New Life Church Faces More Fallout Linked to Robert Morris Abuse Allegations

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New Life Church's former Pastor Brady Boyd speaks on Sunday, April 27. Screengrab from YouTube / @NewLifeChurchCO

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Attorneys for Morris have said that Gateway leaders knew about the abuse allegations “as early as 2005.”

In their June 29 handout, New Life elders said that after Boyd’s June 8 denial, they received “information from 2011 demonstrating that [Boyd] was party to at least 20 emails relating to Ms. Clemishire’s abuse.”

The elders said “that he interacted extensively with those emails, and that many of the emails stated in the subject line the allegation that Ms. Clemishire was 12 at the time. [Boyd] failed to disclose this to the Board of Elders.”

RELATED: Gateway Church Says Decline in Giving Has Necessitated Staffing Cuts

According to the elders, Clemishire’s sister told the 2007 search committee at New Life what Morris had allegedly done to Clemishire and objected to the Colorado Springs church hiring Boyd.

The handout stated:

[Boyd] also said during his June 8 message [to congregants] that the search committee did not tell him in 2007 the details regarding Ms. Clemishire. However, meeting notes and email records confirmed that the search committee met with [Boyd] specifically to discuss the accusations made by Ms. Clemishire’s sister and then dialogued with him for weeks about the issue.

After reviewing “other new evidence” and talking with Boyd, the elders said they were unable to “reconcile the facts.” They wrote, “As much as we hoped it would all make sense, in the end, it simply didn’t.”

In their earlier statement about Boyd’s resignation, the elders indicated that “trust was broken” between them and the pastor.

Elders: Brady Boyd Is Disqualified From Serving at New Life

In a Q&A about their former senior pastor’s standing, the elders noted, “[Boyd] has not apologized nor is he repentant for what we think constituted lying to New Life Church, or for failing to disclose to the Elders whatever knowledge he had about Robert Morris before asking Morris to serve as overseer and to preach at our church.”

They added, “We believe Brady made a series of mistakes that disqualify him from serving as Senior Pastor of New Life. We do love Brady and consider him a significant contributor to the New Life story.”

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Stephanie Martin
Stephanie Martin, a freelance writer and editor in Denver, has spent her entire 30-year journalism career in Christian publishing. She loves the Word and words, is a binge reader and grammar nut, and is fanatic (as her family can attest) about Jeopardy! and pro football.

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