In Solidarity with the Survivors of Jeff Taylor
Abuse in the church is everyone’s problem. When churches do not take swift, direct action in response to allegations of abuse, predators like Jeff Taylor can abuse minors at multiple high-profile jobs while avoiding accountability. Furthermore, the cultural conditions that allowed Taylor to persist and abuse go unexamined, in both secular and church spaces.
ACNAtoo stands in solidarity with the survivors of abuse by Jeff Taylor. Thank you for coming forward and minimizing your abuser’s access to future victims. We have seen and experienced what it costs to try to hold our own abusers and others accountable, within the ACNA and elsewhere, and we honor the steep price each of you paid and continue to pay.
We also maintain that survivors should not have to pay the price for exposing an abuser nor for ensuring church policy and cultural reform. The courageous survivors and families who went on record in The Washington Post article should not have needed to experience the re-traumatization of telling their story along with uncertainty and anxiety while waiting for publication.
We are currently tracking abuse cases in 17 of the ACNA’s 28 dioceses, and we maintain confidential contact with dozens of survivors and witnesses associated with these cases. Our conversations with numerous survivors have made it clear to us that abuse and mishandling are pervasive ongoing problems within the ACNA, and that the Province and many diocesan leaders remain unmotivated to acknowledge or reckon with this cancer in their denomination.
In light of this, it unfortunately falls on parishioners and clergy to take action to address the abuse crisis in the ACNA. Individual ACNA parishes must push for policy and ecclesial reform, while also taking local steps to transform the culture of the ACNA from the bottom up.
While woefully incomplete, the IslerDare report contained enough evidence for The Falls Church Anglican and the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic to begin to understand their obligation to survivors.
We join survivors and their advocates to call on The Falls Church Anglican, the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, and the larger ACNA to do what should have been done from the beginning:
Invest significant financial resources to engage paid trauma-informed professionals who will lead child safeguarding policy creation, abuse disclosure response, and education. Every diocese should have an expert on retainer to educate clergy, lay leaders, and congregations about power dynamics, abuse of authority, betrayal blindness, how abusers groom communities, and the long-term effects of abuse. The expert on retainer should also be available for mandatory consultation whenever an abuse disclosure is made. Policies without education and implementation are useless.
Continue to search for further victims of Taylor’s abuse and other victims who suffered clergy sexual abuse at The Falls Church Anglican.
Given the systemic failings noted in the report, invite other potential abuse victims whose complaints may have also gone unheard to come forward to an independent third-party investigator.
In repeated instances spanning decades, church leaders could have – and should have – taken greater action in response to concerns raised about youth pastor Jeff Taylor’s character, behavior, and disclosures of his abuse. The consequences of their negligence resulted in opportunities for Taylor to continue abusing children in multiple churches and perhaps other spaces as well. Taylor may even have access to new victims in his current location.
In its negligent treatment of Jeff Taylor and failed responses to similar abuse disclosures, the ACNA demonstrates that it will not prioritize the safety of the most vulnerable people, nor will it hold its leaders accountable. Transforming the current parish and diocesan culture into one that is safe for survivors requires challenging both ourselves and our existing power structures. Yet prioritizing the vulnerable over the powerful is what Christ calls us to do. If we care more for our leaders’ comfort and reputations than for victims of abuse, then we have lost sight of the Gospel.
For more information about Jeff Taylor’s abuse, including a timeline, resources, and contact information, please visit this website, created by former Cornerstone students: https://jefftaylorjustice.org.