A GAY man who raised a complaint about an attempted exorcism that sought to “rid him of his homosexual inclinations” has received a five-figure out-of-court settlement from the church involved — St Thomas’s, Philadelphia, in the diocese of Sheffield — he announced last week.
In 2023, Matthew Drapper had every aspect of his complaint against the church upheld, four years after it was lodged (News, 5 July 2024). The independent investigation, carried out by Barnardo’s, was published last year by the diocese.
Mr Drapper was a volunteer at the church from 2013 to 2016. He first complained both to the church and the diocese in 2019. He said that he had been forced to step down from volunteering with the student leadership team at the church after stating that he was considering dating as a gay man, and that he had been subject to prayer ministry — which he considered to be an exorcism — that attempted to change his sexual orientation from gay to straight.
He recalled being told that he “needed to renounce his homosexual lifestyle and needed to speak to the demons inside him as if they ‘were a dog’”. He was asked to repeat a prayer “which would indicate he had broken off ‘his agreement with Satan’ and which would free him of his homosexuality”.
The investigation concluded: “It is clear from information provided to us that deliverance ministries in relation to homosexuality was endorsed and supported by the Church.” It also revealed the extent to which St Thomas’s had resisted participating in the investigation. Planted out of St Thomas’s, Crookes, an Anglican-Baptist local ecumenical partnership, in 1998, the church was joined by the King’s Centre, a Sheffield house-church in 2009, and is now known as Network Church Sheffield.
On 14 July, Mr Drapper wrote on the social media site X: “I’ve finally, finally received a settlement from St Thomas Philadelphia for the damage they did to me during the time I spent there — having put me through an anti-gay exorcism. . . This is an incredible moment — religious organisations will now be held responsible for their behaviour towards LGBT+ people and there are steps we can take to ensure justice!” A new support initiative, Conversion Therapy and Exorcism Survivors Network, was due to launch soon, he wrote.
In response to publication of the investigation report last year, the church said that it had “accepted the outcomes” and was “saddened that eight years ago one of our community was not cared for in the way we would have liked”. It was approached for comment.
