Posted on 07/30/2004 9:01:04 PM PDT by ahadams2
Church to defrock disgraced bishop
By Greg Roberts
July 28, 2004
THE Anglican bishop at the centre of the child sex abuse controversy that forced the resignation of Peter Hollingworth as governor-general is to be formally stripped of his holy orders.
A church tribunal headed by Queensland Supreme Court judge Debra Mullins has unanimously resolved that Donald Shearman, 77, be defrocked for seducing a teenage schoolgirl boarding at an Anglican hostel at Forbes in western NSW in the mid-1950s.
Church sources said the unprecedented defrocking will be performed by Brisbane Archbishop Phillip Aspinall in the Darnell Room of St Martin's House - part of the St John's Cathedral complex in central Brisbane - on August 25.
In a parallel development, NSW police have begun investigating the first formal complaint against Mr Shearman by his victim. Religious historian and head of religious studies at the University of Queensland, Philip Almond, said he had not heard of a bishop being defrocked in comparable circumstances anywhere.
"This is indeed exceptional," Professor Almond said yesterday. "This is clearly being done to emphasise how seriously the diocese intends to deal with behaviour of this kind."
Archbishop Aspinall confirmed yesterday that he had received the six-member tribunal's findings, but said it would be inappropriate for him to comment until the process had concluded.
A suggestion by Dr Hollingworth in 2002 that the underage victim had initiated the sexual relationship with Mr Shearman sparked a national outcry, and a church inquiry into his handling of sex abuse complaints while archbishop of Brisbane.
The inquiry's report was highly critical of Dr Hollingworth and led to his resignation last year as governor-general.
Mr Shearman, who failed to respond to the so-called Articles of Association served on him by the tribunal and refused to attend its hearings, has previously admitted the relationship with his student but said he was unsure how old she was at the time. The victim has claimed the then priest began sexually interfering with her when she was 14, and this progressed to sexual intercourse when she was 15 before he expelled her from the hostel.
In the complaint now being investigated by police, the woman claims Mr Shearman told her at the time she was not too young to have sex because the teenage Juliet, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, was a partner in "one of the great romances of history". Mr Shearman could not be reached for comment yesterday at his Deception Bay home north of Brisbane.
As Brisbane archbishop, Dr Hollingworth was present at a 1995 meeting attended by the woman and Mr Shearman.
Mr Shearman later offered to relinquish his holy orders, but Dr Hollingworth rejected the offer. Instead, Dr Hollingworth wrote to the woman suggesting that her allegations had caused great distress to Mr Shearman and his wife, Fay.
Ping.
"seducing a teenage schoolgirl "This is indeed exceptional," Professor Almond said yesterday. "This is clearly being done to emphasise how seriously the diocese intends to deal with behaviour of this kind."
No, it's a sop to protect homosexuals.
I'll have to admit my first reaction was 'this is only happening because it doesn't involve homosexuals'...none the less it is *still* the right thing to do and sets a precedent for the future.
Without denying what you say...
Moral philosophy tells us that we may not commit an objectively evil act for the sake of the good we hope will result.
A correlary is that an objectively good act committed for an evil purpose is...is what? Compromised, perhaps?
So they are just now catching up with evil done in the 50s? We've got another 50 years then before they start defrocking left and right for the evil being done today. Sheesh.
Although us Catholics are hardly in a good position to point fingers at any other group, the absurdity of defrocking someone who was never a valid bishop may still be worth mentioning.
obviously if we agreed on what constitutes a valid bishop (or priest or deacon, for that matter) we'd be Roman Catholics, so since we don't, the point is moot.
I hear you but I have to point out (as a recovering Episcopalian) you will never get anywhere with that line of argument.
It was only after seeing the correctness of Catholic theology in so many other areas was I willing to consider your point. I doubt it will be much different with anyone else.
For me the one big epiphany moment was reading the Gospel of John. The Last Supper is being described and it was clear a Sacrament was being established but it didn't end there. He continued to describe the washing of the Apostles feet and I thought to myself why this isn’t a ceremony. It sure looks like one is being described, something deeply symbolic, but I could not think of a single time in my life I had ever seen the Episcopal Church perform this, not even Maundy Thursdays. I have never seen this in the Baptist or the Methodist, but I knew the Catholics did have a ceremony. That was my moment when I could not deny that there was Truth in other things the Catholics were teaching.
Can I get a hug now?
See I was right, that line of argument will get you no where.
Pax
uhm, well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that. Leaving aside the foot washing question (which btw was done regularly on Maundy Thursday at the conservative ecusa large parish we belonged to back east) there are two significant issues I believe one needs to be aware of when posting here:
1. This is an ecumenical board. It ain't all one particular denomination, it ain't ever (God Willing) going to be just one particular denomination, and everyone here needs to be aware of that fact. At least at a theoretical level, we are all here both to provide denominationally based support to our own people; and to discuss issues of mutual interest with folks of other denominations. Certainly I'm as guilty as anybody else of kibbutzing on threads of other denominations, but I always try to be careful to make it clear that my perspective is *external* to the denomination of primary concern in that thread. I'm sure I've slipped up once or twice and gotten overly pedantic, but I really do make an effort not to lecture folks from the position that Anglicanism is the only way to Heaven, period. Which brings us to the other point:
2. One of the most fundamental concepts in Protestant theology, and indeed one which many Protestants don't completely understand (so it's no surprise that many non-Protestants don't understand it either) is simply that outside of the Canon of Scripture there is no such thing as absolutely timeless infallible speech from or by any human individual or group. In other words: no denomination has everything exactly the way God wants us to have it. Does that mean that denominational organizations don't matter? certainly not!
Rather, from the most basic Protestant (and I would argue most basic Christian) perspective the bottom line on salvation is found in Romans 10:9 "for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (that's from the NAB translation, btw). In other words: we all belong to the denomination which we have found through prayer and study to be what we believe to be closest to what Holy Scripture tells us God wants His Church to be. None the less, the fallen nature of our inherent human condition precludes any of us from having the whole thing entirely correct...despite the very human desire to claim that their particular denomination is perfect. None of us are perfect; only God is perfect. Since salvation depends on God, and not us (which is a danged good thing IMHO)anyone in any denomination who in faith does what Romans 10:9 says he needs to do is saved...everything else comes after that.
Please note that none of the above is intended as criticism of the fact that both of you know that God has called you to be Roman Catholics. Rather, my point is that for someone who is in any denomination - be they Anglican, Roman, Orthodox, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or whatever - to expect the rest of the Body of Christ to see their particular denomination as the only way to salvation is at best naive...that's all.
Well for what it is worth I thought the same, for the most part, I think differently now. Of course you know that. I do not worry too much about you anyway. I figure the Episcopalian Church is doing a better job of converting people to the Roman Catholic faith than the RCC is doing for itself at the moment.
yeah, we're also doing a bang up job of supporting the Missouri Synod Lutherans, too...
Well said. Our church has always done the footwashing on Maundy Thursday as have several other Episcopal churches in our diocese so it may be a regional thing to exclude it.
My Epis. church does foot washing on Maundy Thursday.
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