Louise Greentree has completed her book on the Church's abuse of the Dobbs Family.

[Click Here for the full article...]

If you are new to this WebPage let me explain that my intended general discussions of parish conflict resolution has been swamped by a series of ‘Stop Press’ articles on systematic abuse by those in authority in the church.

First I was approached by friends who asked me to look into the case of a minister friend of theirs who they said had been falsely accused of adultery. The false accusation was in fact just a dishonest but devastatingly effective stratagem in a parish power-play. In the end the church authorities reluctantly admitted that he was innocent. But they showed no remorse that they had been part of a dishonest stratagem in a parish power-play. No remorse that they had hounded an innocent man for nearly two years, that they had caused incredible pain to him and his wife, and to the equally innocent woman who was accused of being ‘a partner-in-sin.’

It made me doubt our church authorities. It produced a series of articles which are available for you to read here under the general title of John’s Story:

Overheard in Gloria Jean's... The Anglican Church's Blacklist Louise Greentree, 27th October 2007  outlines the basic plot in a ‘fictionalized’ setting 

'Abusing Power and Process: a New Look for Christian Men.'  This article looks at some of the men involved in this case, although the identities and the location of the Parish have been kept anonymous.

'False Zeal and Hard Hearts: a New Look for Christian Women?' This article contains an exposé of some of the key women players.

'Beyond False Zeal, Hard-heartedness and the Abuse of Power & Process.'
The Next Episode: the Victimisation Goes on... and on... This was written when, even after he was acquitted, they kept on after him!

And, finally: the young woman so grievously slandered by these people wrote about her own experience of this abuse of her trust and Christian fellowship by the clergy, parish staff and others in the parish and beyond: please read ‘Cathy’s Story’.

The Figtree Anglican Church story

Just as that matter was winding up, a delightful 21 year old man who had apparently found out about me on the internet, contacted me and asked me a lot of searching questions. Apparently satisfied that I was ‘all right’ he sent his distraught mother to see me.

Their tale was a heartrending one of betrayal and abuse, bullying and harassment by clergy and church authorities, staff and parishioners.

The woman’s husband - the young man’s father - had, they said been falsely accused by church leaders they thought were their friends. Their whole family even down to the young daughters had been publicly humiliated by the clergy and other parishioners, they had been ‘shunned’ by the entire congregation on the orders of the clergy, and ‘banned’ by the clergy from attendance at church and from any contact with church members. All their friends were church members. Virtually all their friends obeyed the clergy and ‘shunned’ them also, even crossing to the other side of the street when they saw members of the family coming and refusing to speak to them at the beach.

I could not believe this could happen in an Anglican church. So I took the role of ‘the intelligent observer’ and worked through all the materials as they became available, and worked with the family as they tried to cope with this unrelenting attack.

My articles ‘A Cautionary Tale’ and a deeper work ‘The First Stone Revisited’ which you can read here chronicle my journey through the web of disinformation put up by the clergy and others and the diocesan authorities. Like me you will discover that there was never a ‘case’ against this man. Yet the diocesan authorities joined the parish clergy in persecuting not only him but also his wife and children, mercilessly. A clergyman even went to the daughter’s music teacher, who was not connected to the church and told her that the girl’s father was a ‘sexual predator’. And when the man, who had been out of work, applied for a job, one of the parish clergy went to the prospective employer (who in this case was a church member) with the same story. When he got the job anyway the clergy kept lobbying the employer until the man was ‘let go’.

As the ‘intelligent observer’ I came to the horrifying conclusion that there was indeed ‘child abuse’ here, also abuse of adults! All carried out deliberately and with malice aforethought - by clergy and church officials.

Why did these clergy do it? Possibly only God knows. There is only testimony of onlookers that the clergy this family thought were their friends had in fact been secretly hostile to them for years. There is the fact that the man, a very forthright and devout Christian had pointed out to two of the parish clergy things they had done wrong. The man had also been a ‘whistleblower’ concerning corruption where he and the senior minister’s wife both worked.

But whatever motivated these clergy and their henchmen, and whatever motivated the senior clergy and diocesan officers to shield and assist these clergy, the fact remains: what they did to this family was almost unimaginably evil.

You make the journey of discovery as an intelligent observer along beside me going through the material which the diocesan officials produced, and you will see through the sham allegations to the husband’s innocence, and you will see the hatred and malice of the clergy and some of the clergy wives, parish staff and others who even now, are still trying to destroy an entire family:

'A Cautionary Tale'

'A Cautionary Tale - the cover-up begins' 

'The First Stone' Revisited

I assisted this family by writing a series of short articles, two of which were executive summaries of the full articles on this website, which were then widely circulated in the parish. This we did so that the parishioners and leadership could not say that they had not been told the truth of the situation, and to counteract the wide circulation far beyond the parish boundaries of scandalous gossip fostered by the parish leadership and others associated with them. These short versions are –

A Cautionary Tale – the executive summary

A Cautionary Tale: the cover-up begins – the executive summary

Sex Lies and Videotape

You can go straight to the latest article ‘A Mother’s Story’ where this incredibly brave woman tells of the abuse she and her children have suffered.

Thank you for visiting the website. I would be pleased to hear from you if you have had similar experiences with the Anglican Church in Australia that you wish to talk about.

May God’s Peace be with you.

Louise

louise(at)greentreeaustralis.com

Anglican Future:Louise's Page is published by Louise Greentree, BA, LLB (Syd), LLM(Hons)(UTS), ProfCertArb (Adel).
of Pymble, New South Wales, Australia. She can be contacted at louise at greentreeaustralis dot com