A GAY man who raised a criticism 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, within the diocese of Sheffield — he announced last week.
In 2023, Matthew Drapper had every aspect of his criticism against the church upheld, 4 years after it was lodged (News, 5 July 2024). The independent investigation, carried out by Barnardo’s, was published last yr by the diocese.
Mr Drapper was a volunteer on the church from 2013 to 2016. He first complained each to the church and the diocese in 2019. He said that he had been forced to step down from volunteering with the scholar leadership team on 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 vary his sexual orientation from gay to straight.
He recalled being told that he “needed to surrender his homosexual lifestyle and needed to talk to the demons inside him as in the event that they ‘were a dog’”. He was asked to repeat a prayer “which might indicate he had broken off ‘his agreement with Satan’ and which might free him of his homosexuality”.
The investigation concluded: “It is obvious 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 within 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 generally 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 in the course of the time I spent there — having put me through an anti-gay exorcism. . . This is an incredible moment — religious organisations will now be held liable for their behaviour towards LGBT+ people and there are steps we are able to take to make sure justice!” A recent support initiative, Conversion Therapy and Exorcism Survivors Network, was on account of launch soon, he wrote.
In response to publication of the investigation report last yr, the church said that it had “accepted the outcomes” and was “saddened that eight years ago certainly one of our community was not cared for in the best way we might have liked”. It was approached for comment.
