(RNS) — One week after members of the Canadian megachurch The Meeting House saw their former pastor arrested and charged with sexual assault, their leadership revealed that not one but four of its former pastors have now been credibly accused — and two convicted — of sexual abuse.
At a church town hall-style meeting last week, The Meeting House overseers, as church elders are called, disclosed that a third-party victims’ advocate hired by the church in March heard 38 reports of sexual misconduct that had largely gone unreported to the congregation. Most happened years ago.
“We are deeply sorry for the abuse and harm that has occurred,” said Jennifer Hryniw, a member of the Board of Overseers during a June 7 town hall meeting. “We are deeply sorry for how many of these stories have been handled in the past. We continue to be humbled to now be the stewards of those stories.”
RELATED: Bruxy Cavey, disgraced Canadian pastor, charged with sexual assault
Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with 20 campuses across the province of Ontario, was charged with one count of sexual assault on May 31. He was asked to resign in March after an independent investigation determined he’d had a yearslong sexual relationship with a woman in the church who sought counseling.
Hryniw said the church board has formed a subcommittee to respond to each report of misconduct. Another subcommittee is updating church policies to ensure clear guidelines for accountability, supervision and best practices around sexual abuse.
She also acknowledged that in the past the church often focused on the offender before dealing with the victim.
“One trend has been a skew to prioritize the well-being of offenders over victims,” Hryniw said.
Some 30 years after clergy sexual misconduct became a scandal in the American Catholic Church, it continues to run rampant through multiple U.S.-based Christian denominations, and now in Canada, too. Although no quarter has been spared, many recent reckonings are occurring in conservative Protestant settings.
The Meeting House, one of Canada’s largest churches, is Anabaptist, part of the Be in Christ denomination. The church reported an average of 9,800 weekly livestream views two years ago. (Only Springs Church in Winnipeg had higher attendance, according to a Canadian megachurch listing by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research.)
In addition to Cavey, who will appear before a judge in the city of Hamilton on June 27, the church identified three other former pastors charged with sexual misconduct:
