Chantal Noppen ViaMedia.News The Actual Value of Women
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love General Synod chaplain resigns under homophobic pressure
Fergus Butler-Gallie Church Times Sacramental eavesdropping
‘Jonathan’ Surviving Church My Experience with an NDA in the Church of England
Jonathan’s case is far from atypical. Several of a similar character have been brought to me and we are figuring out how best to raise this effectively. I think we must begin by identifying the issue of “cover up” – plain and simple. These problems are known but not actioned. Senior Church figures have been told, the stories spelled out with evidence. CDMs have been lodged but remain un-actioned for no proper reason. Some have been threatened with Defamation and many have NDAs imposed to stop the truth emerging. This is happening as I write. The worst story I cannot… Read more »
As a trade unionist, my main ‘weapon’ against bad management, bullying, harassment and discrimination is simply the truth. There is an inherent strength to truth, a ‘truth force’ – Gandhi’s satyagraha. It is also a theological force, since it aligns the speaker with the one who is truth itself. Problems representing members present themselves most when the narratives of the member and the faith organisation are unable to be reconciled and there are competing truth claims. While I don’t stop believing the member, competing narratives reduce the force of the truth.
Is the link to Chantal Noppen’s article broken, or is it just my broadband?
Working for me now.
I still can’t get it, but I’m not having a problem with any other site.
Chantal’s experience of the lack of financial support during her ordination training is surely demonstrated in this excerpt from her article: “It was through the grace of God, sheer stubbornness and a very generous friend that I managed, but it is not a time I look back on fondly”. From this sentence alone, she sounds like some whom God has called into ministry – almost despite the lack of support one might expect her diocese to have provided in her special set of circumstances. One wonders how often a true vocation – especially of a single woman – has been… Read more »
Obviously Chantal Noppen was give false information by being told support would be forthcoming which was then not forthcoming.
However, I am bewildered by the notion which seems to attract no comment that the home-owning ambitions of the clergy should be accommodated.
Most of the parishioners in this country do not own a home and never will do.
Are you sure about that? About 63% of households in England own their own homes.
Have read with familiar sadness the story of Jonathan and others like him – like me – whose curacy ended with being given no choice but to sign an NDA (no choice meaning that to refuse to sign would invoke a potentially more hurtful process). It was the most soul-crushing, heart-wrenching experience of my life, as attempts to raise concerns with the diocese were met with blame rather than ownership. Whilst Justin Welby has called these shameful, and asked them to be stopped, I’ve heard nor seen nothing of any efforts to re-visit those that were already “done.” Would love… Read more »