Church of England Evangelical Priest Resigns over Bullying and Abuse
from Virtueonline:
The Revd Matthew Firth was appointed by Bishop Paul Butler as Priest in Charge of St Cuthbert’s Darlington & Priest in Charge of Holy Trinity Darlington, along with being Resource Church Leader for a new transformation and growth project at St Cuthbert’s. Members of the interview panel have told Matthew that Paul Butler pushed for Matthew to be appointed and reported Paul Butler as having said that ‘Matthew is an excellent candidate because clearly one day he will be an Archdeacon or a Suffragan Bishop.’
Matthew moved to Darlington and was licensed by Paul Butler. Within a few weeks of the licensing service, however, Matthew discovered that Paul Butler had done no consultation whatsoever with St Cuthbert’s PCC about whether St Cuthbert’s wanted to be a Resource Church. Nevertheless, Butler’s Resource Church Officer instructed Matthew to take forward the planning process for St Cuthbert’s. Matthew did this as best as he could, but the absence of any initial consultation obviously made things very difficult. Throughout the process, however, the Resource Church Officer praised Matthew’s work and planning. The planning work also received Stage 1 accreditation by the Church Commissioners for Strategic Development Funding. Thus, Matthew’s initial work on the project received only praise and no criticism whatsoever from anyone.
Five months into his post, during a sermon at Holy Trinity Darlington, Matthew shared the current official Church of England teaching on marriage and abortion, making reference to Global Anglican Future Conference materials. Twelve people walked out of the service. After the service, a number of congregation members aggressively told Matthew that the congregation ‘Does not want to hear this teaching.’ Subject Access Request papers now show that Matthew’s orthodox teaching at the service was the major factor in Holy Trinity PCC members’ desire to begin the backroom process of ousting Matthew from his post.
Six months into his post Matthew was informed by the local Archdeacon that it was time for his routine six month review. This was simply to be a chat to talk about how things were going and to review Matthew’s role description. Matthew was used to this from previous roles. Subject Access Request papers now show, however, that what Matthew had actually been invited to was in fact the beginning of a Capability Process. This was very underhand. Matthew should have been treated with transparency and should have been invited to be accompanied by a colleague. Instead, he went alone into a meeting which was very different to what he had been told and which potentially carried serious consequences.
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