by Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism
A polemical clergyman with a fiercely devoted online following and a history of burned bridges is once again preaching and celebrating the eucharist after receiving a license to minister by a bishop of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), to the concern of the denomination’s archbishop.
Fr. Calvin Robinson, a British priest serving in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has cultivated an audience in post-liberal circles on the American political Right, cheered for his eager denunciations of “woke” culture and for a rousing defense of traditional church teaching.
He also has a history of brief service that has seen him minister within five different church jurisdictions across the span of as many years, including the Church of England, the Free Church of England, the Nordic Catholic Church, and the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC).
Several of those past relationships have had a tumultuous ending, with Robinson dismissed by conservative outlet GB News in October of 2023 and disinvited from a concluding panel at the Mere Anglicanism conference. Robinson vigorously contests each bridge-burning, insisting that he always “keeps receipts” and charging that past negative communications disclosed by others lack necessary context. He characterizes the tumult in his wake as opposition from the devil that validates the effectiveness of his ministry.