THE Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, said on Friday that a few of her episcopal colleagues had chosen to “threaten” her in an “unprofessional and un-Christian manner” by asking her to resign.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no such thing as a prospect that I’ll allow them to pressure me into quitting a task I cherish,” she said in a press release.
On Thursday, 4 of the five other bishops within the Scottish Episcopal Church, including the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, made a press release by which they urged Bishop Dyer to “consider whether she remains to be the appropriate person to guide the diocese” (News, 18 October).
Bishop Dyer, who’s currently on holiday, responded on Friday with an prolonged statement: “I’m at a whole loss to elucidate what has prompted these 4 Bishops to take such an ill-considered and inflammatory plan of action, just days after the proceedings against me were dismissed,” she began.
Last week, Bishop Dyer was reinstated after being suspended for nearly two years, when it was announced that a disciplinary tribunal against her had been dropped by the Church’s Procurator, Paul Reid KC (News, 9 October).
Mr Reid wrote that, although there was “sufficient evidence to supply a practical prospect of conviction” on charges of bullying, he didn’t consider it to be in the general public interest to proceed with a trial.
On Friday, Bishop Dyer referred to a press release that Bishop Strange made on the announcement of Mr Reid’s decision, by which the Primus said that the College of Bishops “calls on all within the Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney, and the broader Church, to work together to attain reconciliation and healing as we glance to the longer term”.
This statement, she suggested, was “utterly inconsistent” with an email that she had received earlier this week, by which she said that three bishops had issued her with an “ultimatum, giving me 24 hours to conform to step down”.
“To say one thing in public and one other in private is each duplicitous and misleading. I might have expected way more from these colleagues, than to threaten me in such an unprofessional and un-Christian manner,” she wrote.
The signatories of Thursday’s statement were the Primus; the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr John Armes; the Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Revd Andrew Swift; and the Bishop of Argylle & The Isles, the Rt Revd David Railton. It is unclear which of the 4 was not a signatory of the ultimatum to which Bishop Dyer referred in her statement.
The Chancellor of the diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney, Graham Robertson, also issued a press release on Friday, by which he said that he had “considered the validity” of the e-mail and concluded that “the try and force Bishop Dyer to resign is ultra vires. They didn’t have the authority to send an email containing such an ultimatum.
“The attempt is in contravention of employment law and human rights laws. It isn’t any solution to treat anyone in an employment situation, let alone a sister bishop and a colleague.”
In her statement, Bishop Dyer wrote that there was “no prospect” that she would “abandon a Diocese which has shown me overwhelming love and support over what has been a really traumatic and difficult period”.
Bishop Dyer faced allegations of bullying and abuse of her position, and the fees that had been resulting from be brought against her included that she “did bully, harass and discriminate against” a diocesan worker, who, it is known, has a disability, over a period of just about two years.
A review published in 2021, by the Very Revd Professor Iain Torrance, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen and a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, had beneficial that Bishop Dyer “step back permanently from the diocese” (News, 17 September 2021).
He said that he didn’t consider that Bishop Dyer had the “trust and confidence of various the priests within the diocese”, described the diocese as affected by “systemic dysfunction”, and said that he feared that the Bishop’s position was “irrevocable”.
In Friday’s statement, Bishop Dyer said that there was a “very small group of people that have sought to force me out of the Church”, and described herself as being subject to a “campaign of bullying”.
Bishop Dyer paid tribute to the “steadfast support and guidance” of the one Scottish Episcopalian diocesan bishop who didn’t sign Thursday’s statement: the Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane, the Rt Revd Ian Paton. “His friendship has been a model of collegiate assistance on which I’ll proceed to attract as I return to public ministry,” she wrote.
Bishop Paton has been contacted for comment, as have the opposite diocesan bishops.
