Another Blast From The Ignoble Past of Rev. Diane Miller and the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee

To: Diane Miller
Executive Secretary
Ministerial Fellowship Committee

From: Robin Edgar
Psychotic Cultist
formerly of the Unitarian Church of Montreal

Woden's Day May 10, 2000 13:00 hrs


Dear Ms Miller,

You will find below the full text of the open letter that I distributed to UU's entering and leaving 25 Beacon Street on Woden's Day May 3, and on Thor's Day May 4. Apparently some UU's felt the letter was worth copying and distributing further within the UU offices. Response to my picketing was far more positive than I expected from a significant percentage of those who entered and left the UUA headquarters.

In view of the extremely defensive posture of various UU employees and officials I would have to say that my picketing was quite successful. I should inform you that it was only a warning shot "across the bows" of the UUA/MFC and like General MacArthur "I will return" if necessary.

The UU's for Right Relations are reasonably well informed about my "situation" and, thankfully, seem to be quite supportive. They had a meeting on the weekend prior to my picketing at which they were informed of my intention to picket 25 Beacon street. It was made clear to them that I would refrain from picketing if they felt that it would "do more harm than good." Not only did no one object to my picketing action but some hoped that I would stay a little longer and picket at the Trustees' meetings later on Thor's Day and Freya's Day. Unfortunately I was committed to helping a friend move back to Canada from Boston and could not stay any longer this time. Maybe next time.

So far, I get the impression that I have done a lot more good than harm to the cause of raising awareness to the ongoing failure of the UUA and MFC to deal in a truly responsible manner with clergy misconduct, particularly abusive conduct. I will continue to raise public awareness to this issue in the future, both within and without the UU community.

I will soon be sending you a complete package by "snail mail" (or maybe FEDEX) of documents, correspondance, and press clippings etc. (with luck you will even get a video of the TV news piece about my picketing of the UCM) arising from the abject failure of the UUA and more particularly the Ministerial Fellowship Committee (under your direction) to "respond in responsibility" to my legitimate and very serious grievances about Ray Drennan's unethical, unprofessional, and clearly abusive behavior towards me.

I am adding a few attachments of pictures of my picketing the UUA and UCM for you to view. They are not "computer viruses" in the traditional sense but they can, and almost certainly will, be infectious.

I am formally demanding that you and the MFC re-examine my case and thoroughly investigate Ray Drennan's "behavior" not only in terms of how it has affected me but how the consequences of his ongoing failure to accept responsibility for his actions have affected the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community.

A refusal on the part of the MFC to handle my complaint will guarantee a return to Boston in the coming months to protest again, this time having sent out press releases to all pertinent Boston media. I reserve the right to continue to protest and to speak out about the UUA and MFC's failure to deal responsibly with my grievances and clergy misconduct in general at other UU churchs, UUA and CUC AGM's etc. in the meantime.

That's all for now. I will be in touch later.

Sincerely,


Robin Edgar


P.S. It looks like the photos will have to wait as Hotmail is unable to process them right now.



Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur, apt. 11
Verdun, Quebec
Canada, H4G 3C3

robin_edgar@hotmail.com

website: http:/homepage.altavista.com/robin_edgar/home.html



Wodens Day May 3, 2000


Dear Fellow Unitarian Universalist,

I am protesting abusive treatment by Ray Drennan, minister of the Unitarian church of Montreal, and our religious community’s almost total failure to responsibly address my legitimate and very serious grievances. During a deplorable verbal assault Ray Drennan repeatedly mocked and ridiculed my religious beliefs by labeling them as "silliness and fantasy" etc. He sought to deny and dismiss my claim of a profound and significant revelatory mystical experience by labeling it as "your psychotic experience" and angrily insisted that I seek psychiatric treatment. Rev. Drennan also falsely, and I have good reason to believe maliciously, labeled my religious activities which were inspired by my revelatory experience as "your cult”. When I immediately challenged this extremely derogatory, obviously defamatory, and potentially very damaging allegation, Rev. Drennan had the gall to reply that he meant "cult in the sense of "a manipulative and secretive religious group.” My grievances submitted to the Board of Management of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, the Canadian Unitarian Council c/o President John Slattery, the UUA c/o President John Beuhrens, and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee were repeatedly rejected or arbitrarily dismissed. I was threatened with expulsion from the church and/or legal action if I did not drop my grievances about my treatment by Ray Drennan and our religious community in general.

For me to say that our religious community as a whole has not responded to my serious grievances in a manner that is in clear conformity with the purported principles and purposes of the Unitarian Universalist religious community would be a considerable understatement. The remarkably negligent and irresponsible manner in which my serious grievances have been responded to by our religious community as a whole is well documented. The written responses of the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, officials of the Canadian Unitarian Council and the Unitarian Universalist Association, as well as the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, to my various letters airing my, grievances demonstrate a clear and consistent unwillingness to acknowledge the clearly unprofessional and unethical, to say nothing of psychologically abusive, nature of Ray Drennan's reprehensible conduct towards me. Diane Miller, Executive Secretary of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee actually had the gall to put in writing that Ray Drennan’s behaviour, as I described it (in a much more detailed letter of grievance) “seemed to us to be within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership.” The response of our religious community as a whole to my legitimate grievances clearly demonstrates the inherent truth of the well known aphorism that,

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

Our religious community has so far responded to my grievances in a manner that is characterized by a remarkably high degree of callous indifference and willful ignorance. As far as I am concerned it has thoroughly compromised both the letter and the spirit of many of our principles and purposes; indeed, it would appear to have completely abandoned some of these principles in several instances. The Board of the UCM did nothing to implement responsible conflict resolution procedures when I first aired my grievances to them in February of 1996 and the Board later informed me in writing that it considers this matter to be closed as did the MFC. This is in spite of having done virtually nothing to responsibly address my grievances. I formally appealed to our congregation as a whole to responsibly intervene in this conflict on at least two occasions (April 21, 1996 and November 20, 1996) and on both of these occasions my pleas were willfully and callously ignored. After having been expelled for six months for writing one more letter than the Board wished to receive I decided to picket the UCM and I have been doing so most Sundays for almost two years. The Board of the UCM made no attempt to negotiate a settlement of this dispute following my picketing and on November 22, 1999 I was “excommunicated” from the Unitarian Church of Montreal during a congregational meeting that can rightfully be described as a “kangaroo court.” It would appear that the Unitarian Universalist religious community is one where “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” (Orwell)

I expect my fellow Unitarian Universalists in general, and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, UUA, CUC and UCM in particular, to formally acknowledge that Ray Drennan's reprehensible conduct towards me is unprofessional, unethical, abusive and in clear violation of the integrity of numerous Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes, to say nothing of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association Guidelines. I expect our religious community to formally condemn Ray Drennan's misconduct, and demand that he retract the derogatory statements and damaging allegations that he made about me. Ray Drennan must also be subjected to disciplinary action that is commensurate with the seriousness of his offense.

I will add that it has become clearly apparent to me that our religious community as a whole repeatedly fails to respond with “justice, equity and compassion” in cases of ministerial misconduct and that there is a seemingly significant amount of abusive behavior, sexual or otherwise, taking place in our religious community on an ongoing basis. I am thus also picketing today on behalf of all those who have suffered any form of abuse from any Unitarian Universalists at any place or time. I am calling upon you, and all other Unitarian Universalists, to respond in responsibility to all the Spirits who have been abused by their fellow Unitarian Universalist clergy to help reform existing measures and create new measures that will ensure that any unprofessional, unethical, and/or abusive behavior by Unitarian Universalist clergy is responsibly dealt with at all levels of our religious community.

Finally, the revelatory religious experience that I am claiming, which Ray Drennan and other Unitarian Universalists have mocked, ridiculed and have tried to deny, dismiss and discredit, was a bona fide prophetic experience of considerable significance. It is shameful that our religious community which proclaims that “Revelation is not sealed!” should allow its clergy and lay people to respond in such an obviously negligent, irresponsible and outright hostile manner to “the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth. . .”

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar