A sad tale of irresponsible journalism and a cowardly church

In early 2019 the Dean of Perth Anglican Cathedral, Richard Pengelly, resigned his position and a search committee was formed to replace him. Three names were eventually shortlisted, two of whom were invited to preach since the third had already appeared in the pulpit on another time. The congregation, of which my wife and I are members, were delighted by the visit of Nicholas Jepson-Biddle currently precentor at Wells Cathedral in the UK. He was chosen as our next Dean and accepted the position.

On the morning of August 21^st, I opened the West Australian newspaper, Perth's only daily paper, to find an article by Ben O'Shea, who usually writes gossip on the second page. The article, headlined "CHRIST ALMIGHTY!" appeared over an unguarded picture of Nicholas wearing sunglasses, with his finger pointed to the camera and with what looks like a sneer on his face. We later learnt that he was doing an Elvis impersonation.

Pasted over his photo were two extracts from his Facebook page. One read: "Ok, enough with the Boy Seamen already. I say, enough." March 18th, 2012.

The other read: "wishes everyone would stop posting RIP Whitney Houston. Please." February 12^th 2012.

Without the context, it is impossible to understand the meaning of these posts. However, Ben O'Shea subheads his article with: "Church role on hold after priest's bizarre posts" and goes on to say that the post referring to "boy seamen" has forced the archbishop to withhold the licence of the new Dean.

O'Shea goes on to say that: "With or without context, the joke was likely to have fallen especially flat in WA, where Archbishop Goldsworthy's predecessor, Roger Herft, resigned in the wake of the child abuse royal commission, admitting he let down survivors of child sexual abuse."

Five minutes of research on the web reveals that "Boy Seamen" refers to boys from mainly poor circumstances who were inducted into the Royal Navy. Nicholas, during 2012, was precentor of Portsmouth Cathedralduring which time a monument for 534 Boy Seamen killed in WWII was placed in the cathedral. It may well be that Nicholas' mention of Boy Seamen on his Facebook page had something to do with that!

O'Shea may sniff at the context, but a little research on his part would have revealed it. He would have saved himself from embarrassment by hinting that "seamen" might stand for "semen" and thereby raising a scandal. The post about Whitney Houston is left hanging. Why was it mentioned at all? Was this another bizarre post?

Now, the very sad aspect of this story is that a complaint was made about Nicholas to the Archbishop of Perth, who, I presume, submitted it to the Professional Standards Committee and Nicholas withdrew his acceptance to be our new Dean. This news was brought to a stunned congregation the September 15th. The grief in the cathedral was palpable.

So, what is going on here? A gossip columnist in the West has hinted that "seaman" actually stands for "semen" and has used the history of the church and sexual abuse to warn off a very able churchman from taking up a prominent position in the city of Perth. Presumably, O Shea's column had the blessing of his editor who has obviously taken the lowest, well-trodden path by the gutter tabloid press, to raise a stink where this is nothing rotten, cause a great deal of havoc and then walk away with presumably rising paper sales. The cynicism is unbelievable.

It is obvious that Seven West Media recognises no duty to the various stakeholders of its business and that it has followed the now increasingly questioned notion that it has only a duty to its shareholders. This means that it can behave in ways that cause damage to others while boosting its own sales. By publishing damaging sleaze, the West may have caused a brief flurry of interest, especially among those alienated from the church, but they have damaged their long-term reputation as a reliable source of news and responsible journalism. This is bound to catch them up in the end.

Kerry Stokes AO (1995) AC (2008) is the chairman of Seven West Media that owns The West newspaper. He is a major stockholder, a highly respected businessman in Perth and a prominent philanthropist. He may argue that editors of the West have independence. However, when a newspaper sets out to scandalise the community with made-up stories to make a brief splash, surely the chairman of the company must ask questions. Is it not time for Seven West Media to come to the table of Inclusive Capitalism and win the support of the community that buys its papers? Kerry Stokes is in the box seat to make this happen and build a healthy community instead of inflicting damage for short term gain.

To add insult to injury, O'Shea wrote a piece for the West (Sept 18^th) informing us that "Priest pulls pin on top job." He sticks to his story that "Boy Seamen" is an off-colour joke by Nicholas even though I have written to the editor informing him of the intended slur and of information feely available on the web. This is corrupt journalism and O'Shea should be sacked for deliberately ignoring the truth for his and the paper's own ends. This is how civilizations decline. It will be now very hard to for us to attract a person to take up the role of dean because that person will know that the West will use all of its dirty tricks to bring down another tall poppy.

The other side of this story is that of the church. Since the exposure of sexual abuse in many institutions that deal with children, it is entirely reasonable to demand transparency and the duty to report. I wonder whether the church is so nervous about being caught out in this regard as to be jumping at shadows and unable to defend itself. Or, has the church built a bureaucracy that blindly follows up on all complaints, no matter what their veracity, thinking that if the left-hand does not know what the right-hand is doing it will be saved from bias?

However, there is in the statutes of the Professional Standards Ordinance a provision that allows for complaints to be dismissed: "The PSC may dismiss certain complaints if: (e) the PSC is of the opinion that the complaint is false, vexatious, misconceived, frivolous or lacking in substance" In the case of the new Dean, it should have been clear at the very first that the complaint had no basis. It could have been dismissed with five minutes investigation on the web and exposed for what it was; a deliberate and baseless smear. The question arises as to why the complaint was not quickly hosed down so that the prospective Dean felt no pressure to resign his acceptance?

Of course, the church is embarrassed about child sexual abuse perpetrated by its clergy and we repent about turning a blind eye. However, there is nothing intrinsic about the church that enabled it. We, as well as other organizations that deal with children, were preyed upon but duplicitous men who were skilled at covering their tracks. The church has gone to great lengths to safeguard the children in its care, but we cannot give a guarantee that it will never happen again because of the cunning nature of the abusers. Having said that, the church should not tremble at any manufactured whiff of sexual abuse but robustly stand up for the truth and protect its members and clergy from slander. If we do not do this we will remain an easy target that is expected to lay down and take it all because it is thought we have a guilty conscience.