Featured photo is a screen cap of religious-themed pornography produced by The Rev. Mark Schultz’s husband, Erich Erving. Schultz and Erving live at the St. Thomas Choir School and are accused of jointly sexually assaulting an adult male parishioner.
Full frontal nudity in the image has been redacted.
Amidst the continuing fallout from a scandal involving allegations of three separate instances of sexual assault against an adult male parishioner by gay clergy and parishioners, big changes appear to be looming at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. These changes include the closure of the choir school and the departure of multiple clergy.
Multiple sources tell Anglican Watch that an announcement about the choir school’s closure is imminent. The news comes as sources within the New York Police Department report an ongoing investigation involving the choir school, including efforts by the church to sandbag attempts to obtain CCTV footage from the facility.
Anglican Watch has been unable to verify reports of the choir school’s closure independently.
Meanwhile, sources within the Diocese say they expect Canon Carl Turner, the church’s rector, to announce his retirement shortly. Turner sent members of the congregation an email that, while it did not expressly identify the victim of sexual assault, falsely accused him of being a security threat.
Turner’s wife, The Reverend Dr. Alison Joan Turner, who now serves as Associate for Children & Family Ministry and School Chaplain, is expected to leave the church at the same time as her husband. While not directly implicated in the current scandal, Turner was responsible for the church’s safeguarding program, which utterly failed in this case.
Matthew Moretz, the church’s vicar and COO, also appears to be planning to leave and is reportedly interviewing for positions outside the Episcopal Church. Moretz repeatedly ignored the victim’s complaints about sexual assault and harassment and appears to have played a key role in retaliating against the victim of sexual assault. Moretz also minimized and defended the conduct of the assailants.
The Reverend Mark Daniel Schultz, who now serves as Associate for Pastoral Care, is expected to resign shortly. He and his same-sex husband, porn producer Erich Erving, allegedly jointly sexually assaulted the adult male parishioner at an event at their apartment, located in the choir school.
Tellingly, the one thing that does not appear to be happening is any effort to apologize to the victim, to make restitution, or to lift Bishop Heyd’s de facto excommunication, in which he sent an email to the victim barring him from all churches and church activities in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Nor have we seen any retraction of the defamatory statements made by St. Thomas or the Diocese against the victim.
Anglican Watch demands that the Diocese immediately retract its fabrications and apologize publicly and in writing to the victim.
Additionally, we believe both Bishop Heyd and Bishop Shin should resign, effective immediately.
The entire situation has been among the worst debacles we have seen, and in recent years, the Episcopal Church has produced some real award-winners when it comes to abuse.
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