Posted on 05/18/2004 9:11:48 AM PDT by Loyalist
Sexual predator was barred in 1994 from holding leadership role in church
The bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa is considering whether to enforce a 10-year-old ban prohibiting a convicted pedophile from playing the organ and conducting an adult choir at a downtown church.
Bishop Peter Coffin said he is pondering what to do with John Gallienne, a sexual predator and former choirmaster barred by senior Anglican officials in 1994 from holding a leadership position in the church, but who is now an organist at Elgin Street's St. John the Evangelist.
"I just might mull it over for a while. There's no doubt the press wants to force my hand, but I'm not prepared to have the press do that," said Bishop Coffin.
In 1990, it was revealed that Mr. Gallienne sexually abused young boys by exploiting his position of trust and authority as a choirmaster and organist at an Anglican church in Kingston. That year, he pled guilty to 20 sex crimes against 13 young boys.
At the time, the Kingston Anglican diocese barred Mr. Gallienne from playing a "church organ, piano" and leading "a choir or singing group for worship or concert entertainment." The Ottawa diocese also adopted the ban, but a story that appeared in the Kingston Whig-Standard on Saturday revealed that Mr. Gallienne is violating the rules.
Since about 2000, four years after his sentence expired, Mr. Gallienne has been an organist at St. John's, which is known for helping recently released sex offenders reintegrate into society. Mr. Gallienne also sometimes conducts an adult choir.
Bishop Coffin said he has known about Mr. Gallienne's position at the church since 2000. St. John's never sought the bishop's permission to break the ban, but convinced the bishop that Mr. Gallienne wasn't a threat behind the organ, he said.
"If I was remiss, I was remiss," he said. "I was fairly new at the job ... and I was never comfortable with the way he ended up doing that at St. John's.
"I was uneasy, but I've never been uneasy about St. John's concern for the safety of the people that go there."
There are no children or young people in the choir.
The criminal investigation into Mr. Gallienne was kickstarted when the Kingston parents of two boys who committed suicide claimed Mr. Gallienne molested their sons.
No charges were laid because of a lack of evidence, but the public allegations encouraged more victims to come forward.
After he pled guilty in Kingston, he was convicted again in 1994, this time for two counts of indecent assault against a choirboy in Victoria.
Mr. Gallienne was not available for comment.
In an interview with the Citizen, St. John's Rev. Canon Garth Bulmer defended his decision to allow Mr. Gallienne to conduct and play the organ.
Rev. Bulmer said he considers the ban to be a guideline, and as long as Mr. Gallienne isn't in contact with children, he is willing to ignore it.
"It was an official document in that it came from an official, but I questioned the morality of it," he said.
When Mr. Gallienne joined the congregation in the mid- 1990s, it was through the church's Circles of Support and Accountability program. The program links sex offenders with a group of five to eight volunteers who check in with the offender daily, accompany him or her to church and are available for advice.
The St. John's congregation is given a newsletter reminding members about the number of sex offenders who attend the church.
Rev. Bulmer estimated a third of his 800 members are specifically aware of Mr. Gallienne and his crimes. None has threatened to leave the church because of the pedophile's position, he said.
On Sunday, one day after the Whig-Standard's story appeared, a young man who met Mr. Gallienne as an 18-year-old and fellow choir member attended church for the first time in a while to support the offender, Rev. Bulmer said.
"This news is not shocking to anyone in the congregation," he said.
"We're a church. We're in the business of helping people. If we're not going to help rebuild lives, we might as well shut our doors."
Meanwhile, Bishop Coffin said he will soon make a decision about Mr. Gallienne's fate.
He said he would never interfere with Mr. Gallienne's right to attend church, but pondered his right to hold a position of leadership.
"That's an earned thing. It can be withdrawn."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2004
Ping
another just argh! Ping.
What kind of church has no children? Don't tell me, I don't want to know.
Ahem. May I suggest that, just for starters, they have no idea of the total number of sex offenders who attend? They only know the number of convicted sex offenders. Spend some time reading federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reports and you'll find that about (I seem to recall slightly more, but memory could be wrong) half the convictions every year are first-time convictions.
Just think of all the Catholic priests who got away scot-free for so long... just because you have no convicted sex offenders around doesn't mean you're safe. Ever.
However, if the church bars sinners, it would be empty.
"If there are no biblical prohibitions for Gays to be in leadership then there should be no prohibitions for pedophiles either."
I don't support practicing gays in leadership either. However, the literature on children and sex offenses is quite clear about their less developed capacity to consent, and the horrible harm. There's also the matter of high recidivism by sex offenders. There should always be prohibitions or constraints on pedophiles for these reasons.
For each of the reasons you site, there are arguments put forth by folks like Nambla to contradict them. Who is to say that having nonconsenusual sex is harmful if it was done in a more inclusive and accepting society ? Who is to say it isn't our ancient prohibitions that harm the child and not the act itself ? Who is to say that having young sex handled lovingly by a person who feels love for the child could not be a positive and affirming experience ?
You have concluded that nonconsensual sex at a young age is harmful without acknowledging that the harm may be from the guilt we make the child feel. Much like the guilt we make a homosexual feel. There is no telling how a child would be affected in a society that looked at this differently.
"You have concluded that nonconsensual sex at a young age is harmful without acknowledging that the harm may be from the guilt we make the child feel. Much like the guilt we make a homosexual feel. There is no telling how a child would be affected in a society that looked at this differently."
You're right. There is no telling. However, I'm not prepared to risk the emotional well-being of children to find out -- just so people can indulge their perversions.
I wouldn't equate the emotional experience of an adult with a child. Developmentally, there is a significant difference in their capacity to handle their emotions. Adult homosexuals have the capacity to identify guilt they believe to be legitimate (and learn from it) versus the kind serves no useful purpose (perhaps for things that weren't their fault). Young children can't make this separation as readily.
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