A RETIRED cathedral dean and a retired archdeacon from the
diocese of Newcastle, in New South Wales, are among three clerics
to be unfrocked after the diocese's Professional Standards Board
found them guilty of sexual misconduct with a teenage boy in the
1980s (News, 18
February 2011).
The Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Revd Brian Farran, said in a
statement this week that "some of the respondents engaged in
serious sexual misconduct, including misconduct when the
complainant was a child." The respondents had breached their
pastoral responsibility, and had not shown remorse, he said.
The Revd Graeme Lawrence, who was Dean of Christ Church
Cathedral, Newcastle, from 1984 until his retirement in 2008, was
awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 for his part in
the restoration of the cathedral after damage caused by an
earthquake in 1989. The Revd Bruce Hoare was formerly Archdeacon of
Newcastle.
The Professional Standards Board recommended unfrocking in 2010;
but the Bishop's response was delayed when Mr Lawrence, and another
priest, a Newcastle rector who has been banned from ministry for
five years over the same misconduct, attempted to overturn the
Board's decision through the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The
case was rejected.
The police in New South Wales are now reinvestigating the
matter. The clerics deny the charges.