The Anglican Diocese of the Highveld said this week that it has cleared the rector of the Parish of the Ressurrection, Wattville, of allegations of exposing alter servers to pornography.
Another priest, accused of victimising a church cleaner after she spurned his sexual advances, has also been exonerated after a thorough investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
This was revealed by a senior member of the diocese and registrar, Jonathan Cornelius, in two statements he sent to Sunday World.
Regarding the pornographic incident, Cornelius said the investigations were conducted by church wardens.
The allegations were that on a Friday during servers guild practice, the priest exposed the servers to explicit porno-graphic material.
He said it later emerged during investigation it was in fact the servers who were watching the blue movie and the priest who was accused was in fact on leave on the day of the alleged incident.
“On a certain Friday during servers guild practice, some members were caught watching pornography when the priest (name withheld for legal reasons) was not present.”
He said because of this, it was suggested that the servers be suspended.
Their parents were made aware of the incident, and the priest addressed the congregations about the issue.
After that, Cornelius added, there were allegations that the priest had sexually abused the servers.
The allegations, he said, were later dealt with by church wardens and the servers were then welcomed back to serving.
“The servers thereafter apologised to the church,” he said.
He said the accused priest was promoted from Watville two years after the alleged incident.
He denied that the allegations were officially reported to the bishop or the diocese.
Cornelius also stated that the allegations relating to sexual impropriety involving a priest at St Boniface were investigated and the man of cloth was also cleared of any wrongdoing.
This after the alleged victim failed to co-operate with the investigating team.
“We reject any allegation that the complaint was not investigated or that the complaint is not being viewed in serious light.
“The matter has been referred to the gender committee of the Diocese of the Highveld.
“Ms (name withheld for legal reasons) has refused to consult and the Highveld gender committee chair Dr Gama has been unable to obtain a statement from her.
“In light of the reluctance by Ms (name withheld for legal reasons) to assist in the investigation, we are unable to proceed further,” said Cornelius.
However, the St Boniface sexual harassment victim rubbished the claims by the diocesan registrar.
In a statement prepared by the St Boniface’s Project Team – a team taking issues on behalf of the gender-based violence victims – and signed by her, which Sunday World has seen, the victim said: “At this stage I have lost hope in the church leadership in handling my complaint in a fair manner. Anyway, I thank God for giving me strength to speak out and not die in silence like most women do, and only God knows.”
The female victim said soon after she rejected the priest’s sexual advances, she and her cleaning colleagues were dismissed from their positions.
She continued: “On 28 June 2021 I wrote another email to Dr Nzimande (a senior official in Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s office in Cape Town), and copied Bishop Charles May, where I expressed my pain and disappointment at the treatment I was receiving from the high office of the Anglican Church in our diocese. To this day I have not received a response from Bishop May.” She said it was not true that she failed to cooperate with the church hierarchy in its effort to get to the bottom of the allegations against the priest.
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