Festus
So that is it. Martyn Percy has left Christ Church, Oxford, and slammed the door behind him. What a rancorous business it has been.
His ‘secret farewell’ took place in the chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, on 14 May. ‘My season for [ministry] within the Church of England must now end, partly so that truth can be spoken to power,’ he said from the pulpit, seemingly oblivious that the Dean is any diocese’s most senior priest. An interview given to The Times just days before spoke of his ‘breakdown’ and being ‘bullied’. The Diocese of Oxford gave its own response: ‘Much of what has happened has been inaccurately played out by supporters of Martyn in the media and online. Many people have been left damaged and hurt by their campaigns. Referring to a ‘jointly commissioned independent review…to be led by the CofE Independent Safeguarding Board’ with ‘the scrutiny [it] will bring…ready and willing to acknowledge any failings. Our hope is that Martyn will too’.
Then Alannah Jeune, the young lady who brought a complaint against him and was vilified and belittled for it, spoke in her own interview with the Telegraph, recounting in detail the lurid encounter but also how she used to housesit the Percys’ 12-bedroom home when they were away and had been in the pro-Martyn ‘Team Dean’. She has now given up all hope of an academic career.
Next came a statement from the college. ‘The campaign by Dr Percy and his supporters has been fuelled by information, some selective, some false and some appropriated from leaked documents…and knitted into a narrative that has been at best, distorted and one-sided and, at worst, untrue.’ His salary ‘was actually £90,000 when he asked for his pay rise’. And how on safeguarding ‘It remains unclear why, upon Dr Percy’s own account, [he] took it upon himself to take a female student out of the shower and “to dry and dress” her, rather than asking someone to assist him, or calling for paramedics’.
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And what of his wife, Emma, chaplain and canon of Christ Church? He lovingly quoted one of her poems in his valedictory sermon, but given the Percys are understood to have settled for as much as £2m, the lines about ‘a different economy…deposits are made and investments accrued…I find I am rich / And I can draw on this wealth’ rather put the references to ‘love, kindness, generosity and integrity’ somewhat in the shade. She also promotes women’s ministry to the detriment of mutual flourishing through WATCH, so will that be left behind too?
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Congratulations to Fr Michael Bowie who celebrated the 30th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood at All Saints, Margaret Street, last month with a jazz concert featuring two Steinway grand pianos in front of the chancel. Why, indeed, should the devil have all the best tunes? Although whether this means ASMS will use the ‘Jazz Mass’ setting anytime soon remains to be seen.
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Joe Biden is only the second Roman Catholic in history to hold the office of President of the United States, yet he sits lightly to its social teaching. Responding to a leak that the Supreme Court Justices are minded to overturn the 1972 Roe v Wade decision on ‘the right to abortion’ he commented: ‘If the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November’. (Pro-choice being the euphemism for those in favour of abortion.) Boris Johnson’s recently rediscovered Catholicism has yet to be put to such a test.
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The Dean of Sheffield, the Very Rev Abi Thompson, keen to be inclusive on Easter Sunday tapped into what was apparently a 15th-century Bavarian custom to tell jokes instead of preach the Resurrection, lest people find it too difficult to understand. She wore bunny ears for this but it is not obvious if their liturgical use follows the biretta or the mitre for when they should be taken off, put back on, or doffed.
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It’s the season and helpfully the Dewsbury Reporter has featured ‘14 wedding venues in Calderdale and Kirklees: best places to celebrate getting married’. At position #11, between the Venue Bowers Mill and the Holiday Inn Leeds-Brighouse is none other than ‘The Mirfield Monastery… Initially built in the 19th Century, this property is nestled amongst 20 acres of private and quiet gardens and woodlands’. It appears to be the only house of religion on the list. Anyone wanting to read more can visit hitched.co.uk.
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The Financial Times published a beautiful article on Walsingham late last month and with a catechist’s encouragement at the end. It had been ‘amended since original publication; an earlier version mistakenly referred to the Immaculate Conception rather than the Virgin Birth’.
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Addresses can be very helpful. Often there is a Church Street or Parsonage Lane. St Luke’s Millwall, on the Isle of Dogs describes itself as ‘overflowing with the love of God’ and is located on… Alpha Grove!