THE Bishop and diocese of Montreal have corrected a declaration that none of the nominees for election as the next Bishop had been subject to a safeguarding complaint. A complainant came forward.
The Bishop, the Rt Revd Mary Irwin-Gibson, and the Executive Archdeacon and Vicar General of Montreal, the Ven. Robert Camara, both asserted last month that none of the seven candidates had been subject to complaints under the Anglican Church of Canada’s Safe Church policy.
The former director of religious music at Montreal Cathedral, Dr Jonathan White, however, said that these statements were misleading, as he had made a complaint under the policy.
Half of the members of a search committee set up to vet candidates to be the next Bishop resigned last month, referring to unspecified concerns over the diocese’s Safe Church policy, and what they described as “external pressures” on members (News, 28 March).
The diocese of Montreal’s diocesan council — its trustee body — issued a “note of clarification” after receiving the search committee’s report. It assured synod members that the election and nominees met canonical requirements, including Safe Church policy requirements, and could go ahead.
In an effort to reassure congregations, Bishop Irwin-Gibson told the Canadian Church’s newspaper, the Anglican Journal, and Archdeacon Camara told the Church Times, that none of the seven candidates was the subject of complaints under the Safe Church policy. The policy applies to “unacceptable behavior, abuse or maltreatment that includes physical or sexual assault, bullying, harassment and/or economic, emotional, physical or sexual misconduct”.
Dr White has told the Church Times of the outcome of his complaint of harassment against several people, including one of the candidates. He made the complaint in November 2020. As he is subject to a non-disclosure agreement with the cathedral, he has not revealed the names of those involved.
The cathedral has released its own statement, however, confirming that there was “a dispute between our Director of Music at the time, Dr Jonathan White, and Corporation. All issues raised were investigated, resolved and closed.”
The Corporation consists of the cathedral’s Rector and Wardens. The Rector is also the Dean, the Very Revd Bertrand Olivier, who is a candidate in the episcopal election.
A letter from Bishop Irwin-Gibson to Dr White’s lawyer, seen by the Church Times, accepts that the investigators of his complaint found two instances of harassment and misconduct.
The Bishop writes in her letter: “I took the matter very seriously and, as provided in the Safe Church Policy, I determined that an oral reprimand was the appropriate response for both offences. An oral reprimand is not a trivial matter.”
When the Church Times told Archdeacon Camara the outcome of the letter, he said that his initial response “may not have gone into all the complexities”.
He continued: “The complaint was a workplace dispute that was resolved between the parties involved. There were no other complaints that met the requirement of the policy.”
Dr White’s letter was a “workplace issue involving an exchange of words that ended with a private settlement of the issue”, he said.
In a statement to the Anglican Journal, Bishop Irwin-Gibson also corrects her previous statement: “I should have said to you that I had no unresolved formal complaints.” She says that diocesan staff advised her that the November 2020 complaint was “a private matter that was settled between the parties”. It was, she said, “a workplace dispute and it came to its formal conclusion”. This did not make anyone ineligible to be elected bishop.
But Dr White, now director of music at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, said that he was “shocked and surprised” by the initial denial that there were any complaints.
“Like many, I have been deeply saddened by the events surrounding the election of the new Bishop of Montreal. While I am no longer a member of that diocese, I still have many friends who have been affected by what can only be described as a rapidly deteriorating pastoral crisis, and astonished that, especially in light of recent events in the Church of England, churches continue to be less than forthcoming when there are questions of safeguarding.
“I was shocked and surprised to read that both Mary Irwin-Gibson and Robert Camera both stated on record that no Safe Church complaint had been made about any of the candidates currently running to be the next Bishop of Montreal.
“In late 2020 I myself found myself compelled to make a formal Safe Church complaint about a number of people, including one or more candidates in the current episcopal election. This complaint was assessed by both Mary and Robert. While there have been statements made either alluding to and/or potentially revealing the identity of one or more of these respondents, I am not in a position to make any comments on those about whom I complained or the nature of that complaint, nor do I intend to do so.
“The diocese of Montreal, however, was not party to any agreement and, as such, I felt compelled to highlight that the statement made on their behalf on more than one occasion was materially incorrect and, I believe, can only have been deliberately misleading.”
He said that, on the basis of his complaint alone, he accepted that people might believe that candidates were still suitable to be Bishop; but “total transparency is now an imperative.”
He knew, he said, of others who “feel they have been and continue to be silenced. . . The people of the diocese of Montreal are owed answers, and I question why those who have the ability to affect the change needed are more interested in stifling conversation than of being the open and transparent Church that is the only type of Church that belongs in 21st-century society.
“History will judge the way that the global Anglican Church has continued to manage safeguarding, despite the many revelations in recent years, and it will not judge kindly those who continue to hide the truth in this way.”
The diocese of Montreal and Bishop Irwin-Gibson have not responded to requests for further comment.
