What are the limits on the power and authority of the clergy and lay leadership of a Parish and officers and senior clergy of Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia to prosecute pseudo-criminal proceedings against an ordinary parishioner?
Part I
In her recent article ‘Open Letter to the members of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Anglican Church of Australia Sydney Diocese: Setting the Boundaries on Church Discipline’ Louise Greentree raised the question of what boundaries if any existed under the Anglican Church of Australia Sydney diocese Discipline Ordinance 2006, in relation to the a number of areas including jurisdiction, taking as a case study the conduct of Figtree Anglican Church and the Professional Standards Unit (PSU) in the matter of Dr. Dobbs and his family.
In Part I of this paper she charts the history of the initial challenges to jurisdiction up to forcing the Archbishop to appoint a promoter of charges in order to bring the challenge to jurisdiction before the diocesan Disciplinary Tribunal, and the various ways in which the PSU and others failed to give due and proper consideration to the issue. She continues with a close examination of the material that the diocese finally produced to support its argument that Dr. Dobbs is a ‘church worker’ as defined by the Discipline Ordinance 2006 and thus subject to the jurisdiction of the Professional Standards Unit (PSU) and its Director Philip Gerber, the members of the Professional Standards Committee and the diocesan Disciplinary Tribunal.
Part II of the paper will chronicle the preparation for a preliminary hearing by the diocesan Disciplinary Tribunal on the point of jurisdiction. It will chronicle what happened at that preliminary hearing, resulting in the Promoter for the diocese offering (insisting even) on asking the Tribunal to recommend to the Archbishop that the charges be withdrawn and dismissed, but leaving the issue of the boundaries on jurisdiction unresolved.
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Postscript
At the time of writing (June 2009) the leadership of Figtree Anglican church has resisted all involvement in the reconciliation process. It is appropriate to say that the situation so graphically described in ‘A Mother’s Story’ on this website remains unaltered. The complaints that have been made to the Archbishop (to by-pass Mr. Gerber) of mental and spiritual child abuse and bullying and harassment of adults against the Rev. Rod Irvine, the Rev. Bruce Clarke, Yvonne Gunning, Archdeacon Deryck Howell, Assistant Bishop Al Stewart, and Mr. Philip Gerber all remain unresolved and will do so while the Archbishop refuses to appoint another person to deal with them. A complaint lodged with the Episcopal Standards Commission also remains unresolved and able to be ‘revived’ in the event that the Archbishop continues in this failure to deal with the complaint and make the appointment.