Bishops letters on sexual abuse

The Diocese of Western North Carolina            January 24, 2018

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On January 22, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, president of the House of Deputies, called on all people to examine and repent the many ways in which our Church has been complicit in the marginalization and victimization of women.

In the letter, they write, "As our societies have been forced into fresh recognition that women in all walks of life have suffered unspoken trauma at the hands of male aggressors and harassers, we have become convinced that the Episcopal Church must work even harder to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent."

Indeed, our Lord counted among his disciples several women, and the Gospels record that women were the first to encounter the resurrected Jesus and were the first evangelists. Clearly, he honored, valued and empowered women as vital participating members of his community. As such we, too, are called to advocate for the safety, protection and equality of all women and girls, our sisters in Christ.

I therefore invite everyone to read and reflect on Bishop Curry and the Rev. Jenning's letter and then to talk about the implications for our ministry and mission in your parish. It is my hope that we all take part in an Ash Wednesday Day of Prayer on February 14, "devoted to meditating on the ways in which we in the church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment and to consider, as part of our Lenten disciplines, how we can redouble our work to be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse."

It is so very important that we join together in prayerful reflection and recommit ourselves to the holy work of standing up against and eradicating exploitation and abuse of all God's children.

Faithfully, 

The Rt. Rev. José A. McLoughlin ,

VII Bishop of Western North Carolina

The Episcopal Church – The Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies

Dear People of God in the Episcopal Church:     January 22, 2018

In recent weeks, compelling testimony from women who have been sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men has turned our minds to a particularly difficult passage of holy scripture:  the story of the rape of King David’s daughter Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13: 1-22). It is a passage in which a conspiracy of men plots the exploitation and rape of a young woman. She is stripped of the power to speak or act, her father ignores the crime, and the fate of the rapist, not the victim, is mourned. It is a Bible story devoid of justice.

For more than two decades, African women from marginalized communities have studied this passage of scripture using a method called contextual Bible study to explore and speak about the trauma of sexual assault in their own lives. Using a manual published by the Tamar Campaign, they ask, “What can the Church do to break the silence against gender-based violence?”

It is, as the old-time preachers say, a convicting question. As our societies have been forced into fresh recognition that women in all walks of life have suffered unspoken trauma at the hands of male aggressors and harassers, we have become convinced that the Episcopal Church must work even harder to create a church that is not simply safe, but holy, humane and decent. We must commit to treating every person as a child of God, deserving of dignity and respect. We must also commit to ending the systemic sexism, misogyny and misuse of power that plague the church just as they corrupt our culture, institutions and governments.

Like our African siblings in faith, we must create contexts in which women can speak of their unspoken trauma, whether suffered within the church or elsewhere. And we must do more.

Our church must examine its history and come to a fuller understanding of how it has handled or mishandled cases of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse through the years. When facts dictate, we must confess and repent of those times when the church, its ministers or its members have been antagonistic or unresponsive to people—women, children and men—who have been sexually exploited or abused. And we must acknowledge that in our church and in our culture, the sexual exploitation of women is part of the same unjust system that also causes gender gaps in pay, promotion, health and empowerment.

We believe that each of us has a role to play in our collective repentance. And so, today, we invite you to join us in an Ash Wednesday Day of Prayer on February 14 devoted to meditating on the ways in which we in the church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment and to consider, as part of our Lenten disciplines, how we can redouble our work to be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Neither of us professes to have all of the wisdom necessary to change the culture of our church and the society in which it ministers, and at this summer’s General Convention, we want to hear the voice of the wider church as we determine how to proceed in both atoning for the church’s past and shaping a more just future. May we find in our deliberations opportunities to listen to one another, to be honest about our own failings and brokenness, and to discern prayerfully the ways that God is calling us to stand with Tamar in all of the places we find her—both inside the church and beyond our doors, which we have too often used to shut her out.

Faithfully,  

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, Presiding Bishop

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings President, House of Deputies