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YORK: The Sanctimonious Scandal of the Bell Ringers

YORK: The Sanctimonious Scandal of the Bell Ringers
Archbishop Sentamu backs Dean in 'Safeguarding' charges

By Jules Gomes
Special to VIRTUEONLINE
www.virtueonline.org
October 21, 2016

Ding, dong, bell,
Dean Vivienne is in the well.
What put her in?
Her control-freakery sin.
What pulled her out?
Archbishop Sentamu's shout.

Something is rotten in York Minster. Something is rotten in the Province of York. The spiteful tale of the bell-ringers at York Minster showcases what is worst about the abuse of power by the hierarchy of the Church of England.

It is a saga of scripted dishonesty, cover-up, lying, obfuscation, and nepotism of the most distasteful variety. It stinks. But there is no confession, no repentance and no reconciliation. What the world sees is only more scripted dishonesty, damage control, digging in of heels, and closing of ranks among the hierarchy of the Church of England.

It began when Dean and Chapter sacked 30 bell-ringers on October 11, 2016. The sacking order began with a sanctimonious note of nauseating spiritual bile: "York Minster invites everyone to discover God's love."

The bell-ringers were given no warning. They were not told why they were being punished. The punishment was so disproportionate that it would impact the entire community of the Cathedral and the city of York. The Dean and Chapter would silence the bells until the New Year--yes, even on Remembrance Sunday, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Not even the Luftwaffe had managed to inflict such a punishment on York Minster.

The bell-ringing Resistance Movement fought back with an online petition. In a couple of days the petition was deluged with thousands of signatures.

The Dean and Chapter spun a health and safety story for the media. Good heavens, I thought to myself! Have the rats in the belfry been gnawing through the ropes? Is subsidence causing the bell tower to lean like the Tower of Pisa? Bell-ringers have been bonging the bells for centuries before Dean Vivienne Faull and the invention of Health and Safety.

The bell-ringers kept clamouring for a meeting with the Dean but Lady Macbeth refused to entertain their pleas. She had never read the conflict resolution strategy from Matthew 18: 15-17 urging Christians to talk with their brother or sister in private before calling for Rupert Murdoch and his media operatives.

As the British broadsheets and tabloids rang out the story and the Twittersphere exploded with the dings and dongs of York Minster's doings the heavy artillery arrived in the person of John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.

That's when the story developed a new angle and the noses of the Dean, Chapter and Archbishop began to take on a Pinocchio-like extended elongation. Sentamu went at the bell-ringers with his double-barrelled shotgun mouth. 'Safeguarding!' he yelled. 'Shut it down, sort it out,' he shouted. Thinking Anglicans shot back. 'The ABY seems in his loose-tongued way, to say that there are multiple "survivors" and that they are vulnerable adults. He also made it unclear as to whether the investigation was ongoing. And continues to bundle Safeguarding in with Health & Safety which has been a hallmark of the statements made,' quipped Nicholas Elder, a Thinking Anglican.

Another Thinking Anglican called Jeremy nailed Sentamu's scaremongering to the mast. 'On reviewing the Archbishop of York's public statement, I am increasingly concerned that his references to an ongoing investigation may be completely inaccurate. One of the basic principles of law enforcement is that if there is a criminal investigation going on, then law enforcement does not inform the targets of the investigation. Yet here we have the Archbishop of York announcing to the entire world that there is an ongoing investigation. Did the Archbishop of York just violate the confidentiality of a police investigation? Or is the "investigation" he keeps referring to merely an internal investigation by the Minster itself? Or is there no real investigation by anyone at all?' thoughtful Jeremy asked the world of Thinking Anglicans.

By the way, for those who are fortunate to live across the Atlantic or the Pacific, "safeguarding" is Church of England code for protecting/abusing children. It works better than cyanide. To destroy your opposition all you have to do is raise your eyebrows, look suspiciously at the target, and whisper the word "safeguarding". Your opponent is out before the referee can count ten. "Safeguarding" is the most recent mega-obsession in the Church of England. Jesus says 'let the little children come to me' and the safeguarding Tsars say 'if you even pat a child on the head for a good round of bell-ringing and if we don't like you because you threaten our authority we'll get you for safeguarding.'

I'll give you a plum example. Mrs Betty Jones, one of the most gracious, elegant, and warm welcomers at my previous parish of St Mary's on the Harbour, who is an octogenarian and worked as a policewoman--a lady whose family worked in the police for the last 100 years--was asked to stop giving out hymnbooks to visitors at the beginning of the service in a church the size of a broom-cupboard because she hadn't done a course in Safeguarding Training in the Diocese of Sodor and Man. Betty now worships at another church.

Finally, the bedraggled cat was dragged out of the bag. It emerged that one bell-ringer, not 30 bell-ringers, 66-year old David Potter was arrested in 1999 after a young girl accused him of indecent assault. In 2000, all charges against him were dropped and in the same year Mr Potter was awarded an MBE for his services to bell ringing. However, last year the police applied for a Sexual Risk Order (SRO) against him, which was initially granted and then refused by the court. According to a source the “young girl” was around 17 and Mr Potter was around 40. Needless to say, a girl of her age, would have been quite aware of what she was doing and was the incident entirely consensual.

So what? Has Mr Potter been proved guilty? Did the 29 other bell-ringers surround him as he allegedly carried out an 'indecent assault' on a young girl? Did the 29 other bell-ringers bong their bells to drown out the cries of children being assaulted by Mr Potter? Or is this something out of Harry Potter and the Wicked Witch of York Minster?

With its blessing of Gay Pride Parades, its Zen Buddhist meditation sessions and the turbulence in the cathedral, heads should be rolling at York Minster--not in the bell-tower but in the Deanery. But when the Archbishop of York backs you--you are the winning horse because the entire race is rigged.

York Minster has turned into a den of thieves. Jesus needs to enter with his whip and overturn the tables of the moneychangers. Meanwhile, though the bells are silent, the petition continues to snowball with over 17,500 signatures at the time of writing with more rolling in by the minute.

END

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