VIRGINIA
Roanoke Times
By Jen McCaffery
981-3336
The Roanoke Times
The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia will likely determine what discipline a former rector at Roanoke's Christ Episcopal Church should receive in connection with allegations that the rector sexually abused a boy in West Virginia and in Bland County in 1968.
The development has arisen as part of the settlement of a lawsuit that was filed in federal court in Roanoke in November. The lawsuit was filed by a California man, Frank Patton Jarrell. Jarrell claimed that the Rev. J. Robert Thacker sexually abused him when Jarrell was 15 and Thacker worked as a priest in the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia.
The alleged abuse occurred more than 15 years before Thacker came to work at Christ Episcopal Church in Southwest Roanoke. Thacker made news when he lived in Roanoke when he was arrested in 1989 along with other priests who were protesting on behalf of striking mine workers in Southwest Virginia. There is no allegation that Thacker committed any abuse other than what the lawsuit accuses him of.
Jarrell sued the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia for not adequately supervising Thacker. He did not sue the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. But because Thacker is "canonically resident" in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia and has at least verbally agreed to submit to discipline as part of the settlement agreement, Bishop Neff Powell of the Southwest Virginia diocese is responsible for deciding how to discipline Thacker, Powell said.
Posted by kshaw at February 15, 2005 04:16 AM