Newcastle Anglican priests speak out about their own childhood abuse, as Synod agrees
on formal apology
Two Hunter Anglican priests have spoken of the sexual abuse they experienced as children, as Newcastle's Bishop admits the diocese protected perpetrators.
Newcastle's Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson addressed members of the Synod who met on Saturday.
His address covered a range of issues from domestic violence to climate change, but child abuse within the church was the main focus.
"We had cultures that dissuaded people from speaking of their experience," he told the Synod.
"We had cultures that protected abusers."
The Synod heard a recorded interview with two Hunter Anglican priests, Reverend Les Forester and Reverend Bob Peattie, who recounted their experiences of being sexually abused as children.
Reverend Forester said at the time, he thought he was going to die.
"I was absolutely terrified, I can recall my whole body shaking and I can recall thinking if this doesn't end or I don't get out of here somehow, I'm going to die."
Reverend Peattie explained how the abuse left him feeling worthless and depressed for much of his life.
"It sort of manifested itself in my lack of self esteem and continuous suicidal thoughts," he said.
"If I'd had a gun I would have shot myself on numerous occasions, because I was just sick and tired of it."
He described the abuse as pure evil.
"It can't be described any other way, it's pure evil, it's life changing."
Bishop Thompson thanked the men for their bravery.
"This is troubling listening and I am grateful, so grateful that they have been willing to speak so that we might learn."
The Synod then voted unanimously that a formal apology from the Newcastle diocese be recorded acknowledging the "shameful" way it worked against those who reported abuse.
I was abused by clergy: Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson tells of abuse as 19-year-old
Joanne McCarthy
Anglican bishop Greg Thompson has spoken about being groomed by an Anglican bishop and senior clergyman in the 1970s and later sexually abused, after an historic diocese apology on Sunday for the "shameful" treatment of abuse survivors in the past.
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His allegations against the two men, now dead, were revealed to NSW Police and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse earlier this year.
Bishop Thompson said he did not reveal the information before the diocese synod at the weekend because he wanted the vote on an historic apology to be a genuine response from clergy and senior diocese parishioners, and not a response to him personally.
"I couldn't have spoken about the need for an apology if they'd known I was a survivor," Bishop Thompson said.
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Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson and the "coordinated opposition" against him.
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When he complained to a prison officer
about Ryan’s presence he was told he
would be on the next truck to Junee prison
if he made a commotion.
KLIK
“The old thing that ‘you cant say that to me I am a priest’ would now incite derision . . . “
Bishop Bill Wright
KLIK
“The old thing that ‘you cant say that to me I am a priest’ would now incite derision . . . “
Bishop Bill Wright
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