(RNS) — On Monday (July 14) — six years after a 9-year-old child came forward with sexual abuse allegations against a lay minister in an Illinois church — a long-awaited church trial will begin for Bishop Stewart Ruch, leader of the Anglican Church in North America’s Upper Midwest Diocese. Open only to those directly involved and the seven-member Court of a Trial of a Bishop, the proceeding will determine whether Ruch, an influential and charismatic figure, responded appropriately.
Ruch has admitted to making “regrettable errors” in the case. After learning of the allegations in 2019, Ruch took two years to initiate an investigation or even share the news with members of his diocese. By that time, at least nine others had told abuse survivors’ advocates that they had been abused or groomed by Mark Rivera, a lay leader at Christ Our Light Anglican Church in Big Rock, Illinois, who had previously been a volunteer leader at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois, which is the diocesan headquarters.
Rivera has since been convicted of felony sexual assault and felony child sexual assault, while more than 10 clergy and other lay leaders in the Upper Midwest diocese have been accused of misconduct, a pattern that abuse advocates say results from Ruch’s failure to take timely action and to properly supervise those under his purview.
Monday’s trial is only the second time a bishop has been tried in the Anglican Church in North America, which was formed in 2009 by Anglicans who withdrew from the Anglican Canadian and the Episcopal Church over various disagreements, including the acceptance of women priests, LGBTQ+ affirmation and the rewritten Book of Common Prayer.
The trial was precipitated by two presentments, or lists of charges, one brought against Ruch by church leaders, the other by a grassroots group of ACNA lay members of the diocese. The first presentment, signed by three bishops in December 2022, was initially deterred by Ruch’s attempts to block it. In November 2023, however, a board of inquiry found probable cause to present Ruch for trial.
The Anglican Church in North America logo. (Courtesy image)
The bishop’s presentment claims that Ruch ignored “repeated advice that his diocese have a child protection policy” and that Ruch himself did not have an adequate grasp of abuse and grooming behaviors and therefore allowed for “inadequately vetted, trained and/or supervised Lay Catechists to function in leadership positions in his diocese.”
The presentment lists more than 10 cases where lay or clergy leaders in Ruch’s diocese were “credibly accused of misconduct” and claims Ruch “habitually neglected” to appropriately handle abuse allegations.
“The vulnerable have not been adequately protected and this has brought harm to many and offense to the Church at large,” the presentment says.
Circulated for signatures in the summer of 2023, the lay presentment cites seven cases — including three not named by the bishops — in which Ruch is accused of either failing to prioritize victims in the wake of abuse allegations or knowingly welcoming individuals with histories of predatory behavior into diocesan churches without alerting church members.
In one case, the laypeople claim, Ruch knowingly ordained a former pastor who had previously admitted to sexual addiction and had been fired by his church after serving jail time for attempting to solicit a prostitute. Ruch installed the man as rector of a church in his diocese in 2021 without informing parishioners of this history, according to the presentment.
It also says Ruch allowed Nephtali Matta, a former minister who had been convicted of a felony in 2011 for spousal abuse, to become a pastoral resident at Church of the Resurrection, the headquarters for the diocese, in 2022. “(H)e has transformed what should be, of all spaces, a sanctuary for the most vulnerable into a target for predation,” the presentment says. The charges contained in both presentments will be considered at the trial.
Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois. (Image courtesy Google Maps)
In all, the court, which includes bishops, priests and lay members, will address four charges: that Ruch habitually neglected the duties of the bishop’s office; that he engaged in conduct “giving just cause for scandal or offense,” including abuse of church power; that he violated his ordination vows; and that he disobeyed or willingly violated church bylaws.
Within 60 days of the trial’s conclusion, the court must issue a judgement declaring whether Ruch is guilty or not guilty of each charge.
On July 8, the court issued a statement saying the proceedings would only be open to those directly involved. “This confidentiality is not intended to conceal the truth, but rather to preserve the integrity of the process, protect the dignity of those involved, and prevent undue influence or public pressure during a sensitive and pastoral proceeding,” the court wrote.
None of the four authors of the lay presentment were invited to participate in the trial. One of those authors told Religion News Service that numerous abuse survivors whose cases are included in the presentments were not contacted to be witnesses. (The witness list for the trial is not public.) The decision has caused the lay presentment authors to question the denomination’s commitment to representing survivor voices during the trial.
“How is that good for the denomination? How is it good for basic transparency? How does it give confidence to the survivors that their voices are going to be heard?” asked Sam Lacy, an attorney and one of the lay presentment authors. “You don’t see that in the civil or criminal context. There’s the basic idea of the courts are public.”
In a statement, an ACNA spokesperson said Ruch’s trial “is the outcome of a rigorous process inscribed in our canon law to ensure a just, thorough, and impartial review of the allegations against Bishop Stewart Ruch III, which we take seriously.”
While acknowledging that the process has “not moved as swiftly or efficiently as intended,” the statement said that “reforms to improve the process are currently being considered” and that the church “remains committed to balancing transparency with the need to protect the integrity of the process, provide justice for victims, and ensure a fair and impartial hearing for the accused.”
The spokesperson said the court estimated the trial will take between five and 10 days, suggesting it could conclude by July 25, though that could change.
Once the verdict is published, Ruch will have 30 days to appeal. If a guilty verdict is eventually reached, it is up to the head of the denomination (the archbishop) and an assembly of all active ACNA bishops to determine sentencing.
