From The Church Times-EPISCOPALIANS in the United States are being urged to spend the 40 days of Lent examining the institutional Church’s record of failure in handling cases of sexual abuse, harassment, and exploitation.
In an open letter to churchgoers, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the Most Revd Michael Curry, and the President of the House of Deputies, the Revd Gay Jennings, called for Ash Wednesday to be dedicated to examining the ways “in which we in the Church have failed to stand with women and other victims of abuse and harassment”.
The exploitation of women had been endemic in the Church for much longer than in Hollywood or journalism or industry, they wrote.
They asked Christians to make it part of their Lenten discipline to redouble their commitment to “be communities of safety that stand against the spiritual and physical violence of sexual exploitation and abuse”. Reflecting on the biblical story of the rape and exploitation of King David’s daughter Tamar, they described it as a “biblical story devoid of justice”.
The letter acknowledges the effect of widespread abuse scandals across the US — in the government and in the film and music industries, and elsewhere — and the Church’s own “sexism, misogyny, and misuse of power”.
More here-
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/2-february/news/world/episcopal-church-in-us-penance-failing-victims-abuse
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