Within a few days of their arrival, Cherin informed Resurrection leadership of the allegations against Rivera. While the church provided a therapist referral for her daughter immediately, Cherin said the pastoral care team didn’t meet with her until a month after their arrival.
“I shared with them that in the month while we had been waiting for pastoral care, I had heard five additional stories ranging from grooming to predatory to abusive to assault, all from Church of the Resurrection members,” said Cherin. “I also named two additional vulnerable youth that certainly were showing common warning signs of sexual abuse and that Mark had ongoing access to.”
Deacon Val McIntyre, head of pastoral care at Church of the Resurrection, said she would report the allegations to Ruch and promised personalized pastoral care plans for each member of Cherin’s family. Although Cherin sent follow-up emails, she said the plans were never delivered.
“I would prefer not to respond through the press to her accusations as I believe it would only add to the hurt she has already suffered,” McIntyre told RNS. “I stand with her in solidarity and hope that her grievances with all the parties involved can be fully, fairly and impartially investigated.”
Cherin eventually learned the bishop had attended Rivera’s first court hearing along with other members of COLA.
“There were many hearings where either my husband or I were completely on our own. At the time, we had an infant, so one of us had to be home with him,” she said. “And Mark had a whole group of support from Christ Our Light. Father Rand, Chris Lapeyre and other COLA and community members there surrounding him, and we were all by ourselves.”
Lapeyre told RNS he attended the court hearings specifically in support of Rivera’s wife and kids.
“The family had just lost their only source of income when Mark went to jail and were experiencing financial and emotional hardship,” said Lapeyre. “People focus on the accused and the victim, and the accused’s family gets erased from consideration. They are hurting, too, and whether or not they believe Mark, they need support.”
During this time, Church of the Resurrection did not make any announcements about the allegations against Rivera, who had been in various volunteer leadership positions at the church from the mid-1990s until 2013, according to Cherin.
As news of Rivera’s arrest spread, Cherin said members at Resurrection began distancing themselves from her family. Cherin and her family left the church in August 2019.
It was only in May 2021, two years after Cherin’s daughter first came forward, that the allegations against Rivera were made public in a letter from the bishop.
“Because the church never communicated anything to the congregation, all that was talked about at Rez was Mark’s narrative,” said Cherin, using a familiar abbreviation for Resurrection. “And it cost me my childhood church.”
“We’ve not even begun to recover from that. It’s hard to feel safe connecting in a new Christian community,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Religion News Service.
