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WESTERN NY BISHOP SUSPENDS ORTHODOX PRIEST OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT COMPLAINT AGAINST GAY DEAN
Exclusive Report
By David W. Virtue
BATAVIA, NY (10/25/2004)--Legal charges will be filed against the Diocese of Western New York for the wrongful dismissal of Fr. Simon Howson, 38, an orthodox priest because he claims he was sexually harassed by a diocesan dean and the bishop J. Michael Garrison did nothing about the complaint, instead suspended the priest.
Andrew Fleming, attorney for Howson, told Virtuosity that the action will seek injunctive relief as well as money damages for wrongful termination. "The causes of action also include claims of retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and for numerous complaints of sexual harassment over an 8 to 10 month period."
"What happened to Fr. Howson was not right," Fleming told Virtuosity. Howson could not speak to the press because of the lawsuit, but Virtuosity has learned the following from others familiar with the case.
Howson took over the parish of St. James in Batavia in September 2003 when there were a ton of social problems between the senior warden and the then woman priest Carol Grant-White. She resigned because she couldn't stand the heat, Virtuosity was told. Howson's first mass had 31 people, now nearly 200 attend the church. Howson merges the three streams - Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical and charismatic, said a source.
Howson, who is engaged to be married, quickly turned the parish around making it one of the fastest growing Anglo-Catholic parishes on the East Coast, up almost 500 percent in a year. The bishop assigned Howson to Fr. Jerry True, rector of St. Luke's in Attica, NY in the Genesee Region Deanery as his mentor and shepherd in the diocese. He was assigned to him as his spiritual director, but no one told him that True was gay, Virtuosity was told.
"He was a homosexual and he very quickly told people that he was in love with the rector," said a source.
Howson was sexually harassed by the dean "to an awful extent", and according to a source he tried, at one point, to break into the priest's home at 1am when he was drunk.
When Howson reported this to Bishop Garrison and asked that True get off his back, the bishop did nothing. The final straw came when Howson accused True of approaching and inappropriately touching a man in his congregation. He reported it to the bishop but the bishop refused to do anything about it, said the source.
Howson then got in touch with an attorney. Andrew Fleming wrote to Garrison saying they needed to talk. "All Garrison did was to go to all the people in his (Howson's) parish, and in the priest's absence he then trumped up some charges saying Howson had behaved in an underhanded way and suspended him," said Fleming.
"It is outrageous," said Fleming. "This has nothing to do with the consecration of a gay bishop, or the findings of some international Report, it is about a single orthodox priest who simply wants to be a priest to his people, is sexually harassed and the bishop takes the accused's side and tosses out the victim. It seems to me that the bishop plainly retaliated against Fr. Howson for raising the issue of same-sex sexual harassment in the workplace."
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