There is a way that the conservative and orthodox leaning ACNA and continuing Anglican churches can get together: a new ‘Common Cause Partnership’, but comprised of only non-woke, non WO dioceses, clergy, and parishes/missions,” he explains. “We eschew all arguments pertaining to traditional vs contemporary liturgy, as well as east vs west celebration of the Eucharist. We take a play from the original playbook, and start talking. I was there in the beginning, and know how the cards were played. We lost.”

Bishop Giffin is all in. He's willing to give up his miter and crozier for Anglican unity.

“Let REAL unification begin. Everyone lays their cards and miters on the table. I would gladly give up my miter for true unity between the ACNA and continuing Anglican churches if the faithful present felt I was no longer needed or superfluous,” he states. “Short of that, I will continue to push for a new vision that is much broader than the G3/G2 for traditional Anglicans and not merely a boutique Western Rite.”

However, the main question currently facing Bishop Giffin is will his G3 brother-bishops accept Calvin Robinson sheltering in his upper Midwest Diocese of the Central & Western States. Or will Bishop Giffin face withering criticism which could harm the G3 coalition.

“I would be surprised if under a banner of truce, I could receive Fr. Calvin under my care, as he would, most appropriately in Michigan, be geographically part of my Diocese,” Bishop Giffin noted in his May 25 Facebook posting. “If however that occurred, I would welcome both him and St. Paul’s, always cautioning discretion, as it has always been the same for all priests, deacons, and laity under my care.”

Bishop Giffin apparently has started receiving flack over his desire to reach out pastorally to Calvin Robinson and his flock.

“Let me now be on the Record after the (May 30) Anglican Unscripted episode which has just aired. Yes, I would receive Fr. Calvin Robinson as a priest into this Diocese, hopefully with the blessing of our Presiding Bishop, +Chandler Holder Jones, to ensure he will be received by the entire APA. This is what I would wish for Calvin+, that he would have a home with our entire Province,” the APA Bishop emphatically states on May 30. “If he does not, given the G3 situation which I understand but with which I do not subscribe, I will still receive Fr. Calvin into my Diocese with much regret on all sides. It is right for both the pastoral care of Fr. Calvin but also a parish that needs support given all these changes and abrupt redirections.”

Bishop Giffin is full-throated in defending his decision to bring Robinson and his independent parish under his watchful episcopal wing.

“I do think it incredibly important to mention that the situation with Fr. Calvin Robinson has zero to do with any ‘allure to celebrity’ (as has been suggested) and all to do with attempting to provide pastoral care and minister to a priest who I believe has not been treated appropriately,” Bishop Giffin posted on May 31. “Do not mistake what I may do for Fr. Calvin to be anything else save caring for a priest in need. He is first and foremost a priest, who serves a parish, also in need, and I felt compassion and responsibility when made aware of this need. I will not pass them on the other side of the road and turn my eyes away. People need to stop reading any more into it than that.” 

Robinson says he wears each “cancellation” as a badge of honor.

“Every time, every single time, these cancellations have been blessings,” Robinson told the conferees on May 9 while speaking at the Campaign Life Coalition’s ProLife Youth Summit in Ottawa, Canada. “Every single time I'm storing up treasure in heaven.”

“This is why I'm speaking to you today. You need to get ‘cancelled for Christ,’” he said. “And I'm not talking about causing trouble for the sake of causing trouble.”

“I'm talking about standing firm in the faith,” he continues. “Speaking truth at all times. NEVER compromising to be nice. Always aim to be good. Always aim to put Christ first in everything that we do.”

Many however believe that Robinson’s public grandstanding on woke issues including the ordination of women is more about his ego and politics than gospel proclamation.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.