HAMILTON (CANADA)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 4, 2023
By Rebecca Hopkins
Bruxy Cavey is a mess. That’s how Canada’s disgraced former megachurch pastor refers to himself on two new websites he said he started to be his therapy. Donations, however, are welcome.
“Hello friends, welcome to my therapy,” he wrote for the site named The Ghost of 1820. “My name is Bruxy . . . and I’m a mess. But I am also discovering that suffering, especially from self-inflicted wounds, can be a good teacher, and I am learning so much.”
Cavey was arguably Canada’s most well-known evangelical pastor. With his casual style and inclusive nature, Cavey grew Canada’s The Meeting House to 5,000 people across 19 locations.
However, last March, the church asked him to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Two months later, police in the Canadian city of Hamilton charged him with one count of sexual assault. Then last August, The Meeting House’s independent investigation substantiated multiple allegations of sexual abuse against Cavey, including one involving a minor.
His trial date has not yet been set, a member of the Hamilton Police Service’s public affairs office told The Roys Report (TRR).
Cavey didn’t respond to TRR’s emailed request for comment. But in a blog post from last year that has now been deleted, Cavey admitted to one woman’s accusations but called it an “extramarital affair.”
His namesake website, with the tagline “Jesusy Thoughts for Seekers, Saints and Sinner,” has been essentially duplicated and rebranded on The Ghost of 1820 website.
Danielle Strickland, who resigned as a pastor at The Meeting House over allegations against Cavey, called him out on social media for teaching and asking for donations.
“There are heaps of great material already created and available on the beatitudes by people who haven’t sexually abused people,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Maybe it’s time to listen instead of teach?”
Cavey using the language of ministry — but says he’s a layman
The Ghost of 1820 refers to Jesus in Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them,” Cavey explained on the site.
“In context, these groups of two or three are on mercy missions to help lost sheep return,” Cavey wrote. “And Jesus says that when we gather together in gracious spaces to love the lost, he is spiritually and fully present with us.”
The sites encourage grace — not judgment — for those who struggle.
“This is a gracious space for the encouragement of those of us who struggle with hardship, failure, and forgiveness, and who are aware of our own need for grace, mercy, and peace,” he wrote. “This is not a place for judgement and divisiveness, but for those of us who want to learn and grow together in the compassionate way of Jesus.
“In short, this is where, along with the input of others, I share some of my processing on the gospel principles of repentance (literally ‘rethinking,’ leading to regret for past sins and a recommitment to a new direction in life), faith, forgiveness, grace, mercy, peace, reconciliation, and restoration.”
He doesn’t spell out the allegations against him. He acknowledges that he has engaged in wrongdoing, but also says he’s been wrongly accused.
“. . . I am trying to rebuild what I have broken and repent of what I have done wrong, while also defending myself against accusations of things I have not done, and this all leaves my emotional energy quite low and my need of grace quite high,” he wrote.
On The Ghost of 1820, he said that it’s “too early” for him to return to pastoral ministry.
“I am often asked if/when I think I might return to pastoral ministry, and my answer is that I think it is far too early for me to even consider that issue,” he wrote. “What I’m doing here I do as a lay person, blogging and hopefully helping others who are feeling like a coal away from the fire.”
Not just blogging, though. He’s also offering a step-by-step guide for launching small groups using his materials and seeking donations to fund devotional resources.
“The idea of enabling someone to ‘lead’ discussions/small group/design concepts that invite people into ‘healing communities’ who has not owned his abuse, made any restitution to his victims, or even concluded the court case against him is not LOVE — it’s reckless and harmful,” Strickland wrote on X.
The Meeting House board of overseers previously said Cavey will not return to that church in a ministry role. In addition, Cavey is no longer credentialed with Be in Christ, the denomination The Meeting House belongs to, a denomination spokesperson wrote in an email to TRR.
Cavey asks for donations under a tab, “How You Can Help.” Gifts will help fund his devotionals, podcasts, and online and in-person community.
The donations are not accepted under an official charity, he wrote. But they’ll also help “explore other opportunities to help the Church re-centre grace, mercy, and peace in the middle of our faith and life.” And funding will “encourage my own healing and wholeness while also helping others find faith, hope and love.”
He also describes how he’s recently been part of “small communities of grace” that eventually invited him to share his thoughts on Jesus.
“I did not start nor do I lead any of these groups, but as invited guests, my family and I have sensed the power in their earnest, genuine, and gracious fellowship,” he wrote. “They are places where confession and repentance feel welcome, and where forgiveness and encouragement are abundant.”
His “1820 studies” have come from what he’s been learning and are therapeutic, but are also a group effort, he wrote. A tab on the website lists out how others can start “small church” groups and use his teachings.
“More ‘small church’ groups have started gathering, in person and online, to learn and love and live together, using the 1820 studies for personal reflection and group discussion,” he wrote. “A small church is a circle church: gatherings of believers small enough to be conversational . . . Whatever the format, we offer our 1820 material to be used freely, in individual study and even better in group discussions.”
Before it was taken down, his namesake site also had a “Resources” tab that offered his sermons taught in front of an audience, though the sermons don’t specifically list The Meeting House in the descriptions. The sermons — uploaded within the last month — link to a YouTube channel called “Bruxy Cavey Sermons.”
He signs off his donation page with a focus on grace, but not on receipts.
“Your grace is precious to me,” he wrote. “I am not a charity. There are no receipts. There is only truckloads of gratitude for your kind support of the research and writing I’m doing here.”