Brenda Dowie, priest-in-charge at St Olaf’s, Kirkwall and St Mary the Virgin, Stromness, has resigned from her position as a trustee on the Diocesan Standing Committee following “bully” Anne Dyer’s return to work.
Dowie resigned less than one year into what should have been a four-year term as a trustee. The Diocese is yet to announce Dowie’s resignation publicly as of today.
Dyer returned to work late last year having been suspended over allegations of abuse against her.
The Scottish Episcopal Church’s Procurator, a senior lawyer, considered the allegations against Dyer and concluded that there was a “sufficiency of evidence” to provide “a realistic prospect of conviction in respect of each allegation”.
These allegations included that Dyer bullied, harassed and discriminated against a disabled adult.
However, the SEC ended its disciplinary proceedings against Dyer shortly after the Procurator reached that conclusion on the basis that it would not be in the “public interest” to take the allegations against Dyer to its Clergy Discipline Tribunal.
It has been suggested that the SEC “…wrongly terminated the disciplinary process to attempt to save Dyer, one of its most senior officials, from further professional embarrassment”.
The Diocesan Standing Committee’s full complement of trustees is between 10 to 12. However, at least 10 trustees have resigned before the natural end of their terms since Dyer’s consecration.
Dyer herself remains a trustee. The other remaining trustees, Lorraine Paisey, Lizzie Finlayson, Julia House and Martin Auld, have failed to remove her as a trustee, despite the Procurator’s findings.
Baseless claims that those seeking her removal from office are homophobes or misogynists have been made. However, this claim is at odds with the reality that at least three of her alleged victims are women and two female priests have resigned since her return to work.
Vittoria Hancock resigned as a trustee and then as a rector. She wrote that Dyer’s “continuing inability to admit any fault in the diocesan situation, or apologise when she has been found to have been in error, and her lack of pastoral care and understanding” contributed to her decision to resign as a rector.
She told churchgoers that she was “not willing to compromise my vows as a priest and am, therefore, left with no option except that of resigning my post”.
A churchgoer said, “We can’t let our church be dominated by people like Dyer. Vittoria led the way when she resigned, putting what is morally right before the money and home the church provided her. It seems that Brenda is following her lead. I can only commend them. Goodness knows what the other bishops and trustees are playing at.”