A Quite Prophetic Letter Of Grievance from Almost A Decade Ago. . .

Robin Edgar
15 Lafleur apt. 11
Verdun, Quebec
Canada, H4G 3C3

Pierre Binette
Building and Maintenance
Unitarian Church of Montreal Wednesday, March 6, 1996


Dear Pierre,

Your refusal last night to accept my letter airing my grievances regarding Rev. Drennan's unprofessional and demeaning response to my claim of having had a profound revelatory experience was quite unexpected and extremely disappointing. I expected better from you.

I can well understand your anger and frustration at this very regrettable state of affairs but I believe that your anger was misdirected. The very reason that I felt compelled to write a letter of complaint about Rev. Drennan's unprofessional behaviour was because of the very serious nature of Rev. Drennan's deplorable comportment including his false allegations about me and because he has refused to acknowledge the damaging nature of his behaviour and to offer me an apology of any kind. I am the injured party in this matter not Rev. Drennan and I am not responsible for Rev. Drennan's unprofessional and demeaning conduct. I am reporting it to the Board because it is completely unbecoming of a clergy person.

Last night you said to me that you felt that I may have brought on this situation myself. I would ask on what grounds do you feel that you can make such a statement if you are not fully aware of what has transpired between me and Rev. Drennan? You said to me that you do not believe that my allegations about Rev. Drennan's behaviour are true and that even if they were true that you felt that I was not proceeding in an acceptable manner. On what basis do you deny my allegations? Has Rev. Drennan denied them? Do you feel that I would fabricate false allegations about Rev. Drennan's behaviour?

You indicated that you felt that I had no concern for other people's feelings in this matter but the fact of the matter is that Rev. Drennan has made several statements during our meetings that not only show a distinct lack of concern for my own feelings but directly or indirectly show a disturbing lack of concern for many other people's feelings including those of Board members as I have pointed out in my letter of complaint. I am perfectly aware that my decision to proceed with my grievances against Rev. Drennan will have a negative impact on many people. I am extremely conscious of the fact that disturbing revelations about our long sought for, brand-spanking new, settled minister are the very last thing that most members of our church will want to hear about. Unfortunately,

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the fact remains that I simply would not be in this excruciatingly difficult position if Rev. Ray Drennan's unprofessional and abusive behaviour and his refusal to apologize to me had not forced me into it. I gave serious consideration to letting this matter go for the reasons given but, regrettably, the unfounded allegations that Rev. Drennan has made about me are too serious to ignore and, besides this, having been unduly exposed to Rev. Ray Drennan's far from pleasant "shadow" side, I feel that it is my responsibility to warn the congregation of his conduct because I have very good reason to believe that it is not an isolated incident and Rev. Drennan may in future attack and demean other members of the congregation if his unacceptable behaviour is not exposed and properly responded to.

I urge you to read my letter of complaint to the Board so that you might make a genuinely informed decision regarding my grievances. The second principle of our church calls for justice, equity and compassion in human relations and justice and equity can only be served by hearing from both sides of the issue that is in question. As far as compassion is concerned I believe that, considering the very demeaning, insulting, and damaging nature of Rev. Drennan's behaviour towards me since his arrival at our church, I have been more compassionate than some members of our church might be if they were in my position by giving him plenty of opportunity to offer a voluntary apology and also in not demanding anything more from him than a formal apology to be issued to me before our congregation.

The fourth principle of our church calls for a free and responsible search for truth and meaning and, in the context of my grievances about Rev. Drennan's behaviour, I believe that this means that you, as a Board member, should read my letter of complaint so that you may responsibly determine what is the truth of this sorry situation for yourself. Justice cannot be served on the basis of prejudiced personal opinions based on one-sided and highly biased information.

I urge you to reconsider your attitude towards me. I do not believe that I have done anything to deserve the contempt which you clearly expressed towards me last night. Up until last night, with the exception of your lack of support after I "spoke to" my letter at the December Board meeting, I believe that we had a cooperative and mutually respectful relationship. Although I am very disappointed and hurt by your uncalled for reaction to my effort to give you my letter last night I hold no animosity towards you and I hope that, after having read my letter of complaint, you will understand that I had very little choice but to formally protest Rev. Ray Drennan's highly unprofessional, demeaning, and insulting conduct towards me.

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar

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Note: Pierre Binette who seems inordinately proud of his "Type A Personality" was the first member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to physically assault me soon after I began my peaceful public protest in the spring of 1998. . .

Comments

Anonymous said…
The withdrawal of Mr. Edgar’s membership from the Unitarian Church of Montreal was not motivated by his religious beliefs, but by his disruptive and aggressive behavior towards the members of this congregation. His inappropriate behaviour has continued for more than ten years. Seven years ago he was brought before a Disruptive Behavior Committee, where over the next three years attempts were made to have him moderate his unacceptable behaviours. He would agree to proposed solutions and then go on as before. He was repeatedly warned that failure to comply with what he had agreed to do would result in serious consequences. Over this period, he was suspended from participation in Church life for six months. Unfortunately, upon his return his behaviour worsened , and he was suspended for an additional year. Again when he returned, his inappropriate behavior continued. Finally in November 1999, at a meeting of the full congregation, during which he spoke on his own behalf, a congregational vote was taken and his membership was revoked. This decade long process, during which sincere attempts were made by the congregation to negotiate a solution, ended when it became that he had no intention of ceasing his disruptive and aggressive behaviours. It should be noted that Reverend Ray Drennan did apologise, in person, on more than one occasion. However, this did not meet with Mr Edgar’s satisfaction. Mr. Edgar has redressed his grievances to whomever he has saw fit, be it the UAA, CUC, etc., and his complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission in 2002 was summarily dismissed as being without merit. Mr Edgar continues to picket the church in the futile belief that the Church will act. Reverend Drennan is no longer the minister as he left to follow his own life’s journey; and the church has simply moved on.
Robin Edgar said…
Strike ten. . . Anonymous U*U you are really *too* funny with your sincerely ignorant DIM Thinking and conscientiously stupid institutional denial. Do you really believe that intelligent people of conscience will believe your U*U BS just because you repeat it ad nauseum? I don't. I credit the Canadian and American public with rather more intelligence, sensitivity, and genuine conscience than you and many other like-minded small-minded and suspicious-minded U*Us do. . .
crallspace said…
Why you gotta bash on UUs so much? We're good people.
Robin Edgar said…
Of course you are Dan. All U*Us are such "good people" aren't they?