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	Two Priests Fight to Keep Holy Orders By Isabel Hayes 9 News October 5, 2011 news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8355905/two-priests-fight-to-keep-holy-orders Two Anglican priests accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy are fighting a decision to strip them of holy orders, saying the case put to the church board was "prejudicial in the extreme". The suspended rector of Cardiff, the Reverend Graeme Leslie Sturt, and the retired dean of Newcastle, Graeme Russell Lawrence, are challenging moves to ban them from officiating or acting as a priest in any way. They would also cease to have any rights attached to the position. The men are taking action in the NSW Supreme Court against the Newcastle Diocese Professional Standards Board and 10 others, including members of the board. The board decided last December that the two priests should be "deposed from holy orders" after finding they had engaged in sexual misconduct involving a teenage boy in 1984. Police investigated the allegations, which the priests denied, and did not lay charges. But the board found there had been an incident with a teenage boy, "M", in a motel room during an Anglican seminar at Narrandera, in southern NSW. Mr Sturt was found to have observed Mr Lawrence kiss the teenager and perform oral sex on the boy, according to documents before the court. The board also found that if Mr Sturt had intervened "it is likely that there would not have been a continuation of sexual abuse of M as an adult by (Mr) Lawrence". The priests did not take part in the board hearings last December after the board refused to hear the case in private, and they were not present when the findings were delivered. In submissions to Justice John Sackar on Wednesday, barrister Roger Marshall said there were Anglican Church constitutional issues around whether a diocesan tribunal should have dealt with the issue rather than the Professional Standards Board. He said complaints that had nothing to do with the Reverend Sturt were heard by the board. "This was an attempt, a successful one we say, to smear Reverend Sturt in the eyes of the board," Mr Marshall said. There were also issues with the behaviour of the prosecutor in the hearing, he said. "The way the matter was put and submitted to the board was regrettable to say the least and prejudicial in the extreme," he said. Much of the legal argument in the Supreme Court relates to contracts, the Anglican Church of Australia Constitution Act and disciplinary procedures. The hearing is continuing.
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