Category: News

Items of interest regarding child sexual abuse, and especially as it relates to the Friends and Workers fellowship.

Guidelines for dealing with CSA/SA in Middle Tennessee

Guidelines for Elders/Wives dealing with CSA/SA

  1. Any allegations of CSA/SA amongst our fellowship meetings will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement immediately. 
  2. With a single allegation, all elders will be contacted immediately.
  3. The alleged perpetrator will be immediately told not to attend any meetings.
  4. Ministers in the field will then be notified, though they will not be involved in the initial process of hearing the allegations or reporting it to authorities.
  5. Any victims who decide to come forward or anyone with concerns can talk with any elder/elder’s wife. They do not need to go to the elder/elder’s wife where they usually attend fellowship meetings if they are more comfortable talking to someone else. Certainly, a victim may also be more comfortable talking to someone other than an elder/elder’s wife initially.
  6. Victims can report to authorities first then inform/discuss with the elder/elder’s wife as appropriate. 
  7. If a CSA/SA abuser – convicted or with allegations – moves to the area, the meeting in the area will not be polled to see if everyone is comfortable adding this abuser to the meeting. Rather, those who wish to have a bible study or meeting with this abuser may form a study group with those interested.
  8. Every elder/elder’s wife will take the Ministry Safe course every two years.
  9. For reference, Child Abuse Hotline (CSA): TN (877) 237-0004 and KY (877) 597-2331, Sexual Assault (SA) call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). 

Guidelines for Middle Tennessee fellowship meetings:

  1. The fellowship meetings will be a safe place – meaning no known convicted or accused abusers of CSA/SA will be allowed attendance at fellowship meetings.
  2. Any elder and/or their wife will listen to an accusation or concern of CSA/SA from their respective meeting and will aid in reporting it to the authorities as warranted and legally required. (Any accusations/concerns can be made either to the elder or their wife or both together depending on situation and comfort level.  Accusations/concerns can be made to the elder or wife of another meeting if more comfortable.)
  3. Known offenders in the area will be shared with the elders and their individual meetings. Ministers will be informed of further communication to be disbursed.
  4. If you have children, please be aware of safe parenting to add another layer of safety to their welfare.
  5. Elders will make every effort to seat families together during the fellowship meetings.
  6. Elders will notify meeting attendees of friends and/or ministers visiting from other states/areas.
  7. For those visiting the meeting, elders will inform the visitor that there are children in the meeting and express that we have a zero-tolerance policy for CSA/SA.

WINGS Note: THese Guidelines were developed by 25 elders and their wives (not the workers).

Ministry Analysis and Confession

Dan McLeod sermon at Milltown Convention 2023

[First part not available]

… There’s joy in heaven when a sinner repents. Jesus went on to say, he that doeth evil hates the light, avoids the light, doesn’t want his evil to be exposed. But he said, he that doeth truth, a person who wants the truth, wants what is true and right and real, looks for light, looks for revelation, looks for exposure and confronts his or her own secrets and exposes them to the light. He said that his deeds may be manifest, may be made known ………. So that we expose ourselves to God and to others that God lets us know that we need to expose ourselves to. So that it can be obvious that we are walking with God.

Nicodemus was a man who wanted to follow Jesus. He wanted to be born again. Jesus had talked to him about being born again. He wanted that. He realised that this was a teacher who had come from God. He realised that there was great miracles and power in this name, in this man. He wanted to follow him. We read on later on that he began to do that. At first maybe in a kind of a secret way, in a quiet way but eventually more and more openly.

I’ve been aware over the years that there is power in coming to the light. I think of some people over the years who have exposed some things to me. I don’t remember asking them to do that.  Somehow, they felt that they needed to be open to somebody about what they were working through. Somehow, they dibbed me in. I’m talking about people who are part of our fellowship. One lady told me about how she had been addicted to painkillers. Sunday morning meeting every week; Wednesday night bible studies; no one knew she was addicted to painkillers. Another man came to me and revealed that if it wasn’t for his faith in Christ he would be living a homosexual lifestyle. He felt like he couldn’t do that because of his faith in Christ. He said that was his struggle, that was the flesh that he had. There have been others through the years who revealed things.

We aren’t told that we need to reveal everything to everybody, we aren’t told that in the scriptures but we are told to confess our faults to one another. There may be times, may be situations, where it is totally appropriate for us to confess some things to one another. It is hard to do. It is like confronting something in your own self. It is a challenge to do.

I think about Adam and Eve. The Lord had told them to not partake of this one tree. They did it anyway and their eyes were opened. The light revealed that they were naked. That is exactly how it happens for us, not so much from eating from a tree but from other things we come up against in life where we know it is the wrong thing to do but there is something about it that we really want, we think it is going to give us something, give us some kind of knowledge or give us some kind of experience that we haven’t had before that we would like to experience. God turned some light on us and then its really important what happens next. It is really important that we come to the light, or we stay in that light or go to more and more of that light.

I don’t understand much about this bit of Genesis 3 about Adam and Eve: They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. I have a hard time visualizing exactly what that would have looked like. I don’t know if they could see him because it just says they heard the voice but they hid themselves from his presence. The Lord God called unto Adam in v9 and said unto him where art thou? Where are you? That’s a really important question for us. Where are you? And how we respond to that is really important. God shines his light and this is an invitation. An invitation to come forward and to reveal where we are and to not hide that from God and from others.

For those of you who aren’t part of our fellowship, we’d like to be really open with you about everything, about our fellowship, I say we and all of us in the ministry. We don’t want to hide things that you need to know. We don’t know everything ourselves, but we don’t want to hide the things that you would need to know. One thing that I will tell you that has happened to us this year as a fellowship and that is that there has been a string of revelations about people in our fellowship, very embarrassing revelations about some people’s personal lives and the way they treated others. We are dealing with that as a fellowship. We are working our way through that. Like someone said, its not a tragedy, well, it’s not a mark against any organisation that they have people who do wrong things. It’s a mark against any group of people if they have people with wrong things and they don’t deal with it in a proper way.

It’s not a surprise that human beings are sinners. That’s what we are. Unfortunately, we haven’t all handled it all well, these revelations, because we are sinners. We make mistakes, and then how we handle those mistakes we make more mistakes. I was reading in the Old Testament there are some times when OT prophets who were facing this crisis among the children of Israel, among  the Jews, these crises I should say. They prayed to God, they confessed their sins to God in an open, well sometimes it seems maybe in private and sometimes in an open public way. It wasn’t always Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel or others who did better and some others I haven’t found. They told in some of those prayers, confessions to God, that they had sinned and they talk about others who had sinned as well.

I’m not quite sure what to do with that. I feel like we ought to be open as a group about what we are struggling with. That we as a ministry need to be really open about our own faults so there can be joy in heaven over our ministry, instead of disappointment. A lot of us have felt a lot of feelings, a lot of feelings of disappointment, sorrow, shame and guilt about sometimes how we as individuals have acted and sometimes about the actions of other people.

I think about a time, 8 years ago or so, I was temporarily in another state. A lady came to me and told about a man in the meetings we were having, a man who was attending those meetings, who had harassed her and abused her for years. She asked us to confront him and do something about it. I didn’t know what to do. I talked about it a little bit with some other ministers there. They felt like she was kind of an unstable, difficult person to deal with. We ended up doing nothing.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that people are unstable and difficult when they are wounded. When they cry out to God, He hears that and He would love it if we would be as sensitive to that as He is, as responsive to that as He is. We want to do a better job about that. We haven’t done a very good job about hearing the cries around us and we want to do better about that. I want to do better about that.

So much of what we have heard about is about us brother workers, us guys, ministers, has been really disappointing. Sometimes we haven’t respected other people’s marriages. Sometimes we have looked lightly on our calling, sometimes we have, well the truth is that God has called some of us to be single. I don’t know if He called all of us in the ministry to be single. There were married ministers in the scripture. We have committed in recent years to be single and I can’t say that God has revealed to me that there is some young lady that I should be married to so it seems like I am supposed to be single, at least for now, and I haven’t done well at accepting that. At least for the time being I am single. That singleness or marriage is a gift from God, we read in I Corinthians 7. Every man has his proper gift of God, to be married or to be single. There are gifts involved in each of those.  Sometimes I haven’t looked for the gifts that there are in the situation God has me in.

One thing, young people that have been damaged, there has been trust damaged in our relationship with the people in our fellowship, between the ministry and what we call the friends, the believers, people who are believing in Christ and wanting to live the truth. Sometimes we in this ministry have damaged that trust by the way that we have acted. We have been demanding about our time in your homes, instead of being servants. That has eroded trust. I realise that there has been some trust damaged in the last few months but there has been trust damaged for many years. I have heard it all through the years.

Those are some things that God is shining a light on. It really matters how we respond to that, it really matters what we do next, that we come to the light, that we confess about where we are. When the Lord God spoke to Adam and Eve He said where are you? He is asking us that same question, where are you? He wants us to be honest about that first of all, where we are, and He wants us to be honest about where we are going.

When God made a covering for their nakedness, one thing about the light it not only exposes our faults, our mistakes, it exposes God’s provision for our mistakes, God’s provision for our thirst. There are people who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. People who have even left our fellowship because they couldn’t in good conscience stay. We read in the scripture there are people who leave the believers for several reasons. We also read that hey might leave because they were not of us, they were not believers, they were anti-Christian. We also read that people might be consumed if we bite and devour them. It is not necessarily that they want to leave but because they have been bitten repeatedly they end up getting devoured and they are no longer there, no longer with us.

 [Story about a spring flowing with water in the Everett area. All sorts of people, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, come to get the clean pure water that they have heard about, because they are thirsty and they want to get clean.]

I wouldn’t have known about that water except someone told me. I wouldn’t have known about Jesus except someone told me. Down through the years I have found that there is water there. There have been a lot of times where I have been thirsty. There are a lot of times where I wished He would give me more water or maybe different water. He has given water. We can go to Him. There is water there. There is water for people who are thirsty. There is water for people who need to be clean. Let’s take advantage of that. The light is revealing that for us. Let’s focus on Him, focus on that relationship that we can have with Him that will help us to keep taking steps into the light, experiencing a little of the joy that there is going to be in heaven because there’s sinners who are turning away from what they have been.

Worker Greg Swenson steps aside

From: Greg Swenson [email redacted but available from WINGS] @gmail.com

Date: Mon, Aug 21, 2023

Subject: Next steps

Dear all,

Fourteen years ago, I started in this work. For me, these have been good years, helpful years.

But now we know, for many they haven’t been. People have been deeply wounded. How have so many been hurt in the name of Jesus? I’m thankful for those who have helped me see this. I’ve reached out to ones who I’ve ignorantly hurt, and I apologize to any who I’ve misjudged.

I’ll share with you from an email I sent to our staff a month and a half ago:

The personal calling I have been feeling on my heart these days and for the foreseeable future is to attend to two important issues:

  1. The healing of the broken-hearted (which is most of us at this point) through active listening and reassurance that victims/survivors and our friends are heard by someone who represents the ministry. The listening sessions are providing one channel for this to occur. But others are reaching out by phone too, ones who have felt isolated for many years. Survivors of abuse–some currently attending meetings and some not–are pouring out their hearts. Many have been in therapy for most of their life, but it can still be healing to hear a ‘worker’ acknowledge and validate the hurts they experienced.
  2. Ministry reform. The approach to our calling and what it means to be an apostle/minister has been pushed into a mold that doesn’t seem to be working well for many. This is evidenced by the high incidence of mental health problems and burnout. This is not because of being weak or different, but many expectations which may or may not be scriptural have been thrust upon an ever-dwindling supply of workers. No one of us can singularly save the current state of things, but I am willing to continue having conversations with overseers, workers, elders, friends and anyone to better understand what direction to move in for sustainability.

I fully understand if you are not feeling called to these same tasks, or if you’re feeling called to other tasks which I cannot do, as we are all different members of the body with differing gifts.

So this is how we’ve been spending our recent months. It’s a start, but there is still much to do. Faith is seen through action, and if the Lord is in each step there can be benefit.

I appreciate Jim’s offer to place me in a field again this fall, though I can’t commit to doing that right now. In view of all that’s come to light within the fellowship the past few months, I believe it’s also an appropriate season to pause and consider, and take a break for well-being.

If you find it discouraging to see fewer names on a workers list, I hope your reaction is to rise to the occasion. Many of you have done that already, and some are now awakening to this. As my late mother often quoted, “Paths of usefulness surround you–need for every hand.” The work of God is something anyone can be a part of if we allow him to use us.

I still feel a call to share the gospel, and I value attending fellowship gatherings and Bible studies. I’m happy to meet with anyone who has the sincere desire to “worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”

At this time I plan to leave North Carolina at the end of September. While I travel the country and make visits, I’ll continue to be available by phone, text and email, so feel free to reach out at any time.

With love in Christ and prayer for healing,

Greg Swenson

[Phone and email redacted but available from WINGS]

Sacramento Decision Change

[Posted August 19, 2023]

Dear Sacramento elders,

Thank you for meeting with us earlier this week and for helping with considerations and decisions. We respect your perspectives and look forward to a better future.

Reporting back to all of you, Ron visited with his meeting and discovered there are grandchildren who sometimes attend, and Gilbert’s presence could possibly cause them to lose that special opportunity, which is unacceptable to all of us. After we considered the attendees in the remaining Sunday meetings, we realized there are no Sunday meetings that could host Gilbert without complications. As a result, we feel it will be most peaceful and appropriate to have a meeting where only volunteers will meet with Gilbert. The Wainwright’s and Keith Smith’s have volunteered for this meeting. In time we can consider similar arrangements for Wednesday and Union meetings. Regarding gospel meetings, we have asked that Gilbert call in.

This has been a new experience, but we do feel the encouragement of our Father’s help as we seek to do what is safe and peaceful. We appreciate your effort and help to work through these processes in a way that promotes peace.

Your brothers in Christ,

Harold, Rob and Richard

WINGS Note: THe previous decision was reported at Concerning Decision Despite Opposition

Acknowledgement and Apology

Aug 17, 2023

Dear friends,

How do we begin to say sorry to people we’ve loved and hurt? We hope this letter can be the first step.

We would like to make an apology for our part in allowing SA and CSA to continue in our fellowship. Whether out of ignorance or denial, we did not act on what we were being told.

Many years ago our oldest child was a victim of CSA by a member of our fellowship. At the time, they were four years old and didn’t have the words to express what happened. We continued our relationship with that family and unfortunately another violation occurred. It was many years later before that violation was brought to our attention. We still remained in denial. Immediately after the Dean Breur news broke, this child contacted a close friend to discuss a need for a website for victim-survivors to go to for support. They developed https://voicesforthetruth.org . We are so thankful for the many selfless hours of work given by our oldest child in support of victim-survivors all while also being a victim-survivor. We are terribly sorry that they had to suffer alone in silence for so many years.

In 2013, our next oldest child became aware of the extent of CSA in our fellowship. Since that time, she has been actively trying to make us more aware of the CSA issues. Due to her persistence, we finally began to see the gravity of Ira Hobbs’ involvement in CSA and the mishandlings of the Ministry’s leadership in dealing with predators. In September 2019, just five months after Ira Hobbs raped our dear sister worker (which we were unaware of at the time), and prior to Clever Convention, we asked to speak to our overseer (who was aware of the violation). Although this daughter was no longer in the fellowship, she remained intent on being a child advocate. With tears in her eyes she sat down with us and the overseer. We pleaded that the overseer would not allow Ira Hobbs to gather with young children and asked that he please ban Ira from coming to Clever Convention. We were told we alone could say who could and couldn’t come on our property. She helped us to write a letter to Ira Hobbs stating that fact. We want to thank her for the persistence in being a child advocate and continuing to be involved in making us aware and educating us on the dangers of CSA and coverup. We also want to apologize to her that for so long her voice fell on deaf ears. The following is our letter to Ira Hobbs along with his response.

09/01/2019

Mr. Ira Hobbs

I am contacting you concerning the conventions at Clever. As you know, hundreds of our fellow Christians both young and old gather together here once a year to celebrate the life of Christ. We will have a phone number set up to listen in for those that cannot attend convention in person. I strongly urge you to utilize the option to call in to each of the 3 meetings that will be held daily.

This year as in future years, attending in person or staying on the grounds during the week of convention is not an option that will be available to you. It is not our place to judge or convict only to walk with God and open our home as a safe place of worship. We have not addressed any safety concerns in the past as we felt moved to allow the workers to handle the situation. We have been advised that only we have the authority to make a decision about who can and cannot attend the convention at our home. We also feel that this would be best for your own protection against any future accusations that you not be present.

We have made the call-in option available because through Christ is our salvation and we want anyone who can to participate and enjoy the spirit of convention. This has troubled our hearts for some time now. Therefore workers were contacted and they have consented to, and are in agreement with this request. We ask that you respect our decision and respond to let us know that you have received this communication.

Sincerely,

The T Family

__________________________________________________

09/07/2019

Dear Lecil,

God is witness of the grief caused by your strange and questionable judgment.
Even though we had hoped to get to Clever convention this year, considering our current major health issues, it is not even feasible to physically attend any convention next week.
We love the fellowship and quickening meetings, and hope to share at least some of the meetings by conference call, if that is provided.

Sincerely, Joan and Ira

———————————————————–

In 2013, our youngest daughter, who had 3 small children, also became acutely aware of the horrific acts of CSA committed by Ira Hobbs. She vowed at that time to take action. She contacted as many people as possible via email to sign a petition pleading for our Overseers to take action to rid the fellowship of CSA. Sadly, only 86 people signed that petition, fifteen signed ‘Anonymous’. Due to our refusal to open our eyes and see there was a problem from within our fellowship, she felt she was fighting alone without the support of her parents. For that we want to apologize to her. We also want to thank her for doing what she felt necessary at the time to protect her own family and our grandchildren. Back in 2013, it may have seemed extreme, but we are grateful for her insight and that she felt strong enough to make a stand. The following is a link to the petition written by our youngest daughter 10 years ago. https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/create-publish-and-implement-a-child-sexual-abuse-education-and- response-plan.html

Our youngest child, our son, is presently very active and involved in assisting us in this fight to rid our fellowship of SA and CSA. We want to thank him for volunteering his time, along with our oldest in helping victims-survivors through Voices for the Truth. We want to apologize that he did not see his parents take a more active stance against SA and CSA in the past. We realize what a disappointment this must be to him as well as to his siblings. We want to thank our son for always challenging us and opening up hard conversations. And thank him for the work he’s done to help open us up to a kinder and more loving perspective towards others, especially those who may not share our skin color, sexual orientation or gender, or faith. It is in this that we have become more aware of the needs and struggles of others.

Although none of our children currently are in this fellowship, they realize our commitment and love for this fellowship and our desire to remain a part of it.

We are sorry that we recently allowed an alleged perpetrator to work on our property even after we learned that there were allegations against him. On June, 9, 2023 we received a letter notifying us of allegations against Brad Holman. Then on June 16, 2023 we were notified that Brad would be coming to Clever Convention grounds to pick up some of his personal things, wrap up an electrical project, and drop off a vehicle. Although Brad was never in our home, one week later, Brad was still present on the grounds. We asked Craig Winquist if anything was being done to clear Brad of the allegations and told him that if not, Brad would need to leave. Craig informed us that the allegations were serious and doubted that they would be cleared. Brad was told he would need to leave our property and he left on Sunday June 24, 2023. We know now that allowing Brad to work on our property even after we knew there were allegations against him appeared as us supporting him. To the community and especially victim-survivors, we hope you will accept our sincere apology.

To all victim-survivors of CSA and SA: we are deeply sorry for the pain you have experienced. We are sorry that we didn’t do more sooner. We see you. We hear you. We believe you. And we will do everything within our power to support you.

SA and CSA have many secondary victim-survivors. It is a crime not only against an individual, but against a community. For our part in the complicity, we are so very sorry. Our lack of awareness and understanding delayed the urgency of action. We have been educating ourselves through literature, conversation, and sharing. And we plan to continue to do so. We understand that ignorance made us make wrong decisions, but that is inexcusable. We have also learned that accountability does not erase the damage done by our actions/inactions. We hope that our current stance against SA and CSA can show that we are not only sorry, but we are also committed to taking an active role in the healing of victim-survivors as well as the prevention of further harm. This letter is in no way written to justify our complicity and inaction in past years. We take full accountability.

For too long, we have not considered the anguish SA and CSA has caused the victim-survivors. To those who consider our stance too radical, we hope that you will come to see there is nothing radical about supporting victim-survivors and protecting our fellowship.

We know that many of you may have been personally harmed by our inaction on this in the past and you deserve a personal apology as well. Please reach out to us if you feel comfortable doing so: we would be grateful for the opportunity to apologize to you directly.

With remorse,

Lecil and Gaby T

WINGS Note August 21, 2023: Some details that were initially redacted to preserve privacy have now been reinstated after clarification that the authors approved the full disclosure.

Previous posts:

Clever, MO convention cancelled

Clever, MO Convention Safety Protocol

Preparing for convention at Clever, MO

Concerning Decision Despite Opposition

Recently a private (secret) meeting was held in the Sacramento area. The Sunday morning elders for the 11 meetings were invited (no wives, no union elders or Wednesday night elders) by Rob Newman and Richard Denherder to discuss a known and personally admitted CSA perpetrators readmission into fellowship meeting.

They were told that while this man has admitted to (some) of his abuse, that a 4 hour phone assessment was done, and he had passed (assessed as no longer a risk).

So he is now able (according to the CA/AZ policy) to be readmitted to attend meetings (including those with children).

Rob and Richard took a vote of the 11 elders as to who would be willing to have this known and confessed perpetrator in their Sunday meeting.

  • 4 elders voted NO.
  • 2 elders said that they wanted to asked their meetings.
  • 5 elders voted Yes.

It was determined based on this minority vote of 5/11 that this known and confessed (of some of his abuses) perpetrator, is now allowed to attend meeting in the Sacramento area.

Friends have raised many concerns about this process:

  • What information did ministry share with the risk assessor regarding GS?
  • Were victims or victim impact statements part of the process?
  • How many victims of GS did the risk assessor know about?
  • Did the risk assessor know about the AFTT investigation or did they reach out to AFTT to get more facts than ministry has?
  • Did anyone other than ministry and the predator talk to the risk assessor in the GS case?
  • Declaring GS “low risk” (just like they recently did for others) does NOT mean he should be back in meetings and does NOT fit with a zero-tolerance policy.
  • Wives should have been involved.
  • The wider meeting community should have been involved.

This process is contrary to the expert advice posted at Urgent Professional Request to the overseer and workers in the States of CA AZ NV HI

  • No one can accurately predict or identify offenders by observing them.
  • Risk assessments should not be used to determine whether an offender can attend fellowship meetings. Alternate arrangements should be made to meet with offenders outside of fellowship meetings.

Previous information was posted at Gilbert Smith, California elder, removed from meetings

WINGS Note: Gilbert Smith is a former worker and current elder in California. During his time in the work, Gilbert labored in California, Arizona, Idaho, Alaska, and Chile. Known allegations stem from his time in Alaska and Chile.

In the late 90s, Mark Huddle (who was removed from the work in April 2023 due to several allegations of child sexual abuse) was approached with some of these allegations. His response was that the family was overreacting, and nothing further was done.

Australia / New Zealand Overseers Create Advisory Group

18 August 2023

Dear Australian and New Zealand Co-workers, Elders and Friends,

Thank you to everyone for your response to our letter of 1 July 2023, regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse. We appreciate your patience as we work to address these issues in a measured and sensitive way and feel it is now important to provide you with an update.

We have communicated our zero tolerance with respect to the harming of children, young people, or anyone within our fellowship and have begun actions to support this stance. The impact of child sexual abuse is devastating and far reaching. Our thoughts are with each one of you who have been affected.

Since we last wrote to you, work has commenced to develop a standard policy and approach towards child sexual abuse prevention and survivor support. An advisory group consisting of 16 individuals from Australia and New Zealand has been formed to undertake this work. This advisory group includes members with lived experience of child sexual abuse and those who have supported survivors. It includes members with experience in child safety and protection, child safe compliance, vulnerable persons advocacy, psychology, counseling, and mental health. Several members hold professional roles including in risk avoidance and quality compliance, policy development and corporate governance. The group includes ten females, three workers, elders, and elders’ wives. A broad age range is represented.

The advisory group’s role, is to provide advice to the ministry, focusing on child safety and survivor support, drawing on personal and professional experience, sourcing assistance from specialist experts, external resources and professional bodies as required. Consultation and engagement will be needed from time to time, for example the voice of our parents and our young people will be critical.

The advisory group will also rely upon reputable, published material, expert bodies’ formal guidelines and relevant research that is publicly accessible, to provide advice that is grounded in best practice and will operate fully within the bounds of the law. Australian national child safety standards and New Zealand child safety guidelines will form the basis of the review of current child safety practices and guide development of improvements within our fellowship.

The identity of advisory group members will remain confidential, and they will not be providing direct engagement with the broader fellowship. Member confidentiality is important for the protection of survivors within the group, and to enable the group to focus on this important work in an impartial manner without external pressure or distraction. We will be looking at mechanisms to provide additional support to survivors in future.

All members of the advisory group completed independently recognised training on the prevention of child sexual abuse and advisory group level training. In addition, all members have obtained and provided current Working with Children Checks or Children’s Worker Safety Checks and police clearances.

The scope of work to be completed is large and will take time to develop and implement. The advisory group has commenced a risk assessment to determine the areas of highest risk so these can be given immediate attention.

We appreciate each one of you who have encouraged and supported us to move forward in addressing concerns about management of child safety and survivor support. We thank each one who has approached us with concerns about individual situations. We have had to make some difficult and firm decisions to mitigate risks to children and will continue to do so.

We understand that it will take time to restore your trust and we feel inadequate in addressing these issues but commit to working openly and transparently on preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. The advisory group will be valuable in guiding us however we will need the support of each one of you to progress.

We acknowledge processes may take longer than some may wish. We expect to update you in the next month and will continue to communicate with you as the work progresses and we have further matters to address.

We thank you for your efforts in supporting each other and any survivors who no longer feel able to meet with us in fellowship.

Warm regards and encouragement

Malcolm Clapham, Graeme Dalton, Wayne Dean, Trevor Joll, Alan Mitchell and Alan Richardson.

Australia: Get support | National Office for Child Safety or 24/7 support on 1800 737 732

New Zealand: https://www.kidshealth.org.nz/listing-information-support-resources-child-abuse or 24/7 support on 0508 326 459

WINGS Note: This letter was issued 18th August by workers to elders for distribution.

Urgent Professional Request to the overseer and workers in the States of CA AZ NV HI

8/17/2023

*URGENT* In the Name of Christ, we MUST focus on Victims*

To the overseer and workers in the States of CA/AZ/NV/HI:

For over 100 years we have silenced victims of sexual crimes in our faith. We have even regretted their existence, since acknowledging them was inconvenient, and to do so would shine an unfavorable light on the ministry and its response to sexual crimes. Most of the time, we didn’t know them or know anything about their lifetime of hemorrhaging emotional pain. These victims have hidden quietly, taking on blame and shame that never, ever belonged to them. Your lack of action in protecting the church from predators (including serial predators who were not permanently removed) has created an endless supply of innocent potential victims, a long list of survivors, and an ever-growing list of families who have left fellowship.

The victim in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan wouldn’t have existed without a victimizer. Please reflect on that for a moment. Jesus was asking us to be like the Good Samaritan. What if, rather than focusing on the life and care of the victim in Luke 10, the Good Samaritan had instead focused on tending to the thieves and robbers who violated the victim and left him for dead? That wouldn’t make sense to us, would it? And yet, here we are.

Recent Consequences of Violator-Focused Actions:

Recently in Nevada, an individual with a long history of grooming behaviors and sexual abuse allegations was quickly reintegrated back into meetings after being asked not to attend. It seems there is an urgency to rush offenders back into fellowship even before there is an understanding of Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Abuse and the lifelong trauma a victim will carry. It is also apparent that there is a lack of understanding of the predatory tactics offenders employ to gain access to victims. These grooming behaviors often hinge upon the trusting and welcoming nature of victims’ families. To quote a predator who was a minister, “I considered church people easy to fool…they have a trust that comes from being Christians…They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people…I think they want to believe in people. And because of that, you can easily convince, with or without convincing words.”

At about the same time the individual in Nevada was reintegrated, 14 families (11 with fellowship meetings in their homes) in Arizona chose to leave the fellowship. Was it the result of an offender being rushed back in to fellowship, or the sense of betrayal they felt as it came to light how the ministry had mishandled sexual abuse and covered up sexual crimes in the past? Is there the same urgency to reach out to these 14 families as there was to assess and reintegrate one offender back into a fellowship meeting?

It is time that we stop welcoming back offenders and protecting known predators (which only encourages the unknown ones). If offenders now considered “low risk” had been reported at the time their crimes were committed, they would have been arrested, dealt with through the criminal justice system (many having to register as sex offenders for life – known as a 288 registrant) and most importantly, served jail time.

A truly repentant sexual offender who has developed insight into how their actions have impacted and continue to impact others would quietly accept alternative arrangements for fellowship away from children and other victims.

Finally, it is time that we learn how to identify predators, take steps to educate parents and the ministry, listen to victims and recognize the danger of keeping secrets about wolves lingering amongst the sheep.

If there is any effort, if there is any time, if there is any money to be given, we MUST give it all to our long-suffering and deserving victims to carry them to the inn and preserve their lives. We must let the offending workers, elders and other violators just BE with the consequences of their actions while we focus on a multitude of victims. Spiritually and psychologically, this is an essential part of any victimizer’s repentant and reflective process. We hope that you all want to make appropriate choices. We also believe that all of you do not have the information that you need to do this. We are here to help you.

Our group of Mental Health professionals includes Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Psychologists; we have Masters of Clinical Social Work, Masters of Clinical Psychology, Doctorates of Social Work and PhDs in Clinical Psychology.

The writers of this letter have professional experience/specialization in:

  1. Child Advocacy Center therapy and advocacy
  2. Adult, child and adolescent counseling
  3. Marriage and family counseling
  4. Trauma and intergenerational trauma counseling
  5. Sex therapy
  6. Art therapy
  7. PTSD and C-PTSD treatment
  8. School psychology and child development
  9. Addiction counseling
  10. Adoption social work and attachment-based therapies
  11. Inpatient mental health and addiction treatment
  12. General Social Work practice
  13. Victim Services
  14. Sex offender treatment
  15. Domestic and sexual violence advocacy
  16. Organizational leadership and education

What you need to know about predators:

  1. Sex offender treatment is largely ineffective, and the best outcome is remission of behavior, not cure of the urge to offend. A truly repentant and rehabilitated perpetrator would never seek to re-join a meeting but would voluntarily stay out of meetings in order to avoid temptation and to avoid making anyone uncomfortable.
  2. Perpetrators have groomed everyone around them, so supportive testimony from elders/friends/workers on their behalf is not valid. (Recently in the U.S., some local friends/elders vouched for offender(s) to be at convention with children and other victims). No one can accurately predict or identify offenders by observing them! It is not possible for an overseer or another layperson to discern whether someone is not a threat or has been rehabilitated. That is an informal assessment that would not hold up under professional evaluation.
  3. Sexual predators have often used words that mimic the heart of God to indicate repentance, but their actions mimic what is in their hearts. Their words cannot be trusted. It is much safer to bring the meeting to them (workers and friends who want to meet with them), than bring them into an already established meeting. Though perpetrators may have repented spiritually, Godly repentance shouldn’t be used to escape the consequences of these sins which are also crimes. Some who have offended were never reported, so they have never faced consequences from the criminal justice system.
  4. Types of Predators: 1. Shark (opportunist with no plan, goes for any blood in the water); 2. Snake (deliberate, strategic); 3. Spider (grooms, then spins webs); 4. Fox (looks like the nice guy, the helper, then waits and watches to catch prey).

In our professional opinion, the following actions are discouraged and potentially unsafe:

  • Risk assessments. Risk assessments should not be used to determine whether an offender can attend fellowship meetings. Alternate arrangements should be made to meet with offenders outside of fellowship meetings.
  • Making decisions about offenders. Do not rely on overseers, workers, elders, and non-specialized mental health professionals who are not qualified to make decisions about predators and the level of danger they pose to the church.
  • Do not cold-call victims unless they have asked to be contacted by you.
  • Do not use Bible verses in communicating to faith members/victims about abuse or forgiveness. It may be triggering to them and it weaponizes the Bible. Refrain from using terms such as “spirit led” in communication to faith members/victims. This action effectively shuts people down from expressing their voice because the person quoting verses is attempting to establish spiritual and moral authority.
  • Do not end conversations with “We will pray about it.” At this point, we are all praying about it. There is also much that we each need to be doing about it. This phrase has been used to shut down voices calling for timely action.
  • Do not use the phrase “We had no idea / We didn’t know” about the lifetime impacts of sexual violation of children. Everyone understands rape or sexual abuse of any kind is wrong and has always been wrong! People who have experienced these abuses have gone on to experience a lifetime of negative consequences that have impacted communication, learning, relationships, physical health, mental health, addiction, etc., with some coming to see suicide as their only option. In some instances, the negative impacts of abuse have been weaponized by workers to judge the victims as “unworthy, sinful, unreliable or unstable.” Some victims have been ex-communicated, silenced in meetings, or otherwise marginalized in our faith.
  • Do not assume that taking Ministry Safe or the Little Warriors program is “one and done.” Those courses are just the beginning of your understanding and education, and do not begin to cover the extensive knowledge one must have to be a safe and ethical ministry and faith. They are not an insurance policy guaranteeing safety.
  • Do not consider crimes that happened “a long time ago” (5,10, 20, 50 years ago) as grounds to allow a perpetrator to continue attending meetings. Just because a crime happened “years ago” does not mean there are no victims. The probability that sexual predators will reoffend actually increases with time! If a crime that happened historically would be charged as a crime today, then it is a crime regardless of the passage of time.
  • Do not use intimidation tactics when meeting with victims. When workers are meeting with victims, there should not be one victim and several workers (never meet with a victim alone). The victim must be allowed to have an advocate(s) of their choice to support them. Workers have used their position of power to intimidate, threaten, coerce, silence and shame victims. We have heard of victims called to sessions where workers/overseers have had victim(s) sitting in a chair in front of a group of workers. We have heard of an overseer refusing to meet with a victim because he didn’t want the victim’s choice of support people to attend. It is also not appropriate for brother workers to ask to meet with sisters alone about a matter. This is intimidation and abuse of power and control.

Recommendations for going forward:

  • Learn about predators by accessing any of the resources below.
  • Direct all internal investigations to a third-party organization like GRACE.
  • Reach out to members of our faith who have removed themselves from fellowship or the work because others made unsafe and spiritually unsound decisions to move perpetrators and persons with allegations back into fellowship. This is a time to be humble, repentant and open to correction and feedback from wounded members.
  • Discontinue any more emailed or published letters and reports from overseers that deflect responsibility, essentially say nothing, deliver platitudes with obtuse language (including religiosity) and appear as though they are written behind a legal shield separating overseers from the church (especially victims).
  • Consult with other churches for guidance in ministering to perpetrators separate from the church.
  • Restorative justice and the reconciliation process for perpetrators can be addressed AFTER there has been “victim focused” progress. We must pause any focus on restorative justice and the reconciliation processes until after the victims have been heard and cared for and policies developed around safety in the fellowship.
  • Identify and implement training regarding Child Sexual Abuse, Sexual Abuse, trauma informed care, and grooming/predatory risk factors. There are areas in the U.S. that have developed comprehensive curriculum for workshops to train staff and elders. Consider reaching out to them for best practices in this process and ask for professional collaboration to assist with training.
  • Establish and foster a collaborative relationship with Advocates for the Truth in the work they are doing to help make our fellowship safer.

We strongly encourage using the following resources:

Websites:

Books:

  • Predators by Anna Salter
  • People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
  • The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker (Modules available on YouTube)
  • Safe People by Cloud and Townsend
  • The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD (also YouTube videos)

Sincerely,

Professing Therapists Group
(Note: We are writing anonymously in order to protect our clients and careers that may be negatively impacted by our names appearing publicly.)

(Name withheld, available on request), Retired, FBI Special Agent

(Name withheld, available on request) MBBS (Hons 1) FRACP PhD GCELead GAICD
Physician
Professor of Medicine
(Internationally regarded clinical and research expertise on the long term consequences of complex trauma and CSA)

Cassatt, SC Convention guidelines

Dear Friends,

As host of the Cassatt, SC Convention, we wish to inform you of guidelines pertaining to our 2023 Convention.

Please remember that we all are guests of the convention grounds owners throughout preparation and convention. This is a non – commercial event held on private property and is only open to invited guests. We want our behavior to be what it should be – appropriate, respectful, and safe. We are happy to voluntarily provide the location for Cassatt, SC convention to be held. We, however, are taking a zero-tolerance approach to any kind of behavior that is not appropriate. Any such allegations will be taken seriously and reported to proper authorities. We hope by adhering to these guidelines all will feel safe, welcome, and our time together will be profitable.

Convicted and alleged CSA and SA offenders are not invited. If anyone sees such a person, please inform the hosts of the convention. As far as we know, there have not been any incidents here of this kind.

Due to liability issues, there will be no sleeping dorms provided as has been the norm in past years. You may bring a RV/camper, tent, or stay off grounds at night. There are a limited number of camping sites with electric and water hookups for RV/campers. These will be made available to residents of South Carolina residing farther than a 50 mile radius from convention grounds. There will be additional spaces for fully contained RV/campers and tents with no hookups. There will be no RESERVING camper sites. They are available on a first come basis. PLEASE do not arrive with RV/campers and tents before Wednesday October 4th.

All minors must have a Parent or Parent-designated adult/guardian responsible for them at ALL times when on convention property. (BY LAW A MINOR IS ANY PERSON UNDER THE AGE OF 18 YEARS)

We all must be concerned and invested with the safety of all present.

Sincerely, Charlie and Paulette

Update from Rob Newman – overseer of CA AZ NV HI & Pacific Islands

Date: August 15, 2023 at 7:57:22 PM PDT

Subject: August 15 update from Rob Newman

Dear Field elders, Please see Rob’s letter below, and forward to those in your meeting. Thank you.

August 15, 2023

Dear workers, elders and friends, (elders please forward to those in your meeting)

Good evening. Thank you for your many expressions of support and care during these difficult and busy times. The last four weeks have included visits, meetings, planning meetings and two helpful conventions in Canada, Theodore and Portage La Prairie, that were planned for me in January. It is good to stand by and stand with our brethren in each place.

Although the past four weeks have been busy as mentioned, at the same time we have attempted to attend to as many communications as possible. Unfortunately, there is still a backlog of unanswered emails and texts. Thank you for your patience.

Even though this update is the last we will regularly be posting here, we will continue to address the needs we face and apply the changes that we are committed to, as outlined in the three documents we sent out some time ago (covering child sexual abuse (CSA) education, policy and behavior guidelines). The latest version of these three documents will remain available in this folder, and we will announce version updates. Please retain this link and be familiar with these documents: https://tinyurl.com/CSAdocuments

Once again we would like to reconfirm that we are doing all we can to address all issues that have been brought to our attention, and will continue to do so. Please be assured that if any issue arises in your area, especially in your specific meetings, we will certainly be advising you of what is happening- above all, we are committed to safety for all and peace in our meetings. In the same way, we ask that you please communicate with us if you observe situations or behavior that is a concern to you- as much as possible we want to be aware, respond and avoid anything harmful occurring.

We can assure you we continue to work full time on addressing these issues. We know the Adversary desires to sow doubt and fear, so please communicate and ask if you feel concerned or have questions. Eventually we will work through these historical cases that have initially been brought to light, and then it remains for us all to be vigilant and wise going forward. In answer to some who have asked, we do have a system in place so that persons of concern are not forgotten, and if they move to a new area, that area will be informed.

With regard to reporting any concerns or issues (other than suspected child abuse- which must be directly and promptly reported to the authorities), we are considering how best to form a group of responsible and professional friends who can receive and respond to reports. If possible, the thought is to have two channels whereby reports can be sent in: either to this group of responsible friends, or through multiple workers that you trust. We want to assure you that reports will be attended to.

In summary: Please ASK if you have questions; please REPORT if you have concerns; please do your part to help by being AWARE of CSA education and our commitment to safety in the documents we have sent. We urge all, especially elders, to take the California Mandated Reporter training for responsible awareness. The link is https://tinvurl.com/MandatedReporterCA

Much of this letter is about unfortunate but very important issues- but it is important keep things in perspective: God’s way does and will continue, and we take comfort and trust in the fact that He sees and knows everything, and is keeping His trusting little ones (Psa 23). He is aware of every thought and intent of each heart. The result of these recent times should be a deep searching of our own heart and the spirit and the conditions there- every failure we’ve observed began somewhere: pride, dishonesty, reservations, unwillingness, feeding wrong desires, etc. May we look to Jesus, listen and respond as our Father seeks to save us from becoming a casualty ourselves, especially through these troubled times when the Adversary is so busy- he is angry and his time is short.

With His great care and help we look forward to a bright future that includes lessons learned and addressing things correctly.

With respect, care, and apologies for past mistakes, Rob and helpers