THE fallout over the return to work of the Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, meant that this week’s meeting of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s (SEC’s) General Synod had been “assailed by words even before we gathered”, members were told on Thursday.
Bishop Dyer is attending the Synod, having returned to work after a long suspension (News, 3 October 2022). Accusations of bullying were expected to be tested in a tribunal, but the Church’s Procurator, Paul Reid KC, decided to drop the case (News, 11 October 2024).
In his ruling, Mr Reid wrote: “I remain of the view that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction in respect of each allegation.” As his reason not to proceed, however, he cited the harm that it might cause to the alleged victims.
The Church’s other bishops initially supported the decision, but, within days, four of them in a letter called on Bishop Dyer to consider her position (News, 17 October 2024) — an intervention that she described in her response as “un-Christian” (News, 18 October 2024).
As Bishop Dyer began a phased return to work, criticism of the process continued. Both complainants against Bishop Dyer and the Church’s Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, have written to congregations (News, 15 May).
Bishop Dyer has been present throughout this week’s meeting of the Synod in Edinburgh, and chaired a session on Friday morning. She was approached for comment, but declined to be interviewed.
Later on Friday, a lay member from the diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney, Dr Stephen Goodyear, asked questions about the termination of the process during a debate about the SEC’s budget and accounts.
Dr Goodyear has been a signatory to letters critical of the SEC’s safeguarding and disciplinary processes in relation to Bishop Dyer.
Asked about budgeting for legal costs, the outgoing convener of the Standing Committee, Bridget Campbell, acknowledged that “there are further complaints that will require money to be spent on them.”
Accounts published last year showed that £325,000 had been spent on legal and other fees related to the investigation since 2022, and that a further £175,000 had been budgeted for 2024 — expenditure that this year’s accounts shows rose to £210,000.
Dr Goodyear also asked Ms Campbell whether the SEC could give a “yes or no answer” to the question whether the allegations against Bishop Dyer were true.
The SEC’s safeguarding policy required that the “truth or otherwise” of allegations be determined, he said, drawing on wording in the guidelines to the Anglican Communion Safe Church Charter, to which the SEC is a signatory.
Owing to Mr Reid’s decision to terminate the process without a tribunal, this requirement did not appear to have been satisfied, he said, and so the only way in which the annual report’s statement that “the Canon 54 process had been followed” could be accurate would be if Ms Campbell could confirm the truth or otherwise of allegations against Bishop Dyer.
Without this information, the annual report was incorrect, Dr Goodyear argued, and members should, therefore, vote against the motion accepting it.
Ms Campbell said that Mr Reid’s decision not to lead evidence was accepted by the clergy discipline tribunal, and so the legal matters had “reached a conclusion”. Her response received a round of applause.
In a vote of the whole Synod, 106 voted in favour of the motion, three against, with nine recorded abstentions.
THE controversy over Bishop Dyer’s return to work had been explicitly addressed in the opening items of business as the Synod began the previous day.
“This Synod, more than most, has been assailed by words even before we gathered this morning,” the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr John Armes, said in a short address reminding members to be aware of the tone of their conversations.
“Perhaps it’s inevitable, this being the first General Synod since a significant Canon 54 [disciplinary] process relating to Aberdeen and Orkney reached its conclusion,” he said.
“When people are hurting and angry, or when they’re filled with crusading zeal, perhaps they don’t always fully consider the implications of their words or the impact they may have on those who receive them.”
Dr Armes suggested that “relentless accusations aimed at Synod staff or the Provincial Standing Committee or individual members of the College of Bishops can be experienced by those recipients as every bit as harassing and bullying as the behaviours they are intended to expose.” This behaviour was not, however, “accountable to the same canonical processes as those properly and legally concluded back in October”.
He suggested: “One of the important things we learn as we grow up as human beings, never mind as Christians, is that it is possible to be both right and wrong at the same time. The requirement to be faithful, for example, may not always align with the requirement to be loving, or a determination to stick firmly to our moral scruples may not always allow space for us to build genuine peace and friendship.”
Earlier, Bishop Strange, who is also the Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness, had focused his opening address on building and rebuilding relationships across divides.
He spoke about a recent visit to a former SEC missionary church in Chandrapur, India, and conversations with the Archbishop in Jerusalem, Dr Hosam Naoum. He also referred to an forthcoming Synod debate on the Saint Ninian Declaration of friendship with the Roman Catholic Church.
“We also need to work on our relationships with each other. The purpose of Synod is to get business done, but it is also the opportunity to spend time together, discovering new friends and rekindling old ones,” Bishop Strange said.
