A Letter Of Grievance That Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us Have Yet To Responsibly Respond To. . .
A little bit of Googling around found this more than decade old letter of grievance posted as part of a comment I posted in response to the 'Final Report as an Ally' blog post of U*U Troll indrax aka James Andrix. Unitarian*Universalists in general, and Montreal Unitarians in particular. . . would be well advised to read it again for the first time to borrow a phrase from a Cornflakes advertisement. Without further ado here is the full text of my very first letter of grievance addressed to the congregants aka *members* of the Unitarian Church of Montreal after ALL of my previous letters of grievance which were filed with the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee, and the CUC, were irresponsibly (to say nothing of negligently and complicitly. . .) dismissed out of hand.
Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur apt. 11,
Verdun, Quebec,
Canada, H4G 3C3
Sunday April 21, 1996
Dear Fellow Member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal,
It is with great regret that I must inform you of the extremely unprofessional and demeaning response of Rev. Ray Drennan to my claim of a revelatory experience of God. Since arriving in Montreal as the settled minister of our church Rev. Drennan has displayed an intensely negative and even hostile attitude towards my claim of a revelatory religious experience and he has refused to cooperate in any way with my efforts to ensure that my claims are seriously responded to by the Unitarian Universalist religious community. During a meeting in September of 1995 it was implicit in a number of Rev. Drennan's responses to my claims that he questioned my sanity and, on the basis of what I had told him during this initial meeting, he said that he felt I was in need of "professional help".
On Thursday November 9th, 1995, Rev. Drennan met with me in my apartment so that I could brief him in more complete detail about my experience and the claims which arose from it. The reason that the meeting was held in my apartment was so that I could show Rev. Drennan an exposition which clearly illustrates how the total solar eclipse distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a "cosmic eye" and how this fact and other symbolic aspects of this celestial phenomenon has had a tremendous impact on human religious belief. Throughout this meeting Rev. Drennan's comportment towards me was negative, hostile, sarcastic, and demeaning. Before I could even begin to explain my exposition to him he dismissively referred to my claims as "silliness and fantasy". When I attempted to explain my claims via the exposition Rev. Drennan repeatedly interrupted my discourse with negative and insulting comments such as, "So you're God's messenger and you're here to tell all the world's religions that they're wrong..." At one point during our meeting Rev. Drennan derisively referred to my claimed revelatory religious experience as, "your psychotic experience" and he angrily insisted that I was in dire need of immediate psychiatric help. Later in our meeting he referred to my religious activities which have been inspired by my experience such as Creation Day as "your cult" in a tone which was clearly hostile. When I asked him to elaborate on what he intended by his use of the word "cult" he said that he meant a cult in the sense of "a manipulative and secretive religious group".
Rev. Ray Drennan has obstinately refused to retract these false, demeaning, and damaging allegations about me or to apologize to me for making them, insisting that he was "only being honest" with me. I have seen fit to file formal grievances concerning Rev. Drennan's unprofessional and abusive comportment towards me with the Board of our church, the Canadian Unitarian Council in Toronto, as well as
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the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston in the hope that they might persuade Rev. Drennan to issue a formal apology to me. The presidents of both the C.U.C. and the U.U.A. have made it quite clear to me that they consider this to be a congregational matter, although Dr. John Buehrens has forwarded my complaint to the head of the U.U.A.'s ministerial fellowship committee for review. Regrettably, the Board of our church has decided to attempt to sweep this deplorable matter under the carpet so I am now bringing it to the attention of our congregation myself since I in no way consider the response of the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to be one which affirms or promotes justice, equity or compassion towards me. Rev. Ray Drennan's insulting and demeaning remarks about my claim of a revelatory experience of God and his false and damaging allegations about me in no way serve to either affirm or promote my own inherent worth and dignity, nor do they in any way affirm or promote acceptance of me or serve to encourage my own or anyone else's spiritual growth. If the leaders of our religious community are not willing to affirm and promote peace, liberty, and justice within our own religious community how can they possibly expect to undertake to do this with any amount of credibility in terms of the much larger "world community"? Rev. Drennan's unprofessional, demeaning, and damaging response to my claim of a revelatory religious experience and the failure of the Board of our church to respond "in responsibility" to this matter displays a distinct lack of respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. Rev. Ray Drennan's remarks are not only insulting and damaging to me but also to anyone who is associated with me and my efforts to ensure that my revelatory experience is responded to "in responsibility" by the religious community, and to anyone involved in the celebration of Creation Day. Furthermore, Rev. Drennan's remarks are extremely insulting to anyone who has claimed a revelatory experience of God now or in the past and thus, by extension, they serve to demean the theistic religious traditions of the world which affirm both revelatory and prophetic experiences of God. Above and beyond this, Rev. Drennan's negative, sarcastic, and mocking response to my claims regarding my revelatory religious experience ultimately insults the Creator of the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
I hereby appeal to you to help to ensure that my grievances about Rev. Ray Drennan's demeaning and damaging comportment towards me, as well as some grievances that I have about the church Board's treatment of me, are responsibly dealt with by our congregation in a manner that may clearly be seen to live up to both the letter and the spirit of our Unitarian Universalist principles. A sincere and formal apology made to me by Rev. Drennan would be a step towards promoting acceptance, respect, peace, and justice in our community.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
A little over fourteen years down the road Montreal Unitarians, the UUA, and Unitarian*Universalists more generally, have yet to respond to that letter of grievance in an even remotely responsible manner which genuinely honors and upholds the Second Principle which calls for justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur apt. 11,
Verdun, Quebec,
Canada, H4G 3C3
Sunday April 21, 1996
Dear Fellow Member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal,
It is with great regret that I must inform you of the extremely unprofessional and demeaning response of Rev. Ray Drennan to my claim of a revelatory experience of God. Since arriving in Montreal as the settled minister of our church Rev. Drennan has displayed an intensely negative and even hostile attitude towards my claim of a revelatory religious experience and he has refused to cooperate in any way with my efforts to ensure that my claims are seriously responded to by the Unitarian Universalist religious community. During a meeting in September of 1995 it was implicit in a number of Rev. Drennan's responses to my claims that he questioned my sanity and, on the basis of what I had told him during this initial meeting, he said that he felt I was in need of "professional help".
On Thursday November 9th, 1995, Rev. Drennan met with me in my apartment so that I could brief him in more complete detail about my experience and the claims which arose from it. The reason that the meeting was held in my apartment was so that I could show Rev. Drennan an exposition which clearly illustrates how the total solar eclipse distinctly resembles the pupil and iris of a "cosmic eye" and how this fact and other symbolic aspects of this celestial phenomenon has had a tremendous impact on human religious belief. Throughout this meeting Rev. Drennan's comportment towards me was negative, hostile, sarcastic, and demeaning. Before I could even begin to explain my exposition to him he dismissively referred to my claims as "silliness and fantasy". When I attempted to explain my claims via the exposition Rev. Drennan repeatedly interrupted my discourse with negative and insulting comments such as, "So you're God's messenger and you're here to tell all the world's religions that they're wrong..." At one point during our meeting Rev. Drennan derisively referred to my claimed revelatory religious experience as, "your psychotic experience" and he angrily insisted that I was in dire need of immediate psychiatric help. Later in our meeting he referred to my religious activities which have been inspired by my experience such as Creation Day as "your cult" in a tone which was clearly hostile. When I asked him to elaborate on what he intended by his use of the word "cult" he said that he meant a cult in the sense of "a manipulative and secretive religious group".
Rev. Ray Drennan has obstinately refused to retract these false, demeaning, and damaging allegations about me or to apologize to me for making them, insisting that he was "only being honest" with me. I have seen fit to file formal grievances concerning Rev. Drennan's unprofessional and abusive comportment towards me with the Board of our church, the Canadian Unitarian Council in Toronto, as well as
(page break 1)
the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston in the hope that they might persuade Rev. Drennan to issue a formal apology to me. The presidents of both the C.U.C. and the U.U.A. have made it quite clear to me that they consider this to be a congregational matter, although Dr. John Buehrens has forwarded my complaint to the head of the U.U.A.'s ministerial fellowship committee for review. Regrettably, the Board of our church has decided to attempt to sweep this deplorable matter under the carpet so I am now bringing it to the attention of our congregation myself since I in no way consider the response of the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to be one which affirms or promotes justice, equity or compassion towards me. Rev. Ray Drennan's insulting and demeaning remarks about my claim of a revelatory experience of God and his false and damaging allegations about me in no way serve to either affirm or promote my own inherent worth and dignity, nor do they in any way affirm or promote acceptance of me or serve to encourage my own or anyone else's spiritual growth. If the leaders of our religious community are not willing to affirm and promote peace, liberty, and justice within our own religious community how can they possibly expect to undertake to do this with any amount of credibility in terms of the much larger "world community"? Rev. Drennan's unprofessional, demeaning, and damaging response to my claim of a revelatory religious experience and the failure of the Board of our church to respond "in responsibility" to this matter displays a distinct lack of respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. Rev. Ray Drennan's remarks are not only insulting and damaging to me but also to anyone who is associated with me and my efforts to ensure that my revelatory experience is responded to "in responsibility" by the religious community, and to anyone involved in the celebration of Creation Day. Furthermore, Rev. Drennan's remarks are extremely insulting to anyone who has claimed a revelatory experience of God now or in the past and thus, by extension, they serve to demean the theistic religious traditions of the world which affirm both revelatory and prophetic experiences of God. Above and beyond this, Rev. Drennan's negative, sarcastic, and mocking response to my claims regarding my revelatory religious experience ultimately insults the Creator of the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.
I hereby appeal to you to help to ensure that my grievances about Rev. Ray Drennan's demeaning and damaging comportment towards me, as well as some grievances that I have about the church Board's treatment of me, are responsibly dealt with by our congregation in a manner that may clearly be seen to live up to both the letter and the spirit of our Unitarian Universalist principles. A sincere and formal apology made to me by Rev. Drennan would be a step towards promoting acceptance, respect, peace, and justice in our community.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
A little over fourteen years down the road Montreal Unitarians, the UUA, and Unitarian*Universalists more generally, have yet to respond to that letter of grievance in an even remotely responsible manner which genuinely honors and upholds the Second Principle which calls for justice, equity and compassion in human relations.
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