Some time ago, we covered Adrian Parry, the former Episcopal priest defrocked for his extensive online collection of pornographic wrestling materials, many of which included him as a participant, and which he operated as a business. We won’t rehash the details, but extensive documentation is included in the original post.
Now, Parry is back, and not in a good way.
Sources close to the matter report that Parry is often to be found at the rectory of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, which also is occupied by the Reverend Nicholas Wheeler.
Wheeler himself has a sketchy history, allegedly having had multiple and ongoing complaints filed against him. And we are told that the diocese has a “working group” grappling (no pun intended) with Wheeler’s myriad issues.
Equally noteworthy is that, most unusually for the Church of England, Wheeler allegedly was previously asked to take an assignment in Rio de Janeiro, where he remained until, in the words of one church warden, “the scandal blew over.”
Flash forward, and Wheeler allegedly recently was caught accessing porn on Twitter in church, at 10:30 A.M., on a weekday.
Several individuals captured images of this:
Several parishioners and a priest complained about conduct unbecoming and sought to make a formal complaint. However, the Archdeacon of Middlesex, The Venerable Richard Frank, insisted on making the complaint on behalf of the parishioners. That process is known as the CDM, and is described here.
Now, the matter has been officially resolved, and Frank has told the parishioners that they are not entitled to know the outcome — even though it was their complaint.
In other words, the church is covering up these issues.
Meanwhile, Parry and Wheeler hang out at Christmas and allegedly travel to Thailand together. The latter is famous for child sex trafficking, although we do not know if Parry and Wheeler are abusing minors. That said, Parry’s propensity for working in educational settings gives us pause.
But the cherry on top of the cake is that Parry allegedly regularly officiates at Holy Trinity, and we have a photo of him in clericals. See the featured image at the top of the post.
For the record, we have no issue with gay clergy. But we have a problem with the underlying hypocrisy when the CoE foams at the mouth about marriage equality while covering up inappropriate behavior on church grounds.
And we sure as hell have an issue with a defrocked priest serving a parish, especially when the rector knowingly permits it to happen.
No matter whether you are gay, straight, whatever — porn does not belong at church. And the church needs to stop the whole notion that those who encounter misconduct are not entitled to know of the outcome. Disclosure is an inherent part of healing and an appropriate pastoral response to misconduct.
Below are redacted screencaps of the relevant correspondence:
For the record, Anglican Watch has heard numerous additional allegations about Wheeler and Parry. We believe there is much more to this story, but we are not reporting these claims because we have been unable to verify the underlying information independently.
In the meantime, we call on the Diocese of London to insist on the highest standards of integrity for both Wheeler and Parry. Under no circumstances should a defrocked priest be permitted to officiate at any service. And if the Bishop of London disagrees with the decision to defrock Parry, then she can work with him openly, in the late of day, towards the restoration of holy orders,
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