A lawsuit was filed last week against a monastery in Missouri where Fr. Bede Parry, who has served All Saints for 11 years as organist and assisting priest, was a monk in another denomination in the 1980s. The suit alleges that Fr. Bede engaged in inappropriate relationships with youth in their late teens. In response to these allegations, Fr. Bede has resigned from his duties at All Saints and tendered to me his resignation as a priest.Please read Bishop Edwards' entire statement. In my humble opinion the response by the bishop is weak tea, indeed, but at least he responded. However, according to Chilton, the Presiding Bishop refers all inquiries to her office about Parry to the Diocese of Nevada, which seems somewhat craven and unfair, since she, as the then bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, made the decision to receive Parry into the Episcopal Church as a priest, despite his history of sexual abuse, and presided over his reception. Surely, Bishop Katharine cannot remove herself from responsibility and place the whole burden of addressing the situation on Bishop Edwards.
Further from the post at The Lead:
Questions that need answers:We're still waiting.
What process is in place to hear from those who may have been abused since Parry became an Episcopal priest?
How did they monitor him 24/7? How did the rest of community receive protection? Did the church know there was an admitted child abuser in their midst? Did the community around the church know? How did the diocese protect the vulnerable?
When I think of my friends who have suffered through the ordination process---who, as part of that process, have endured sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia, at great personal cost to themselves because they could not do anything else and still be true to their belief that they were called by God--I don't know whether to scream, cry, or just walk out the church door for good.
ReplyDeleteI have been accused lately of holding leaders to impossible standards. I reject that accusation, because if we do NOT hold our leaders to high standards, it is the least among us who pay. Over, and over, and over again...
The PB is not the CEO of a corporation. She is the head of our CHURCH, for God's sake--and as such, she simply cannot hide behind legalese. If she knew Parry's history and received him anyway, she needs to resign as Presiding Bishop.
Doxy, this situation troubles me greatly. That the PB puts the entire burden on Bishop Edwards to address the matter publicly seems so very cowardly to me. Someone explain to me why we should pretend the elephant is not in the room.
ReplyDeleteThank you Granmere.
ReplyDeleteI think the only adequate response that can be forthcoming is "we are sorry but we have failed as a church in our duty to protect our children and we need to fix it" And this is how we are going to fix it:
1. Examine all clergy and employee files. If there are any further examples of priests or employees with a background like Parry action needs to be taken to remove them from the clergy.
2. Any past cases of clergy abuse need to follow the steps bishop Sean Rowe followed with the Rev. Donald Davis case if they have not already done so.
3. Past handling of abuse cases needs to be re-examined. In any cases where clergy were disciplined for raising the red flag there needs to be a public apology and full compensation.
4. All leaders and employees who led cover ups need to be removed from office. We all make honest mistakes and we can forgive leaders for making those, but failure to admit to those mistakes and take action to address the consequences cannot be accepted in leadership.
5. Following any future failure in the policies there needs to be a complete and independent investigation of what went wrong to prevent it happening again and so that lessons are learned.
6. There are a number of other unproven allegations of further apparently uninvestigated abuse in comments to many of these stories and in abuse recovery forums all over the internet, which cannot be linked to as they are not proven. Hire a researcher to identify these examples and ensure a proper investigation takes place if it has not already.
It is only by complete openness an honesty that trust can be restored.
Another John Doe.
Thanks Another John Doe - will you post your comments on Episcopal Café too?
ReplyDeleteAnother John Doe, your suggestions appear eminently sensible to me. Thank you. Yours sounds like a plan.
ReplyDeleteIt is only by complete openness an honesty that trust can be restored.
Amen!
If she's going to continue this, Bp. Katherine needs to resign, and I say that knowing what a blow it will be to us at this time if she does.
ReplyDeleteIt's more of a blow to all of us to keep up this ecclesial monkey-business that is - apparently - not simply a failing of one church, but an innate systemic corruption in organized religion.
It makes us more than a laughingstock, it makes people rightfully contemptuous of us and the God we proclaim.
The longer the silence, the worse it looks. This breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteVery sad stuff.
ReplyDeleteShannon, it is very sad. And we're still waiting.
ReplyDelete