THE Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, said on Friday that some of her episcopal colleagues had chosen to “threaten” her in an “unprofessional and un-Christian manner” by asking her to resign.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no prospect that I will allow them to pressure me into quitting a role I cherish,” she said in a statement.
On Thursday, four of the five other bishops in the Scottish Episcopal Church, including the Primus, the Most Revd Mark Strange, made a statement in which they urged Bishop Dyer to “consider whether she is still the right person to lead the diocese” (News, 18 October).
Bishop Dyer, who is currently on holiday, responded on Friday with an extended statement: “I’m at a complete loss to explain what has prompted these four Bishops to take such an ill-considered and inflammatory course of action, just days after the proceedings against me were dismissed,” she began.
Last week, Bishop Dyer was reinstated after being suspended for almost two years, when it was announced that a disciplinary tribunal against her had been dropped by the Church’s Procurator, Paul Reid KC (News, 9 October).
Mr Reid wrote that, although there was “sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction” on charges of bullying, he did not consider it to be in the public interest to continue with a trial.
On Friday, Bishop Dyer referred to a statement that Bishop Strange made on the announcement of Mr Reid’s decision, in which the Primus said that the College of Bishops “calls on all in the Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney, and the wider Church, to work together to achieve reconciliation and healing as we look to the future”.
This statement, she suggested, was “utterly inconsistent” with an email that she had received earlier this week, in which she said that three bishops had issued her with an “ultimatum, giving me 24 hours to agree to step down”.
“To say one thing in public and another in private is both duplicitous and misleading. I would have expected far more from these colleagues, than to threaten me in such an unprofessional and un-Christian manner,” she wrote.
The signatories of Thursday’s statement were the Primus; the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr John Armes; the Bishop of Brechin, the Rt Revd Andrew Swift; and the Bishop of Argylle & The Isles, the Rt Revd David Railton. It is unclear which of the four was not a signatory of the ultimatum to which Bishop Dyer referred in her statement.
The Chancellor of the diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney, Graham Robertson, also issued a statement on Friday, in which he said that he had “considered the validity” of the email and concluded that “the attempt to force Bishop Dyer to resign is ultra vires. They did not have the authority to send an email containing such an ultimatum.
“The attempt is in contravention of employment law and human rights legislation. It is no way to treat anyone in an employment situation, let alone a sister bishop and a colleague.”
In her statement, Bishop Dyer wrote that there was “no prospect” that she would “abandon a Diocese which has shown me overwhelming love and support over what has been a very traumatic and challenging period”.
Bishop Dyer faced allegations of bullying and abuse of her position, and the charges that had been due to be brought against her included that she “did bully, harass and discriminate against” a diocesan employee, who, it is understood, has a disability, over a period of almost two years.
A review published in 2021, by the Very Revd Professor Iain Torrance, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen and a former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, had recommended that Bishop Dyer “step back permanently from the diocese” (News, 17 September 2021).
He said that he did not believe that Bishop Dyer had the “trust and confidence of a number of the priests in the diocese”, described the diocese as suffering from “systemic dysfunction”, and said that he feared that the Bishop’s position was “irrevocable”.
In Friday’s statement, Bishop Dyer said that there was a “very small group of people who have sought to force me out of the Church”, and described herself as being subject to a “campaign of bullying”.
Bishop Dyer paid tribute to the “steadfast support and guidance” of the only Scottish Episcopalian diocesan bishop who did not sign Thursday’s statement: the Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane, the Rt Revd Ian Paton. “His friendship has been a model of collegiate assistance on which I will continue to draw as I return to public ministry,” she wrote.
Bishop Paton has been contacted for comment, as have the other diocesan bishops.