As a member of the Diocese of North Carolina, he served in charges in Aurora, Beaufort, and Statesville.
Dees was discouraged from joining the Reformed Episcopal Church by fundamentalist leader Carl McIntire because of the REC's alleged association with groups perceived as being neo-evangelical.
Dees founded the Anglican Orthodox Church on November 17, 1963 - the first religious body to withdraw from PECUSA in the modern era.
On Passion Sunday, March 15, 1964, Dees was consecrated a bishop by Wasyl Sawyna[1] of the Holy Ukrainian Autocephalic Orthodox Church of North and South America, assisted by Orlando Jacques Woodward of the United Episcopal Church (1945) Anglican/Celtic Rite.
[2][3] Dees received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Bob Jones University in 1965.