In late 2023, at least four Episcopal priests faced or were threatened with serious disciplinary charges related to their participation in a discussion group for theologically conservative Christians.
The priests have separately told TLC that they believe they were targeted by a progressive activist seeking to drive conservatives out of the Episcopal Church. There is evidence to support their belief. One of the priests has, in fact, left the church. All have left the discussion group.
The allegations do not appear to have anything to do with statements or actions by the priests, but simply their participation in a “secret” discussion group that also includes minors. The allegations reportedly were couched as violations of Safe Church guidelines, or as “inappropriate contact with minors.”
But the group is not secret, membership does not appear to violate the written Safe Church guidelines, and there is no evidence that the four priests, or anyone else in the discussion group, wrote or did anything detrimental to minors, or invited them to join the group.
Three of the priests are young enough that they have been bombarded throughout their lives with news of scandals involving sexual abuse of minors by clergy, in many denominations. The priests are confident they have done nothing wrong, but they have been badly shaken by explosive allegations early in their priesthoods.
Operation Reconquista
The discussion group is hosted by Operation Reconquista, an organization of theologically conservative Protestants who believe the mainline Protestant churches have elevated modern culture over biblical orthodoxy.
It was started by a YouTube personality who calls himself Redeemed Zoomer, reflecting his Gen Z age group. He’s a dedicated online gamer, and serves a mixture of Minecraft and theology to his 377,000 YouTube subscribers.
In July 2023, TLC’s Covenant blog featured an article on Redeemed Zoomer by the Rev. Jake Dell, who had signed on as “a sort of Gen X chaplain-adviser to the Discord server” that hosted the organization’s discussion group. Discord is a communications platform that emerged from the online gaming world. “There, I’ve encountered an earnest and theologically sophisticated group of Gen Zs ranging in age from 15 to 29,” Dell wrote.
In a modern takeoff on Martin Luther, Operation Reconquista published “95 Theses to Our Churches,” with variations for the Episcopal Church and other mainline denominations. The Episcopal version declares opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and Communion before baptism, and expresses support for a broad spectrum of conservative or traditionalist theological statements.
The Discord group is not secret. Anyone may apply for membership at operationreconquista.com. It is, however, a “closed” group, meaning only members can see or post in the discussion. Wes Morgan, a layman who is one of the moderators of the group, said membership requirements have been tightened because of this and other incidents. Applicants for membership must fill out a survey and be vetted by a moderator.
Dell, who at the time of his Covenant article was priest in charge of St. Peter’s Lithgow in the Diocese of New York, later became one of the priests accused of Safe Church violations. Bishop of New York Matthew Heyd told him by email December 2 that there had been a complaint. “It is my request as your Bishop that you delete this conversation group from the Discord Server immediately and provide me with your assurance that it has been removed,” Heyd wrote.
Dell had no ability to delete the entire group, but within an hour of receiving the email on a Saturday afternoon, he replied with screenshots demonstrating he had unsubscribed from the group.
As a result of multiple incidents that left him feeling ostracized, Dell renounced his orders as an Episcopal priest in March. He had been ordained a deacon in 2009 and a priest in 2013. Dell is seeking to become a priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a conservative body that split from the Episcopal Church in 1873.
“The weaponization of this complaint was effective,” he told TLC.
Three Additional Consistent Accounts
Dell was the only priest from the discussion group who agreed to speak on the record. TLC interviewed three additional priests who formerly were in the group. Some believe eight or more priests may have been affected, but TLC could not confirm any others.
Because of the potentially career-ending nature of the allegations, TLC agreed not to reveal the names or dioceses of the three young priests.
As one of them said, he knows he did nothing wrong, but “I don’t want my name associated with the words ‘inappropriate contact with minors.’”
The three priests, all men, intend to remain in the Episcopal Church. Speaking independently, they provided consistent accounts of the group as a forum for discussing theological issues, as well as concerns about navigating as a young conservative in progressive denominations.
The four priests and Morgan all said they never saw, let alone participated in, any sexual or otherwise inappropriate conversations.
TLC was granted access to the server while researching this article, and reviewed dozens of posts. Some recent questions include how to draw close to the Holy Spirit; choosing a denomination; and whether God “knows the entirety of mathematics.”
In the posts reviewed by TLC, the only clear reference to sexuality was by a person who posted with a male name and said he traveled a lot for his job — presumably an adult. He reported struggling in his efforts to avoid looking at pornography. Another poster advised him to “trust in Christ that he will free you from this.”
Yet the priests say they were notified by their dioceses of Title IV disciplinary complaints related to Safe Church concerns or inappropriate contact with minors.
Each diocese handles Title IV complaints differently, and it is intended to be a confidential process (unless a complaint advances to the need for an ecclesiastical trial, which the vast majority do not). So it is difficult to verify and pin down details about specific Title IV complaints.
One piece of paperwork confirmed that a formal complaint had been filed, and it identified the complainant as Brad Eubanks.
“They Shouldn’t Do Bad Things”
Brad Eubanks is a postulant for holy orders from the Diocese of Arizona, now studying at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Eubanks serves as a peer chaplain for other seminarians.
On October 18, 2023, Eubanks posted a meme on Facebook that features a picture of musical superstar Taylor Swift and a “paraphrased” quotation: “If guys don’t want me to Title IV them, they shouldn’t do bad things.”
The cryptic Facebook post attracted no comments, other than emoticons, but within weeks of the posting, priests began receiving notification of Title IV complaints. While Eubanks was identified as the complainant in one case, the complainants in the other cases could not be determined.
After being notified in detail about this pending article, Eubanks did not comment directly, referring TLC to the Diocese of Arizona.
“The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona is not a party to, or involved in this complaint in any way,” Laurel Way, the diocese’s director of communications, said via email. “No parties involved in this matter were acting on behalf of or as an agent of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. Therefore, we decline to comment on this matter.”
The Taylor Swift meme subsequently was deleted or set to private, as was most of the content on Brad Eubanks’s Facebook feed.
Guidelines, Not Policies
Heyd told Dell that he had consulted with a staff member at the Episcopal Church Center “who believes that this Discord Group is in violation of Safe Church policies by recruiting minors to participate without oversight of any Episcopal Church body.”
He added that “There is no gray area when it comes to protecting our youth,” and that the discussion group “is, to my mind, in violation of the expected safeguards of transparency and consent.”
Public Affairs Officer Amanda Skofstad wrote that a member of the staff, “when asked for advice by diocesan leadership, noted that if minors were advised by adults in a secret group not to share information from that group, this was a concern. They did not give a view on whether this concern was a Title IV matter.”
When asked what differentiates the Discord group from a Facebook group on a random topic, Heyd responded by email: “Safeguarding was our concern about the discord channel, which was recruiting children to participate in a private space without oversight of any Episcopal Church body.”
Dell said by email that he did not recall seeing or participating in any conversations about information-sharing. “I did not observe any recruiting or recruit anyone myself, minor or adult,” he wrote.
“The Safe Church guidelines provide models for dioceses to develop and implement policies as they see fit,” Skofstad wrote. But while the guidelines do not represent enforceable policy, a passage in the Model Policy for the Protection of Children and Youth appears to specifically absolve the priests of responsibility for what other people post on the discussion group.
Appendix B of the document says in part: “A diocese, congregation, or organization does not have a responsibility to review or monitor the personal pages or groups that are not sponsored by that diocese, congregation, or organization, except as described in #2 above.” The reference to #2 is not clear.
In any forum, a priest could be held accountable for inappropriate statements, but none of the priests were confronted with allegations that they posted anything problematic or were attempting to engage in any inappropriate behavior with minors.
Title IV and General Convention
The Title IV disciplinary canons have come under increased scrutiny in the past year.
In August 2023, dozens of bishops signed an open letter criticizing “the perception — or the reality — that bishops get a free pass on behavioral issues.” This came in response to an announcement by President of the House of Deputies Julia Ayala Harris that she had been touched inappropriately by a bishop she did not immediately name.
Ayala Harris said her Title IV complaint had been dismissed in “an obvious abuse of discretion” by the Church Attorney investigating the complaint.
Months earlier, the ex-wife and adult sons of Bishop Prince Singh publicly accused him of years of physical and emotional abuse, and said two senior bishops had not done enough to investigate their previous, private complaints. They later filed Title IV complaints on those grounds against Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry and Bishop Todd Ousley, head of the office of pastoral development.
In February 2024, Curry announced new protocols to provide more transparency in Title IV complaints against bishops.
There are more than 20 resolutions related to Title IV up for debate at the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, in June. Several of them deal with rebalancing the power in the process, for example providing for reviewing and potentially overturning discretionary decisions by church attorneys. Others aim to shorten the length of Title IV proceedings, which can stretch on for years.
None of the resolutions address the potential for weaponizing Title IV for ideological purposes. However, one of the canonical proposals from the Task Force on Communion Across Difference, Resolution A091, seeks to clarify that for a cleric to support or oppose same-sex marriage is not a Title IV violation.
Because he has left the church, Dell is beyond the reach of Title IV. One of the other three priests has been notified that charges against him have been dismissed. The other two cases are still pending.
The Diocese of New York is a financial supporter of the Living Church Foundation.