Greetings from another victim!

I was a United Church Minister from Ordination in 1967 until 1994, when I was advised by phone not to show up for services the next Sunday because I was "unfit for Ministry."

I was completing a year of Interim Ministry (I had done several).

It was classic. I was hired by the Presbytery to deal with a desperate situation. I wrote an honest report as I was asked to do. I'm a truth-teller (not a good career choice!) Seven people on the 3 point charge met with an esteemed retired minister who lived on the charge of the Presbytery chain of pastoral relations. Behind my Back!!!

Curiously as the next Presbytery meeting, I was called aside for a meeting in a back room. I was "unfit" and then the infamous UCC Committee system took over - The Chair said to his committee "Trust me!!" He went to the Executive and said "Trust Me!" He went to the entire Presbytery and said "Trust Me!". I was dispatched in absentia and given two counselors (fellow UCC clergy) who supposedly were going to grind me to how to become "fit" again. They never did because I was unimportant. They caused me to go through all kinds of hoops. ie. their hand - picked psychologist, the stupid UCC career choice analyze thing (I had done it years earlier on my own) and finally I was given an offer I could refuse. (i've I was suspended for 2 years and I could reapply... )

The grand irony was one of my persecutors whispered an aside to me, "We've known about the mess in the pastoral charge and we've been waiting 20 years for someone to tell us the truth!!" (Psst: it didn't help my cause!)

So I was turfed at 53 years of age, with no job or career and supporting an ex-wife and 2 kids in university.

A familiar story...

All my career (I was maverick and never not impressed with the politics of the institution.) I insisted the Church UCC was dysfunctional, abusive and punitive (my whole career).

All my career I stood up for (ie. wrote letters, attended meetings, asked embarrassing questions on behalf of colleagues who I felt were being rail-roaded. NO Luck!!. Most importantly I realized very early, that if it could happen to them, it could happen to me; and it did. AND (remember Niemueller's famous piece, "and no one was left"!!), NO ONE came to my defense. In a Presbytery (Red Deer Pres., Alberta) of over 100 members not one called to ask if I were alive or dead!! And still haven't. (That was in the Spring of 1994)

One other thing: They (Presbytery) never gave me a concrete reasonfor my dismissal (I'm a fighter and was ready to fight) . So it's up to everyone's imagination as to what terrible sin I committed. When non-church friends asked: "Why?" I answered, "I don't know why and I don't expect you to believe me because I can't believe it!" Was it for telling the truth????

Today, I have nothing to do with the United Church I will NEVER forgive the SYSTEM and the particular ministers who were incompetent pastors whose raison d'etre was being politicians. I do not go to worship nor do I have any faith. To be turfed by people I respected would have made it easier.

But... I have tons of sympathy and I would certainly support or try to "help" that vast multitude (company of sinners) of ministers who tried to be perfect, worked their asses off, crashed, were abused and punished by their colleagues and now are divorced and alone, and spend all the holy days, alone. (Where are all those people who called me out in the middle of the night or demanded I take their family's funeral on Monday when I'd promised my (now) estranged kids an outing? You know the answer.)

I don't know if you are for a union or not. I don't care for me, but for the remaining laborers, if they expect any support, any time, it won't come from Presbytery or any level of Church Government. I tried to fight my case - my lawyers friends and teacher friends said, "They can't not do that!!" But the Church did. I contracted a lawyer, I went to the Human Rights Commission which wrote a letter.

TRUST ME. If I were independently wealthy, I could have fought the Church to my death. (By this time, I wanted to be fully re-instated so I could quit. Who in their right mind, would want to continue in an organization that took away their income and I was BLACKBALLED disqualified them from their professional expense). But I couldn't afford it and I knew the history of clergyman trying to get Justice in the United Church. Hopeless... So I live on my ½ pension of $926.27 per month. My rent is $605. Since I moved to my present 1950's apartment 7 years ago, my rest has gone up from $400. So my rent has increased $205 per month as my pension has increased $19 and a few cents per month. Yes! The United Church looks after it's own. That's biblical isn't it??

The United Church (as I assume all Churches are and certainly corporate institutions) is dysfunctional, abusive, and punitive. I have experienced all three and I haven't enjoyed a minute of any of it. I think the United Church is a DISGRACE and I will never contribute another nickel to it or have a good thing to say about it. I don't admit I ever had anything to do with it unless pressed (and then I change the subject)

Anonymous in Edmonton

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