The Disruptive Behaviour Policy Of Bigoted Atheist Unitarian Minister Rev. Ray Drennan
An historic Unitarian Church of Montreal church document aka record now open to scrutiny to all U*Us, Canadian or otherwise. . . U*U world-wide. Herewith the complete text of Robin Edgar's formal complaint against the disruptive and aggressive and highly inappropriate behaviour of the intolerant and abusive fundamentalist atheist bigot Rev. Ray Drennan presented to the negligent, biased, complicit, and indeed quite "Stalinistic". . . Disruptive Behaviour Committee of the alleged Unitarian Church of Montreal as chaired by John Pike former President of the alleged Unitarian Church of Montreal.
Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur apt. 11
Verdun, Quebec
Canada, H4G 3C3
Disruptive Behaviour Committee
c/o John Pike, Vice-President
of the Board of Management
Unitarian Church of Montreal Wodensday, January 1, 1997
Dear Mr. Pike,
I read in the NUUS Letter of January 1997, that the church has put in place a Disruptive Behaviour Committee. While the policy, specific role, and scope of authority of this committee is not completely defined in your notice I believe that Rev. Ray Drennan has behaved in a clearly disruptive manner towards me on a number of occasions now and I am requesting a meeting with the Disruptive Behaviour Committee so that I might share my very serious concerns about Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour. It is my hope that via frank and open discussion of my grievances regarding Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour it will be possible to achieve a settlement of my regrettable dispute with him. I believe that through a process of open dialogue it should be possible to settle this dispute in a manner that may be clearly seen to genuinely affirm and promote the stated principles and purposes of our religious community including affirmation of justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
As a Board member you are familiar with the nature and details of my grievances regarding Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour. I have written a number of letters addressed to the Board of Management of this church which clearly express my discomfort with Rev. Drennan's highly unprofessional, demeaning and abusive behaviour towards me. As you most probably are aware I have also distributed two letters addressed to the members of our congregation in which I have made known to them my serious grievances arising from Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me. These two letters come as a direct result of Rev. Ray Drennan's obstinate refusal to retract the demeaning statements and damaging allegations that he has made about me and the failure of the Board of Management of this church and other Unitarian Universalist authorities to responsibly deal with this evidently serious problem in a manner that firmly and forthrightly made it absolutely clear to Rev. Ray Drennan that his disruptive behaviour towards me clearly violated the integrity of the stated principles and purposes of our religious community and that it certainly warranted a formal retraction of his demeaning statements and damaging allegations about me as well as a sincere and formal written apology to be made to me during a service.
Rather than repeating in this letter all the deplorable details of Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me I am submitting to the Disruptive Behaviour Committee copies of my correspondence with the Board of Management and embers of the congregation of
(Page 1 of 4)
this church. As I stated in my letter of November 20th, 1996, which was addressed to my fellow members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, I am making available to this church a complete record of all written correspondence resulting from my serious grievances about Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me and the Disruptive Behaviour Committee should have free access to this material if it requires additional information about my complaint. It should be obvious to any reasonably intelligent and sensitive human being that Rev. Ray Drennan's behaviour towards me clearly demonstrates considerable intolerance of my religious opinions and that his demeaning statements and damaging allegations about me serve to directly threaten and intimidate my own freedom of belief as well as my expression of my religious opinions and to indirectly threaten and intimidate the freedom of belief and religious opinions of other people within our own religious community and in the world at large. His hostile and demeaning behaviour towards me during our
meeting of Thursday November 9th, 1995, including, but by no means limited to, his description of my religious beliefs as "silliness and fantasy" and my revelatory experience of God as "your psychotic experience," along with his hostile labelling of my religious activities, including Creation Day, as "your cult" and more specifically as "a manipulative and secretive religious group" obviously intimidates and threatens my own emotional well-being and may well serve to intimidate or threaten the emotional well-being of others who are close to me or who have celebrated Creation Day in the past. It should be obvious that Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me is diametrically opposed to this church's desire to provide "a safe atmosphere where tolerance can exist."
In defence of Creation Day I will say that it is a perfectly legitimate inter-faith celebration of Creation and is completely in line with the stated principles and purposes of our religious community and responds directly to several Unitarian Universalist policy statements even though it was conceived before these policy statements became known to me. There is nothing secretive about Creation Day nor is there anything manipulative about Creation Day. The participants are encouraged to present their opinions about the Creation and humanity's role in it from the standpoint of both their religious and scientific knowledge. Creation Day has been celebrated on two occasions and respected members of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Bahai, Native American, Zoroastrian, Pagan and Unitarian religious communities have participated in one or both of these celebrations. I believe that these people would be shocked and angered that Rev. Ray Drennan has implied that Creation Day is the initiative of "a manipulative and secretive" "cult" I have so far not informed them of Rev. Ray Drennan's behaviour in the hope that he would retract his allegations and apologize for them and thus minimize the potential damage to our religious community caused by his false allegations about me. I must inform you that I feel that I have very little choice but to inform these people, and other potential participants in future celebrations of Creation Day, of Rev. Drennan's damaging allegations about me and Creation Day before inviting them to participate in future celebrations.
(page 2 of 4)
Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me, to say nothing of the failure of the Board of Management and other Unitarian Universalist authorities to responsibly deal with my very serious grievances arising from his disruptive behaviour has most certainly resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the Unitarian Universalist religious community to me. I also have very good reason to believe that Rev. Ray Drennan's evidently disruptive behaviour towards me has already resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of our church, as well as the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community, in a number of other people, both potential and existing members of this church, and that it will almost certainly lead to a much further diminishment of the appeal of our liberal religious community when his clearly unprofessional, hostile and abusive behaviour towards me inevitably becomes more widely known to the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community and to the general public.
Just to provide a clear example of how Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour has resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the Unitarian Universalist religious community to other people, one which is quite separate from my more serious grievances, you may recall the occasion that Rev. Drennan cut short my presentation of a ritual that I had devised during a Sunday service which was devoted to new rituals. This clearly disruptive behaviour caused immediate discomfort in those members of the congregation who were genuinely interested in my ritual, some of whom were repeating my hand movements while seated. When I returned to my seat right after Rev. Drennan had cut short my presentation one of the senior members of our congregation expressed his regret by saying, "That was ill-advised." After the service a close friend of one of our members, one who seemed to be a potential member of our church, approached me and expressed her disappointment at Rev. Drennan's behaviour and did so in a way that reflected poorly on our church as a whole. She said to me, "So this is what passes for religious tolerance in this church," or words to that effect. I have not seen much of her in this church since then and she certainly has not chosen to become a member of this church.
I believe that other people faced with such shoddy treatment would have responded by leaving our religious community in complete disgust. Fortunately I believe that it is much better for me to remain within our religious community and to continue to take steps to eventually see to it that this serious violation of the stated rinciples and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist religion is responsibly
addressed by our religious community and hopefully is never repeated again. I feel a very strong sense of responsibility towards my fellow Unitarian Universalists to see to it that their sincere religious beliefs, whatever they may be, are not mocked and ridiculed by their peers and, more particularly, by UU clergy. While I know of few instances in which UU theists have mocked the beliefs of UU atheists I am familiar with several instances in which narrow-minded UU atheists have either willfully insulted UU theists or expressed disdain for their beliefs. I must vigourously protest such behaviour and I fully intend to discourage it.
(page 3 of 4)
It should be abundantly clear to you and to the other members of the Disruptive Behaviour Committee that not only the interests of the Unitarian Church of Montreal but also those of the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community have been seriously compromised by Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me. His obstinate and ongoing refusal to recognize the unprofessional, demeaning and abusive nature of his behaviour, to formally retract his harsh words and damaging allegations about me, and to sincerely apologize for the serious harm that his quite evidently disruptive behaviour has inflicted upon me, and has indirectly inflicted on others, only serves to aggravate this very serious problem.
Although I am not seeking Rev. Ray Drennan's expulsion from our religious community, nor am I requesting that he be fired or resign as minister of this church, I must insist that he admit to having behaved in an unprofessional, hostile, and abusive manner towards me during our meeting of November 9th, 1995 and on other occasions. I naturally expect Rev. Ray Drennan to formally, and in writing, retract the demeaning statements and damaging allegations that he has seen fit to make about me and to apologize to me for his obviously disruptive behaviour towards me. Since Rev. Drennan has refused to apologize to me for more than a year now I also expect him to offer a full explanation to me for his disruptive behaviour towards me. I am
particularly interested in knowing why he felt he could label my revelatory religious experience as "your psychotic experience" and why he saw fit to refer to my religious activities, including Creation Day, as "your cult" and qualified this seriously damaging allegation about me by saying that he meant a "cult" in the sense of "a manipulative and secretive religious group."
A serious problem exists. The failure of the Board of Management of this church and of other Unitarian Universalist authorities to deal with it in a responsible manner has not only discounted my own clearly expressed discomfort but has indirectly resulted in the discomfort of other members of our church. Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me has resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of our church, as well as of the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community, to myself and to others and will ultimately lead to a more widespread, and I believe more profound, diminishment in the appeal of the Unitarian Universalist religious community if it is not met firmly and forthrightly by concerned members of our religious community in the immediate future. I find it extremely regrettable that this serious dispute was not settled in a just, equitable, and compassionate manner much earlier and I truly hope that the Disruptive Behaviour Committee will be able to facilitate a settlement of this dispute that clearly lives up to the stated principles and purposes of our religious community.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
(page 4 of 4)
Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur apt. 11
Verdun, Quebec
Canada, H4G 3C3
Disruptive Behaviour Committee
c/o John Pike, Vice-President
of the Board of Management
Unitarian Church of Montreal Wodensday, January 1, 1997
Dear Mr. Pike,
I read in the NUUS Letter of January 1997, that the church has put in place a Disruptive Behaviour Committee. While the policy, specific role, and scope of authority of this committee is not completely defined in your notice I believe that Rev. Ray Drennan has behaved in a clearly disruptive manner towards me on a number of occasions now and I am requesting a meeting with the Disruptive Behaviour Committee so that I might share my very serious concerns about Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour. It is my hope that via frank and open discussion of my grievances regarding Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour it will be possible to achieve a settlement of my regrettable dispute with him. I believe that through a process of open dialogue it should be possible to settle this dispute in a manner that may be clearly seen to genuinely affirm and promote the stated principles and purposes of our religious community including affirmation of justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
As a Board member you are familiar with the nature and details of my grievances regarding Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour. I have written a number of letters addressed to the Board of Management of this church which clearly express my discomfort with Rev. Drennan's highly unprofessional, demeaning and abusive behaviour towards me. As you most probably are aware I have also distributed two letters addressed to the members of our congregation in which I have made known to them my serious grievances arising from Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me. These two letters come as a direct result of Rev. Ray Drennan's obstinate refusal to retract the demeaning statements and damaging allegations that he has made about me and the failure of the Board of Management of this church and other Unitarian Universalist authorities to responsibly deal with this evidently serious problem in a manner that firmly and forthrightly made it absolutely clear to Rev. Ray Drennan that his disruptive behaviour towards me clearly violated the integrity of the stated principles and purposes of our religious community and that it certainly warranted a formal retraction of his demeaning statements and damaging allegations about me as well as a sincere and formal written apology to be made to me during a service.
Rather than repeating in this letter all the deplorable details of Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me I am submitting to the Disruptive Behaviour Committee copies of my correspondence with the Board of Management and embers of the congregation of
(Page 1 of 4)
this church. As I stated in my letter of November 20th, 1996, which was addressed to my fellow members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, I am making available to this church a complete record of all written correspondence resulting from my serious grievances about Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me and the Disruptive Behaviour Committee should have free access to this material if it requires additional information about my complaint. It should be obvious to any reasonably intelligent and sensitive human being that Rev. Ray Drennan's behaviour towards me clearly demonstrates considerable intolerance of my religious opinions and that his demeaning statements and damaging allegations about me serve to directly threaten and intimidate my own freedom of belief as well as my expression of my religious opinions and to indirectly threaten and intimidate the freedom of belief and religious opinions of other people within our own religious community and in the world at large. His hostile and demeaning behaviour towards me during our
meeting of Thursday November 9th, 1995, including, but by no means limited to, his description of my religious beliefs as "silliness and fantasy" and my revelatory experience of God as "your psychotic experience," along with his hostile labelling of my religious activities, including Creation Day, as "your cult" and more specifically as "a manipulative and secretive religious group" obviously intimidates and threatens my own emotional well-being and may well serve to intimidate or threaten the emotional well-being of others who are close to me or who have celebrated Creation Day in the past. It should be obvious that Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me is diametrically opposed to this church's desire to provide "a safe atmosphere where tolerance can exist."
In defence of Creation Day I will say that it is a perfectly legitimate inter-faith celebration of Creation and is completely in line with the stated principles and purposes of our religious community and responds directly to several Unitarian Universalist policy statements even though it was conceived before these policy statements became known to me. There is nothing secretive about Creation Day nor is there anything manipulative about Creation Day. The participants are encouraged to present their opinions about the Creation and humanity's role in it from the standpoint of both their religious and scientific knowledge. Creation Day has been celebrated on two occasions and respected members of the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Bahai, Native American, Zoroastrian, Pagan and Unitarian religious communities have participated in one or both of these celebrations. I believe that these people would be shocked and angered that Rev. Ray Drennan has implied that Creation Day is the initiative of "a manipulative and secretive" "cult" I have so far not informed them of Rev. Ray Drennan's behaviour in the hope that he would retract his allegations and apologize for them and thus minimize the potential damage to our religious community caused by his false allegations about me. I must inform you that I feel that I have very little choice but to inform these people, and other potential participants in future celebrations of Creation Day, of Rev. Drennan's damaging allegations about me and Creation Day before inviting them to participate in future celebrations.
(page 2 of 4)
Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me, to say nothing of the failure of the Board of Management and other Unitarian Universalist authorities to responsibly deal with my very serious grievances arising from his disruptive behaviour has most certainly resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the Unitarian Universalist religious community to me. I also have very good reason to believe that Rev. Ray Drennan's evidently disruptive behaviour towards me has already resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of our church, as well as the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community, in a number of other people, both potential and existing members of this church, and that it will almost certainly lead to a much further diminishment of the appeal of our liberal religious community when his clearly unprofessional, hostile and abusive behaviour towards me inevitably becomes more widely known to the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community and to the general public.
Just to provide a clear example of how Rev. Drennan's disruptive behaviour has resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the Unitarian Universalist religious community to other people, one which is quite separate from my more serious grievances, you may recall the occasion that Rev. Drennan cut short my presentation of a ritual that I had devised during a Sunday service which was devoted to new rituals. This clearly disruptive behaviour caused immediate discomfort in those members of the congregation who were genuinely interested in my ritual, some of whom were repeating my hand movements while seated. When I returned to my seat right after Rev. Drennan had cut short my presentation one of the senior members of our congregation expressed his regret by saying, "That was ill-advised." After the service a close friend of one of our members, one who seemed to be a potential member of our church, approached me and expressed her disappointment at Rev. Drennan's behaviour and did so in a way that reflected poorly on our church as a whole. She said to me, "So this is what passes for religious tolerance in this church," or words to that effect. I have not seen much of her in this church since then and she certainly has not chosen to become a member of this church.
I believe that other people faced with such shoddy treatment would have responded by leaving our religious community in complete disgust. Fortunately I believe that it is much better for me to remain within our religious community and to continue to take steps to eventually see to it that this serious violation of the stated rinciples and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist religion is responsibly
addressed by our religious community and hopefully is never repeated again. I feel a very strong sense of responsibility towards my fellow Unitarian Universalists to see to it that their sincere religious beliefs, whatever they may be, are not mocked and ridiculed by their peers and, more particularly, by UU clergy. While I know of few instances in which UU theists have mocked the beliefs of UU atheists I am familiar with several instances in which narrow-minded UU atheists have either willfully insulted UU theists or expressed disdain for their beliefs. I must vigourously protest such behaviour and I fully intend to discourage it.
(page 3 of 4)
It should be abundantly clear to you and to the other members of the Disruptive Behaviour Committee that not only the interests of the Unitarian Church of Montreal but also those of the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community have been seriously compromised by Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me. His obstinate and ongoing refusal to recognize the unprofessional, demeaning and abusive nature of his behaviour, to formally retract his harsh words and damaging allegations about me, and to sincerely apologize for the serious harm that his quite evidently disruptive behaviour has inflicted upon me, and has indirectly inflicted on others, only serves to aggravate this very serious problem.
Although I am not seeking Rev. Ray Drennan's expulsion from our religious community, nor am I requesting that he be fired or resign as minister of this church, I must insist that he admit to having behaved in an unprofessional, hostile, and abusive manner towards me during our meeting of November 9th, 1995 and on other occasions. I naturally expect Rev. Ray Drennan to formally, and in writing, retract the demeaning statements and damaging allegations that he has seen fit to make about me and to apologize to me for his obviously disruptive behaviour towards me. Since Rev. Drennan has refused to apologize to me for more than a year now I also expect him to offer a full explanation to me for his disruptive behaviour towards me. I am
particularly interested in knowing why he felt he could label my revelatory religious experience as "your psychotic experience" and why he saw fit to refer to my religious activities, including Creation Day, as "your cult" and qualified this seriously damaging allegation about me by saying that he meant a "cult" in the sense of "a manipulative and secretive religious group."
A serious problem exists. The failure of the Board of Management of this church and of other Unitarian Universalist authorities to deal with it in a responsible manner has not only discounted my own clearly expressed discomfort but has indirectly resulted in the discomfort of other members of our church. Rev. Ray Drennan's disruptive behaviour towards me has resulted in a diminishment of the appeal of our church, as well as of the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community, to myself and to others and will ultimately lead to a more widespread, and I believe more profound, diminishment in the appeal of the Unitarian Universalist religious community if it is not met firmly and forthrightly by concerned members of our religious community in the immediate future. I find it extremely regrettable that this serious dispute was not settled in a just, equitable, and compassionate manner much earlier and I truly hope that the Disruptive Behaviour Committee will be able to facilitate a settlement of this dispute that clearly lives up to the stated principles and purposes of our religious community.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
(page 4 of 4)
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