The following letter is by a son of a survivor of clergy perpetrated sexual assault.
An Open Letter to the four candidates nominated by the house of Bishops for the responsibility of Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada:
The scourge of clergy perpetrated sexualized assault, and institutional cover up is a primary reason for the persistent decline in church attendance. Enabling and concealing assault that is sexualized and inflicted upon given groups of women and children by clergy, is a factor entirely within the churches’ control.
This time of year, is one which accentuates my grief, making writing this letter to you all the more difficult.
Having evaluated my family members love for each other, devotion to God, and respect for the authorities God instituted on earth, an Anglican priest used his position of authority and trust, to sexually exploit my family member, a child, and sexually harass and assault another member of my family by forcing them into a situation of vulnerability orchestrated by the Priest himself. During one of the sexualized assaults, the priest lit the paschal candle counselling the family member that God told him with freight train force, that what he was doing was right and good.
As a small boy, and now as a youth, my own ongoing experience as a secondary victim is not only church members driving me and my family from the church but also forcing me and my family to the margins of the greater community. The result is profound hardship being visited daily upon me and my family spiritually, financially, and emotionally. From my living experience, I offer a few suggestions to you all regarding church practices that continue to facilitate and conceal violence.
Most policies addressing sexualized assault perpetrated by clergy stand in opposition to the criminal code of Canada. For instance, communicated in many is the idea that “sexual assault is an activity that may be a crime”. In Canada, sexual assault is a criminal offense and as such is always a crime. Further, many of these policies create confusion on when sexualized gross misconduct is considered criminal and when reports to police or other authorities must or should be made. Additionally, these policies frame sexual assault as being about sexual gratification. Clergy perpetrated sexualized assault is an act of violence and a power-based crime.
Clergy perpetrated sexualized assault is frequently found amongst a cluster of other types of gross misconduct against the church. For instance, maladministration, intentional diversion of church funds, misuse of church property and assets, as well as bullying and harassment of church staff and volunteers.
Lack of protection of personal information & privacy, and in particular use of non-church domain email accounts, social media accounts, phone numbers etc. are tools which facilitate gross misconduct by clergy, including giving sexually predatory clergy an increased ability to isolate victims and commit acts of sexual violence in secret. Improvement in this area requires not only well written privacy and personal information management policies but also oversight to ensure compliance.
Use of personal, private business, and government emails to conduct church business in the name of the Bishop is a practice not in keeping with provincial, territorial or federal personal information & privacy law.
Archaic habits may be hard to put away, but I hope each of you makes an intelligent decision in the interests of the church, to stop tolerating behaviors and practices that facilitate and conceal the clustering of behaviors by clergy, including sexualized assault and financial misconduct, that are keeping people from attending the church.
At some point, the church’s rigid desire to protect its own status quo with public relations pieces, and superficial gestures, will be confronted by the idea that the most commanding in status and influence reserve sexual rights to stigmatized groups of women and children as a matter of privilege, and as an expression of what the institution cares about most: power.
Even now, that question forming in the hearts and minds of discerning generations, is being quickened.