-In 2012, a former youth pastor at the church, Kieran Naidoo, was arrested and charged as part of a large-scale child pornography investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police. Last year, he was again arrested and charged with sexual exploitation.
-In 2014, former youth pastor David Churchill was charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation.
-Tim Day, who served as senior pastor at The Meeting House for 14 years, has also been accused of sexual misconduct, Hryniw said.
Church spokesperson Jared Taylor said in an email inquiry, “The Overseers and I can’t comment at this time.” Taylor said more information might be forthcoming later this week.
In the two-hour town hall meeting, which included prayer, song and Bible passages of lament, leaders also revealed that giving to the church is down 30% to 40%.
“We’re spread very thin right now,” said Interim Senior Director Matt Miles. “We’re shorter on resources.”
Miles also spoke of structural changes to push power away from the center — the church is headquartered in Oakville, between Toronto and Hamilton — and toward local campuses, which it calls parishes. He said the church will also experiment with making Sunday services less central.
Karmyn Bokma, the church’s interim senior pastor, spoke of “home churches, hub gatherings, park popups” that would supplement the Sunday service.
Miles emphasized that the church wants to involve more people in the process. “We want to do this together,” he said. “We want to create opportunities to listen to our communities.”
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
