The Orange County Register
July 30, 2002
In the midst
of the scandal with the Catholic Church, in which there have been numerous
allegations of sexual molestation by priests, some non-Catholic local churches
have taken it upon themselves to address the issue.
Among them is St. Clement's Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce said her sermon Sunday addressed child sexual
molestation in the church, the disconnect between those behaving diametrically
opposed to their religion, and related topics.
``Of course it's the topic of conversation and no denomination is devoid of
this problem,'' she said. ``I've preached on this a couple of times now.''
She said the response to her sermons has been overwhelmingly positive.
``We've prayed for the victims and the church,'' Jardine Bruce said. ``In my
preaching I keep on stressing that the Roman Catholic Church is not the only
ones that have had those problems. ... People wanted to hear what our stand was
to the whole thing. People just wanted to be able to talk about it themselves.''
She said talk among parishioners was what prompted her to preach about the
topic in the firsthand.
``It just got to be too much,'' she said. ``When you let light into the dark
places, some times good things will happen. ... It affects everyone. Once you
throw that kind of boulder in the pond, the ripples are bigger than just your
part of the pond.''
The Rev. Steve Petty of St. Andrew's United Methodist Church said safety
policies regarding children have been in place for a while at the church.
``I don't think it's caused us any kind of resurgence,'' he said. ``We've had
policies in place for a long time in terms of how adults interface with
children. I don't think the Catholic Church's problems have caused us to rethink
that. I think most churches over the last 10-15 years have adopted policy to
protect children and youth.''
He said the church reviews itself yearly on its policies regarding children.
And he said there hasn't been public inquiry to him on these policies.
``No one has come to me and asked about our policies,'' he said.