Fired minister sues for control of two Alberta United churches
George Koch
National Post
National Post version
CALGARY - An ousted minister in the United Church of Canada has launched a multi-million-dollar lawsuit aimed at wresting control of two local churches back from a church hierarchy that, the litigant claims, has strayed from its theological roots.
Edward Wigglesworth, 57, served as minister for congregations in Bashaw and Mirror, two small central Alberta towns about 120 kilometres south of Edmonton, until his dismissal in June, 1997.
"With this lawsuit, Canadians will finally understand the level of abuse that United Church clergy have suffered at the hands of those in the United Church who have steered the church away from traditional Christian values," Mr. Wigglesworth said in a prepared statement yesterday.
His lawyer filed the lawsuit in Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary yesterday. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Wigglesworth, a graduate of McMaster Divinity College who was ordained in 1970, was constructively dismissed from his positions for advocating theological principles no longer favoured by the current United Church leadership.
Mr. Wigglesworth believes in the full Divinity of Christ and the Trinitarian nature of God, positions that have been publicly disputed by Reverend William Phipps, the United Church of Canada's senior cleric.
Mr. Wigglesworth, past chairman of the conservative National Alliance of Covenanting Congregations, also opposes the United Church's ordination of practising homosexuals. "The gay and lesbian and feminist movements have led the United Church to try to force its ministers and members to toe the line on these political issues," Mr. Wigglesworth said yesterday. "We want the United Church to follow its own rules and regulations."
Mr. Wigglesworth claims that for these doctrinal reasons -- as well as personal jealousies among local officials -- local and national church leaders, including Mr. Phipps and about a dozen other church officials and bodies in Alberta and Ontario, conspired to drive him from his ministry. He said they did this despite allegedly overwhelming support from his congregation of 150.
After forcing him to undergo repeated psychiatric assessments, local officials fired Mr. Wigglesworth in June, 1997. The United Church's Judicial Committee denied his subsequent appeals. He has been refused a ministry, or "call," by several other presbyteries. Most of his former congregation are no longer attending the United Church.
The lawsuit alleges the church hierarchy departed from established United Church doctrine without due process, thereby either negligently or maliciously breaching their duties to the church and violating their employment contract with Mr. Wigglesworth.
The lawsuit is seeking $3.5-million in damages, Mr. Wigglesworth's reinstatement as a minister, cessation of alleged defamation against him, and a public apology. Jeffrey Rath, Mr. Wigglesworth's lawyer, said the lawsuit is also seeking an order preventing the United Church from imposing liberal doctrine without due process.
Mr. Rath said theologically conservative ministers, lay workers, and ordinary members in the United Church will be watching the lawsuit keenly. They see it as a potential weapon in their fight to halt the church's continuing doctrinal drift. If this lawsuit succeeds, Mr. Wigglesworth, his congregation, or others across Canada will launch further lawsuits seeking to gain direct control over their churches, Mr. Rath said.
A similar lawsuit in Bermuda last year succeeded in stripping the United Church of Canada of its local assets and turning them over to the theologically conservative congregation. In 1993, 82% of the primarily black members of the Grace Methodist Church in Pembroke, Bermuda, voted to severe ties to the United Church of Canada, which includes the Wesleyan Methodist Synod on the island state. The congregation then claimed title to $2-million (Bermudan dollars) in congregational property, including their church.
Last June, on the 73rd anniversary of the United Church of Canada, the Supreme Court of Bermuda awarded title to the congregation. The court ruled the United Church hierarchy had committed a breach of trust by departing fundamentally from the theology of John Wesley, the Methodist Church founder, as well as its own 1925 Basis of Union.
A church trust, ruled Justice Norma Wade-Miller, is to be enforced for the benefit of trust adherents, not church leaders bent on changing church doctrine. In the event of a schism, she ruled, property would be awarded to the adherents of the original doctrine.
"This could lead to hundreds of similar lawsuits across the country and the eventual stripping of all church property from the control of the current hierarchy in favour of conservative Christians," Mr. Rath said yesterday.
"Our view is that the Bermuda case could serve as a precedent in Canada," said Gordon Ross, a Toronto lawyer with the firm, Outerbridge, Miller and Sefton, which acted for the Grace Methodist congregation. Mr. Ross served for 23 years as a United Church minister before resigning in 1990 "for reasons of conscience."
Mr. Ross suggested United Church members might use the Bermudan court's findings to directly challenge the legitimacy of current United Church leaders.
Officials with the national council of the United Church in Toronto declined comment yesterday.