Posted on 07/04/2024 5:08:54 PM PDT by Morgana
The Meeting House church in Oakville, ON, which disgraced pastor Bruxy Cavey once led, is shutting down for a month after being unable to find abuse insurance following nearly 40 different reports of sexual abuse against four pastors within the church.
Bruxy Cavey is one of the country’s most recognizable religious leaders. Far from being orthodox, he is also a false teacher who denies penal substitutionary atonement, biblical inerrancy, the eternality of hell, has an unbiblical view of the sin of homosexuality, and displays an affinity for open-theism.
In 2021, Cavey was released from his position at The Meeting House, a 5000-member multi-campus megachurch considered one of the biggest in the country, after being arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including allegations of abuse of a minor.
The church has struggled to survive since then, with giving down and several satellite churches shuttering down or consolidating. In an email sent to members, the church explains that because they’ve had so many allegations of sexual abuse over the years, so far resulting in three civil lawsuits from abuse victims demanding $5 million each in damages, their insurance company doesn’t want the liability.
As a result, The Meeting House cannot get anyone to insure them and don’t dare operate without, lest one of their leaders is revealed to be another molester (not an insignificant concern, given their history), opening them up to even further lawsuits and financial risk.
The historical incidents and allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse at The Meeting House continue to impact our church today in many ways, including how we are viewed by insurers.
Over the last few years, our church has taken significant steps to address systemic risk, help prevent abuse, and create a safe environment for staff, volunteers, and congregants.
This includes implementing new policies and procedures related to conflict and abuse, restructuring governance, introducing new leadership, and improving training and volunteer screening. We have received positive feedback from insurers and experts who believe our actions have been particularly rigorous and effective, and that our abuse prevention framework is now first rate among churches.
Despite these positive changes, we are disappointed to learn that our history still causes insurers to view us as a significant go-forward risk. We were recently informed that, effective June 30, our current insurer will not be renewing our Abuse Liability (AL) coverage, or our Employment Practices Liability (EPL) coverage.
They continue:
However, we have learned in the last week that our search has not identified any insurers yet willing to provide The Meeting House with AL or EPL coverage…
For the protection of our staff, volunteers, vulnerable people including kids and youth, and our wider church community, our Transition Board and Network Leadership Team believe it is not responsible to continue engaging in ministry work through The Meeting House church entity without full insurance coverage.
In light of this development, we feel led to pause our normal ministry for the month of July to dedicate time to continue discerning what form God is inviting us to take into the future as a network of churches.
Can we shut down the Federal Government, then? :)
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