The Bishop of Ripon & Leeds, the Rt Revd John Packer, has rejected claims by the Unite trade union that bullying among the clergy is “rife”.
The allegation is based on figures released by the union, which says it deals with 150 cases of bullying among the clergy a year. Unite currently has 2500 members in its faith-workers branch, the majority of whom are ministers of religion.
Last month, the union backed the Revd Mark Sharpe in his case against the diocese of Worcester. Mr Sharpe said that he had been the victim of a four-year campaign of harassment in the Teme Valley South benefice (News, 18/25 December). Unite described the benefice as “toxic” (see below).
Rachael Maskell, a national officer at Unite, said that cases of bullying among the clergy they were dealing with were becoming nastier, “to the point of criminal activity.
This doesn’t surprise me at the frequency of bullying in the church. I myself was a victim of a bully Rector here in TEC and a conservative at that. After months of escalating craziness and learning that there was a pattern to his behavior, I invited him naively to 3rd party mediation, because I believe reconciliation is a Christian reality and plus it was guaranteed in my contract. He would have nothing to do with it. It ended with my termination as his Associate and my family being thrown out of the Rectory on to the street. To hear this news from the UK that clergy actually have protection brings me joy and hope, as power can be abused even by people who are unfortunately wolves in shepherd’s clothing.
Of the five bishops under whom I’ve served, only one was a bully. Another was mercurial, admittedly, but not bad. The bully came from a dysfunctional family situation and essentially recapitulated his family of origin in his diocesan family. As a result, however, the clergy made sure none of his most cherished plans got off the ground. The rector under whom I served my curacy was also a bully. He also had an alcoholic abusive father, and was from Northern Ireland, which had it’s own complications. He sort of enjoyed making people cry, again, recapitulating his family of origin. I was raised in a peaceful family situation and have recapitulated the same in my congregations. One of my bishops flat-out said that he preferred hiring people from what he called ‘good’ families because they pretty much got on well with everyone.
I knew of two catholic priests in the same church who were bullies. One was a ‘baby priest’ in charge of student ministries who decried anyone who held to more traditional ‘conservative’ beliefs;
the other a monsignor, who was in charge of the annulment committee as well as the head of the co-cathedral/student center which we attended in college.
Both almost ‘sank’ their ministries over their draconian policies and abuse of people who came to them for assistance.
They are the reason my wife wanted (and wants) nothing to do with the Catholic Church today, and why I ended up in the Episcopal Church shortly after our marriage.
Terrible examples of priestly leadership.
Jim Elliott