Groundhog Day 2019 And Unitarian Universalist Clergy Abuse Etc. Etc. - What's The Connection?
How about this "electronic communication" about the "shadow" of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and various other U*U injustices and abuses,
that I just sent to the leadership of the Unitarian Church of Montreal?
Groundhog Day February 2 2019
Dear Juan Vera and ALL other Montreal Unitarians,
I have a Groundhog Day tradition of looking for the shadow of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and various other U*U injustices and abuses, on Groundhog Day. When I looked outside today I did not see much in the way of actual shadows cast by the sun, because the weather conditions were quite overcast. I did however see the long dark shadow cast by the Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and various other U*U injustices, abuses, and hypocrisies that I have been exposing to the light of day for almost a quarter century now.
I saw the shadow cast by the slandering of Creation Day as a "cult" by Rev. Ray Drennan, Frank Greene, and several other intolerant and abusive Montreal Unitarians, and the negligent, complicit, and indeed punitive manner in which both the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, responded to my legitimate and quite serious clergy misconduct complaint arising out of Rev. Ray Drennan's verbal and psychological abuse aka "insulting and defamatory language".
I saw the shadow cast by Rev. Ray Drennan's intolerant and abusive dismissal of my revelatory religious experience as "your psychotic experience", and the fact that neither the Unitarian Church of Montreal, nor the Unitarian Universalist Association, did anything to remove the stigma of Rev. Drennan's insulting and defamatory language that unjustly, and I believe unjustifiably, characterized my revelatory religious experience as a severe mental illness that required "professional help" to be cured of.
I saw the shadow cast by Rev. Ray Drennan's arrogant dismissal of my monotheistic religious beliefs, as informed by my revelatory religious experience and considerable additional contemplation and research, as being nothing but "silliness and fantasy". This impertinent insult pales in comparison to the two previously mentioned defamatory slanders, but it closely parallels Rev. Ray Drennan's arrogant and insulting belittling of not only Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Roman Catholic state funeral, but ALL other religious rituals, as "meaningless" rituals in his ironically titled 'Wrong Message' Opinion Editorial that was published by The Montreal Gazette on October 9th of 2000. Rev. Ray Drennan's very public display of his anti-religious intolerance and bigotry resulted in "a ball park figure" of 50 letters to the editor being written and submitted to The Gazette, ALL of which condemned Rev. Drennan's intolerance and arrogance if I am to believe what The Gazette's Letters Editor told me at the time. In dismissing most religious rituals of the world's religions as "meaningless", Rev. Ray Drennan cast a shadow that did not reflect very well on the Unitarian Church of Montreal, or the larger Unitarian Universalist "religion". I remember people coming to the Unitarian Church of Montreal while I was protesting on the Sundays following Rev. Ray Drennan's 'Wrong Message' missive, who were quite angry, and sought to confront Rev. Ray Drennan about his anti-Catholic and more broadly anti-religious intolerance and bigotry. A few very angry people even seemed to want to physically assault Rev. Drennan. I remember one female member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal angrily telling me that Rev. Ray Drennan's intolerant and offensive attack on Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Roman Catholic state funeral was "the last straw", and that she had "had it" with the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and was leaving it. I don't remember ever seeing her again.
See: http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-rev-ray-drennans-intolerance.html
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Church of Montreal's repressive, and even punitive, responses to my legitimate grievances, and my later peaceful public protest against U*U clergy abuse etc. outside the church, including the numerous SPVM police interventions in my protest based upon highly misleading, and even outright false, reports to the SPVM that even resulted in my arrest on bogus criminal charges on a few occasions. Some of that shadow cast by repressive SPVM interventions may even be seen on U*UTube.
See: https://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/search?q=SPVM+video
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Universalist Association's shameful legacy of decades worth of negligent mishandling of literally hundreds, if not some thousands, of clergy sexual misconduct complaints.
See the Berry Street Essays of Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance and Rev. Gail Seavey here:
https://www.uuma.org/general/custom.asp?page=berrystreetessays
Oh wait. . .
You can't actually live up to, and put into actual practice, Unitarian Universalism's 4th Principle, which calls upon U*Us to engage in "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning", because both Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, and Rev. Gail Seavey, have "withdrawn their permission" for the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association aka UUMA to publish their respective Berry Street Essays which were about Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct, and the negligent and complicit mishandling of clergy misconduct complaints by the Unitarian Universalist Association and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee aka MFC.
How convenient for the UUA, UUMA, and MFC. . .
Try this "sanitized" UU World article instead:
https://www.uuworld.org/articles/reforms-aim-clergy-misconduct
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Universalist Association's immoral, UNethical, borderline criminal, and if you don't mind me being moderately offensive, #BatShitCrazy abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in UUA child sex abuse cover-up legal bullying that was quite evidently intended to intimidate Yours Truly into deleting aka "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told the readily verifiable Truth about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers", not to mention certain UUA Religious Educators aka Sunday School teachers, and Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein's pedophile rapist parishioner Richard Buell. Here is just part of the shadow that was cast by the UUA's stunningly foolish decision to bring its centuries old tradition of opposing blasphemy laws to an ignominious end on Friday June 1st, of 2012.
Exhibit A for Artillery : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2012/06/uua-unitarian-universalist-association.html
Exhibit B for Blasphemy : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2014/02/blasphemy-law-blasphemous-libel-misuse.html
Exhibit C for See? : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2013/01/stikeman-elliott-litigation-lawyer.html
Exhibit D for Doh! : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2015/10/unitarian-universalists-pedophilia-rape.html
I could reveal even more of the Big Fat U*U Shadow cast by The U*U Movement's asinine blasphemous libel accusation against me, which has yet to be formally withdrawn and properly and publicly apologized for, but hopefully I have more than adequately made my point for now. . .
I saw quite a lot of Unitarian Universalist "shadow" today, as I usually do on Groundhog Day, and this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, because Montreal Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists more generally, are so chronically UNready, obstinately UNwilling, and apparently even pathologically UNable to genuinely, and reasonably consistently, honour and uphold the purported Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism and other claimed U*U ideals, or to respond in genuine responsibility to "the spirit that bloweth where it listeth", if I may reference Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams.
I called upon Montreal Unitarians, to say nothing of Unitarian Universalists more generally, to start walking towards the light on the winter solstice of 2018, but I see very little evidence of that actually happening. Most of the quite realistic and constructive recommendations that I have made towards the end of resolving this almost quarter century old conflict in a manner that lives up to Unitarian Universalist principles and ideals, to say nothing of claimed policies and procedures for dealing with historic clergy misconduct etc., appear to have been disregarded, ignored, and apparently even outright rejected. While there has been *some* apparent progress in dialogue moderated by Équipe Polarisation, that has not translated into any measurable progress in terms of concrete actions taken by the Unitarian Church of Montreal, to say nothing of actions taken by the Unitarian Universalist Association and-or the Canadian Unitarian Council. Au contraire, in my opinion, there has been measurable stagnation, and even regressive behaviour, on the part of the representatives of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and by extension the Unitarian Church of Montreal as an institution. I will not repeat in this email the constructive recommendations for conflict resolution, Truth and Reconciliation, and Restorative Justice that I previously made that have yet to be responsibly acted upon in any measurable way. I will only say that, because very little measurable progress, in terms of concrete actions taken by the Unitarian Church of Montreal as an institution, has been made in the six month period that I voluntarily suspended my peaceful public protest outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal as a good will gesture, but also as an incentive for the leadership of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to make some real measurable progress towards conflict resolution, I am ending that voluntary suspension of my protest, and I will resume my peaceful public protest in February. It is my intention to protest against unresolved injustice and abuses, both local and international ones, at least twice in February. I remain open to continued dialogue, indeed I am more than a little bit disappointed by the failure, and possibly even refusal of Montreal Unitarians to schedule any meetings with Équipe Polarisation for February. I am also disappointed by the failure, and possible refusal, of church leaders to publish an official announcement in the Unitarian Church of Montreal's February 2019 newsletter about the year long conflict resolution process that the church agreed to enter into last fall.
I would advise church leadership to inform Montreal Unitarians that they should refrain from interfering in my peaceful public protest against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse etc. in any way that might cause any escalation of this unresolved conflict, and additional embarrassment to the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and-or the larger Unitarian Universalist "religion" aka Unitarian Universalism. This includes interfering with my freestanding picket signs in any way, erasing my chalk slogans while I am protesting (not that there are likely to be any chalk protest slogans in February or March), physically assaulting me (including spitting at me), or making any highly misleading or outright false complaints to the SPVM police force in efforts to abusively misuse the SPVM and Canada's criminal justice system to suppress my ability to freely and fully exercise my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed civil rights and liberties. I remind Montreal Unitarians that making a false report to the police is a criminal act known as public mischief, and I will seek to prosecute any Montreal Unitarian who makes a provable false report to the police for the criminal act of public mischief. I will be informing SPVM PDQ 11 of my intention to resume my protest in February so that they are fully aware of the current situation.
I repeat that I remain open to continued dialogue and conflict resolution efforts that are in alignment with genuine "Truth and Reconciliation", and the "Restorative Justice For All" that the UUA long ago promised clergy misconduct victims, but never actually provided to them, and seems to have backed away from in recent years. I have always been open to dialogue and conflict resolution efforts, but Montreal Unitarians, and the UUA, have always rejected dialogue and proposed conflict resolution measures prior to the SPVM's Community Relations officers of PDQ 11 asking me if I was open to enter into a conflict resolution effort moderated by Équipe Polarisation last summer. I will add that I had previously asked PDQ 11 to have its Community Relations officers intervene in this conflict, but all previous requests for such intervention had been ignored or rejected by PDQ 11's "top brass". If I see some real measurable progress being made in February and March I may suspend my peaceful public protest again, but I feel obliged to inform Montreal Unitarians, and the general public, about the as yet unresolved issues at hand, which include, but are by no means limited to, the UUA's abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in child sex abuse cover-up legal bullying, and the Unitarian Church of Montreal's foot-dragging in the year long "Truth and Reconciliation" process that it agreed to enter into last fall. I would highly advise scheduling at least two meetings per month with Équipe Polarisation in February, March, and April, but I feel that some additional peaceful public protest outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal, or indeed other locations, is necessary for multiple reasons. I would also highly advise responsibly implementing my previous recommendations for a viable and successful conflict resolution process. It is "less than wise" to fail or refuse to use the resources that the UUA, and an apparently co-opted and defunct UU Safety Net, ostensibly have available for responsibly dealing with "historic clergy" misconduct in this conflict resolution process. The UUA is a BIG part of this problem, and needs to become part of the solution ASAP.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
Groundhog Day February 2 2019
Dear Juan Vera and ALL other Montreal Unitarians,
I have a Groundhog Day tradition of looking for the shadow of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and various other U*U injustices and abuses, on Groundhog Day. When I looked outside today I did not see much in the way of actual shadows cast by the sun, because the weather conditions were quite overcast. I did however see the long dark shadow cast by the Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and various other U*U injustices, abuses, and hypocrisies that I have been exposing to the light of day for almost a quarter century now.
I saw the shadow cast by the slandering of Creation Day as a "cult" by Rev. Ray Drennan, Frank Greene, and several other intolerant and abusive Montreal Unitarians, and the negligent, complicit, and indeed punitive manner in which both the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and the Unitarian Universalist Association, responded to my legitimate and quite serious clergy misconduct complaint arising out of Rev. Ray Drennan's verbal and psychological abuse aka "insulting and defamatory language".
I saw the shadow cast by Rev. Ray Drennan's intolerant and abusive dismissal of my revelatory religious experience as "your psychotic experience", and the fact that neither the Unitarian Church of Montreal, nor the Unitarian Universalist Association, did anything to remove the stigma of Rev. Drennan's insulting and defamatory language that unjustly, and I believe unjustifiably, characterized my revelatory religious experience as a severe mental illness that required "professional help" to be cured of.
I saw the shadow cast by Rev. Ray Drennan's arrogant dismissal of my monotheistic religious beliefs, as informed by my revelatory religious experience and considerable additional contemplation and research, as being nothing but "silliness and fantasy". This impertinent insult pales in comparison to the two previously mentioned defamatory slanders, but it closely parallels Rev. Ray Drennan's arrogant and insulting belittling of not only Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Roman Catholic state funeral, but ALL other religious rituals, as "meaningless" rituals in his ironically titled 'Wrong Message' Opinion Editorial that was published by The Montreal Gazette on October 9th of 2000. Rev. Ray Drennan's very public display of his anti-religious intolerance and bigotry resulted in "a ball park figure" of 50 letters to the editor being written and submitted to The Gazette, ALL of which condemned Rev. Drennan's intolerance and arrogance if I am to believe what The Gazette's Letters Editor told me at the time. In dismissing most religious rituals of the world's religions as "meaningless", Rev. Ray Drennan cast a shadow that did not reflect very well on the Unitarian Church of Montreal, or the larger Unitarian Universalist "religion". I remember people coming to the Unitarian Church of Montreal while I was protesting on the Sundays following Rev. Ray Drennan's 'Wrong Message' missive, who were quite angry, and sought to confront Rev. Ray Drennan about his anti-Catholic and more broadly anti-religious intolerance and bigotry. A few very angry people even seemed to want to physically assault Rev. Drennan. I remember one female member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal angrily telling me that Rev. Ray Drennan's intolerant and offensive attack on Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Roman Catholic state funeral was "the last straw", and that she had "had it" with the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and was leaving it. I don't remember ever seeing her again.
See: http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2006/06/how-rev-ray-drennans-intolerance.html
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Church of Montreal's repressive, and even punitive, responses to my legitimate grievances, and my later peaceful public protest against U*U clergy abuse etc. outside the church, including the numerous SPVM police interventions in my protest based upon highly misleading, and even outright false, reports to the SPVM that even resulted in my arrest on bogus criminal charges on a few occasions. Some of that shadow cast by repressive SPVM interventions may even be seen on U*UTube.
See: https://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/search?q=SPVM+video
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Universalist Association's shameful legacy of decades worth of negligent mishandling of literally hundreds, if not some thousands, of clergy sexual misconduct complaints.
See the Berry Street Essays of Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance and Rev. Gail Seavey here:
https://www.uuma.org/general/custom.asp?page=berrystreetessays
Oh wait. . .
You can't actually live up to, and put into actual practice, Unitarian Universalism's 4th Principle, which calls upon U*Us to engage in "a free and responsible search for truth and meaning", because both Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, and Rev. Gail Seavey, have "withdrawn their permission" for the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association aka UUMA to publish their respective Berry Street Essays which were about Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct, and the negligent and complicit mishandling of clergy misconduct complaints by the Unitarian Universalist Association and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee aka MFC.
How convenient for the UUA, UUMA, and MFC. . .
Try this "sanitized" UU World article instead:
https://www.uuworld.org/articles/reforms-aim-clergy-misconduct
I saw the shadow of the Unitarian Universalist Association's immoral, UNethical, borderline criminal, and if you don't mind me being moderately offensive, #BatShitCrazy abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in UUA child sex abuse cover-up legal bullying that was quite evidently intended to intimidate Yours Truly into deleting aka "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told the readily verifiable Truth about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers", not to mention certain UUA Religious Educators aka Sunday School teachers, and Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein's pedophile rapist parishioner Richard Buell. Here is just part of the shadow that was cast by the UUA's stunningly foolish decision to bring its centuries old tradition of opposing blasphemy laws to an ignominious end on Friday June 1st, of 2012.
Exhibit A for Artillery : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2012/06/uua-unitarian-universalist-association.html
Exhibit B for Blasphemy : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2014/02/blasphemy-law-blasphemous-libel-misuse.html
Exhibit C for See? : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2013/01/stikeman-elliott-litigation-lawyer.html
Exhibit D for Doh! : http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2015/10/unitarian-universalists-pedophilia-rape.html
I could reveal even more of the Big Fat U*U Shadow cast by The U*U Movement's asinine blasphemous libel accusation against me, which has yet to be formally withdrawn and properly and publicly apologized for, but hopefully I have more than adequately made my point for now. . .
I saw quite a lot of Unitarian Universalist "shadow" today, as I usually do on Groundhog Day, and this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, because Montreal Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists more generally, are so chronically UNready, obstinately UNwilling, and apparently even pathologically UNable to genuinely, and reasonably consistently, honour and uphold the purported Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism and other claimed U*U ideals, or to respond in genuine responsibility to "the spirit that bloweth where it listeth", if I may reference Unitarian Universalist theologian James Luther Adams.
I called upon Montreal Unitarians, to say nothing of Unitarian Universalists more generally, to start walking towards the light on the winter solstice of 2018, but I see very little evidence of that actually happening. Most of the quite realistic and constructive recommendations that I have made towards the end of resolving this almost quarter century old conflict in a manner that lives up to Unitarian Universalist principles and ideals, to say nothing of claimed policies and procedures for dealing with historic clergy misconduct etc., appear to have been disregarded, ignored, and apparently even outright rejected. While there has been *some* apparent progress in dialogue moderated by Équipe Polarisation, that has not translated into any measurable progress in terms of concrete actions taken by the Unitarian Church of Montreal, to say nothing of actions taken by the Unitarian Universalist Association and-or the Canadian Unitarian Council. Au contraire, in my opinion, there has been measurable stagnation, and even regressive behaviour, on the part of the representatives of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and by extension the Unitarian Church of Montreal as an institution. I will not repeat in this email the constructive recommendations for conflict resolution, Truth and Reconciliation, and Restorative Justice that I previously made that have yet to be responsibly acted upon in any measurable way. I will only say that, because very little measurable progress, in terms of concrete actions taken by the Unitarian Church of Montreal as an institution, has been made in the six month period that I voluntarily suspended my peaceful public protest outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal as a good will gesture, but also as an incentive for the leadership of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to make some real measurable progress towards conflict resolution, I am ending that voluntary suspension of my protest, and I will resume my peaceful public protest in February. It is my intention to protest against unresolved injustice and abuses, both local and international ones, at least twice in February. I remain open to continued dialogue, indeed I am more than a little bit disappointed by the failure, and possibly even refusal of Montreal Unitarians to schedule any meetings with Équipe Polarisation for February. I am also disappointed by the failure, and possible refusal, of church leaders to publish an official announcement in the Unitarian Church of Montreal's February 2019 newsletter about the year long conflict resolution process that the church agreed to enter into last fall.
I would advise church leadership to inform Montreal Unitarians that they should refrain from interfering in my peaceful public protest against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse etc. in any way that might cause any escalation of this unresolved conflict, and additional embarrassment to the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and-or the larger Unitarian Universalist "religion" aka Unitarian Universalism. This includes interfering with my freestanding picket signs in any way, erasing my chalk slogans while I am protesting (not that there are likely to be any chalk protest slogans in February or March), physically assaulting me (including spitting at me), or making any highly misleading or outright false complaints to the SPVM police force in efforts to abusively misuse the SPVM and Canada's criminal justice system to suppress my ability to freely and fully exercise my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed civil rights and liberties. I remind Montreal Unitarians that making a false report to the police is a criminal act known as public mischief, and I will seek to prosecute any Montreal Unitarian who makes a provable false report to the police for the criminal act of public mischief. I will be informing SPVM PDQ 11 of my intention to resume my protest in February so that they are fully aware of the current situation.
I repeat that I remain open to continued dialogue and conflict resolution efforts that are in alignment with genuine "Truth and Reconciliation", and the "Restorative Justice For All" that the UUA long ago promised clergy misconduct victims, but never actually provided to them, and seems to have backed away from in recent years. I have always been open to dialogue and conflict resolution efforts, but Montreal Unitarians, and the UUA, have always rejected dialogue and proposed conflict resolution measures prior to the SPVM's Community Relations officers of PDQ 11 asking me if I was open to enter into a conflict resolution effort moderated by Équipe Polarisation last summer. I will add that I had previously asked PDQ 11 to have its Community Relations officers intervene in this conflict, but all previous requests for such intervention had been ignored or rejected by PDQ 11's "top brass". If I see some real measurable progress being made in February and March I may suspend my peaceful public protest again, but I feel obliged to inform Montreal Unitarians, and the general public, about the as yet unresolved issues at hand, which include, but are by no means limited to, the UUA's abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in child sex abuse cover-up legal bullying, and the Unitarian Church of Montreal's foot-dragging in the year long "Truth and Reconciliation" process that it agreed to enter into last fall. I would highly advise scheduling at least two meetings per month with Équipe Polarisation in February, March, and April, but I feel that some additional peaceful public protest outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal, or indeed other locations, is necessary for multiple reasons. I would also highly advise responsibly implementing my previous recommendations for a viable and successful conflict resolution process. It is "less than wise" to fail or refuse to use the resources that the UUA, and an apparently co-opted and defunct UU Safety Net, ostensibly have available for responsibly dealing with "historic clergy" misconduct in this conflict resolution process. The UUA is a BIG part of this problem, and needs to become part of the solution ASAP.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
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