Minister asks to be defrocked over treatment of atheist colleague
COLIN PERKEL
TORONTO — The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 2:43PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016 3:31PM EDT
A retired United Church minister has asked to be formally defrocked as a protest against the potential firing of a colleague for her atheist beliefs.
In a scorching open letter, Rev. Beverley Burlock asserts the church has lost its way, and its treatment of Toronto minister Gretta Vosper shameful.
Vosper is due to face an ecclesiastical court hearing – date to be determined – that could see her dismissed after a subcommittee denounced her views as extreme.
“Never ever was I subjected in any of my pre-ordination interviews over the several years to such an intensive and excessive interrogation as Gretta faced before the subcommittee, which basically amounted to a heresy trial,” Burlock, of Port Mouton, N.S., says in her letter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/minister-asks-to-be-defrocked-over-review-of-atheist-colleague/article32547086/
I'd be more impressed by this gesture were she not already retired.