Will Rev. Diane Rollert Atone For Her Sins And Seek Forgiveness For Them?

The following email was sent to Rev. Diane Rollert of the Unitarian Church of Montreal minutes ago. It was a somewhat impromptu decision to send her a communication on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which came as a direct result of reading her sermon titled -

The Value of One Life: A Sermon for the High Holy Days (PDF file)

It will be interesting to see how Rev. Diane Rollert responds to this latest communication from me, assuming that she responds to it at all of course. . . Hopefully she will respond to it in a rather more appropriate manner than she has responded to my previous email communications, which were forwarded to her along with this most recent email.

I am embedding a few appropriate hyperlinks into the text of this email, which may be considered to be an open letter to Rev. Rollert.

I had intended to send Rev. Rollert a rather more carefully thought out and comprehensive open letter, dealing with her highly questionable decision to seek a court ordered restraining order against me on the spurious (if not outright perjurious) grounds that she is "very frightened" of me and has "reasonable grounds" to believe that I might commit a "serious personal injury offense" against her, in the coming days and I may still do so. An alternative option would be to send an open letter addressed to the Board and/or congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal.

Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:02:02 -0400 (EDT)

From: "Robin Edgar"

Subject: Yom Kippur - Day Of Atonement

To: dianerollert@att.net, dianerollert@ucmtl.ca

Saturday September 22, 2001 - 10th of Tishrei, 5768

Dear Rev. Rollert,

May I suggest that you reread these emails that I sent to you a while back in an effort to bring some genuinely just, genuinely equitable, and genuinely compassionate resolution to the long drawn out conflict that I am involved in with the Unitarian Church of Montreal?

May I also suggest that you make a sincere and serious effort to respond to these emails in a rather more appropriate manner than you have so far?

You might want to reread some of your own sermons that are pertinent to this situation as well, especially those that were inspired by Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day Of Atonement, such as the sermon that you delivered last Sunday. You might want to give some serious consideration to just what the value of my life is, and how it has been negatively affected by the very well-documented injustices and abuses that Unitarian*Universalists have inflicted upon me over the years.

If you want forgiveness for "missing the mark" with me, you will have to seek it from me personally. The highly questionable concept of "self-forgiveness" that seems to be so popular with apparently quite conscienceless U*Us will not wash in this matter. If however you clearly and unequivocally acknowledge the various errors that you have made, both sins of ommision and sins of commision, and then make a sincere effort to correct those serious errors, you will discover that I am capable of being quite understanding and forgiving.

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar

Note: forwarded message attached.

Forwarded Message

Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:17:47 -0500 (EST)

From: "Robin Edgar" robinedgar59@yahoo.ca

Subject: Re: Justice and Peace

To: dianerollert@att.net, dianerollert@ucmtl.ca

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Dear Rev. Rollert,

Thank you for verbally confirming that you have received the emails copied below when I asked you if you had received them as we were both walking toward the Unitarian Church of Montreal from Vendome METRO station this morning.

I have written about our encounter on The Emerson Avenger blog here -

http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2006/11/emerson-avenger-has-synchroni-city.html

As I said to you earlier today, and as should be clear from what I have repeated on The Emerson Avenger blog, I believe that you have a moral and ethical professional responsibility as the minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal to take a leadership position that leads it towards actually practicing justice, equity and compassion in its human relations with me rather than willfully disregarding and flagranting violating these and other U*U principles in its rather inhuman human relations with me.

I will not allow you to abdicate your responsibility in this matter. I am not aware of how "congregational polity" on even "congregational policy" can legitimately prevent you from responding to my email communications, or otherwise speaking with me. Any such policy violates U*U principles as far as I am concerned. I am sure that if I went through the UUMA Guidelines for the conduct of ministry I could find a fair number of clauses that would support your right and even your responsibility and moral and ethical obligation to enter into dialogue with me in an effort to resolve the ongoing conflict in a manner that lives up to the U*U "covenant" to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations. How is this just for dstarters?

Members of our congregations have freely gathered to become a body of people seeking to find and to walk together in ways of *truth* and affection. Members have gathered in freedom to worship; to teach, encourage and support one another; and to speak to the world in words and actions of *right*, beauty, *peace* and goodwill.

To seek and to accept ordination to our ministry is to dedicate one's life to the work needful for *fulfillment* of these high *aims*. The minister is one who has made a *life commitment* to the religious community as an institution.

If you really care about the well-being of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, if you care about the well-being of the greater U*U religious community, to say nothing of your profession of ministry, you will begin now to take a moral and ethical leadership position that can and will lead towards a genuinely just, genuinely equitable and genuinely compassionate resolution of the ludicrously drawn out conflict that Montreal Unitarians have so unethically and immorally chosen to engage in for over a decade now. That process will most certainly include dialogue with me.

Whatever institutional constraints may have been placed on you to avoid communication with me almost certainly violate claimed U*U ideals and principles, if not the UUMA guidelines and other UUA and CUC policies. As I indicated in my original email to you, it is almost a certainty that the reason the leaders of the Unitarian Church of Montreal don't want you communicating with me is because, once you do so, it will very quickly become apparent that I have very legitimate cause for grievance and my ongoing public protest activities and that the leaders of the Unitarian Church of Montreal almost certainly misled you in any "debriefing" they may have given you about this conflict. A free and genuinely responsible search for the truth and meaning of the "root causes" of my grievances and protests will most certainly not set U*Us free.

At some point in time the Unitarian Church of Montreal is going to have to acknowledge the injustices and abuses that I have been subjected to by Rev. Ray Drennan and other intolerant and abusive anti-religious atheists, as well as the subsequent injustices and abuses arising from the UCM Board's negligent and effectively complicit responses to my letters of grievance and the unjust, inequitable, and uncompassionate punitive expulsions that I have been subjected to for submitting letters of grievance and publicly protesting against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. The sooner in your ministry this occurs the better for everyone concerned.

It is most certainly not my fault that Montreal Unitarians and the UUA have obstinately stonewalled, delayed, and outright denied justice until you became minister. Montreal Unitarians and the UUA have had numerous opportunities to settle this conflict but, quite regrettably, they have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The ball is very firmly in your court and I expect you to play ball. I expect you to wage peace in this conflict and you can only wage peace by waging justice, equity and compassion in human relations with me. And yes, that does mean that I expect you and other appropriate Montreal Unitarians to enter into free and open dialogue with me in the very near future.

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar

Robin Edgar wrote:

Monday, November 13, 2006

Dear Rev. Rollert,

It is now over one month since I sent you this email. I have not received so much as a confirmation of receipt from you. This is not acceptable to me.

Please reply to this important communication within the next week.

Thank-you,

Robin Edgar

Robin Edgar wrote:

Dear Rev. Rollert,

I regret to have to inform you that in taking on the position of settled minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal you unfortunately inherited a bit of a mess that Montreal Unitarians knowingly and willfully chose not to clean up prior to engaging you as their new settled minister. For more information about this failure on the part of Montreal Unitarians please read the email copied below that I sent to the Board members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal in March of 2005.

I fully expect that church leaders have "debriefed" you about my ongoing public protest activities in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal that you have seen with your own eyes on at least one occasion. I equally fully expect that any such "debriefing" by church leaders was a very carefully controlled exercise in misinformation and disinformation that was knowingly and willfully misleading. Montreal Unitarians probably withheld some important information that you have a right to know about and their version of the story almost certainly included some highly misleading half-truths, untruths and falsehoods, and even some outright lies. I therefore invite you to enter into dialogue with me about this unfortunate conflict in the near future so that you may hear my side of the story and thus enter into a genuinely free and responsible search for the truth and meaning that is the "root cause" of my ongoing public protest activities. I expect you to take on a responsible leadership position in this matter that leads to genuine justice. Without real justice there will be no peace between me and Montreal Unitarians.

As per the email that I sent to the members of the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal that is copied below I fully intend to continue in my ongoing public protest against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy until such a time as my perfectly legitimate grievances are responded to with genuine justice, genuine equity, and genuine compassion by Montreal Unitarians, and indeed the UUA and CUC. When it became clear to me that Montreal Unitarians had chosen to ignore my clear warning that I would continue my protest activities into the term of the next settled minister if they refused to hold Rev. Ray Drennan accountable for his intolerant and abusive clergy misconduct I decided to hold in reserve some actions that I could have taken earlier. I will be moving forward with those actions that I chose to hold in reserve in the coming weeks and months.

This state of conflict will continue until such time as Montreal Unitarians and the UUA and CUC clearly and unequivocally acknowledge the injustices and abuses that I have been subjected to by Unitarian Universalists and take steps to properly redress my very serious legitimate grievances that arise from those injustices and abuses. The sooner that you, in your capacity as the new settled minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, take a morally and ethically sound leadership position that clearly seeks to provide genuine justice, genuine equity and genuine compassion in your own and other U*Us' human relations with me the sooner this long drawn out conflict will come to a long overdue resolution.

Opening lines of communication and entering into genuine dialogue is absolutely essential to resolving this ongoing conflict. I have always made it clear that I am ready, willing and able to enter into mediated dialogue and to participate in genuinely just and equitable conflict resolution procedures however, in spite of spurious claims to the contrary, Montreal U*Us have consistently failed and even outright refused to enter into any viable mediated dialogue with me or to initiate any genuinely just and equitable conflict resolution procedures in this matter. On the contrary Montreal Unitarians have undertaken highly questionable efforts to try to silence my legitimate criticism and dissent and have even tried to censor and suppress my public protest by having me arrested on false criminal charges. I invite you, and other Unitarian Universalists who genuinely desire justice, equity, compassion and peace in human relations to enter into meaningful dialogue with me, and to initiate genuinely just and equitable conflict resolution procedures. Only a sincere and sustained effort to finally resolve this ongoing state of conflict in a genuinely just, genuinely equitable and genuinely compassionate manner can bring some long overdue healing and peace to not only the Unitarian Church of Montreal but to the greater Unitarian Universalist religious community.

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar

Forwarded Message

Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 06:28:37 -0500 (EST)

From: "Robin Edgar" robinedgar59@yahoo.ca

Subject: About Re. Ray Drennan's Resignation

To: laura.greggain@videotron.ca

Robin Edgar
4572 Drolet
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2T 2G4 March 9, 2005


Dear Member of the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal,

It has come to my attention that Rev. Ray Drennan recently tendered his resignation as minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. I wish to make it very clear to church Board members that Rev. Drennan’s resignation will not result in an end to my ongoing protest activities. On the contrary it is likely to result in an intensification of my protest activities in the coming weeks and months unless the Unitarian Church of Montreal acts quickly to responsibly redress my longstanding grievances that arise from Rev. Ray Drennan’s demeaning and abusive clergy misconduct. My public protest will not end until Rev. Ray Drennan, and other leading members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal who are responsible for labeling Creation Day as a “cult” and other injustices and abuses that include discrimination and harassment, are held fully responsible for their harmful words and actions. I also expect certain former and current church leaders to face full accountability for their clearly negligent, effectively complicit, and/or unjustly punitive responses to my previous letters of grievance and public protest that contributed to the unnecessary prolongation and escalation of this conflict.

To my knowledge Rev. Ray Drennan has never faced the slightest accountability for his openly hostile, false and malicious, labeling of Creation Day as “your cult”. Likewise he has never been held in any way accountable for his contemptuous dismissal of my revelatory religious experience as “your psychotic experience” along with his angry demands that I immediately seek “professional help”. His “injurious and untrue” belittling and maligning of the religious insights that arose from my profound revelatory religious experience as being nothing but “silliness and fantasy” was also condoned. Rev. Drennan has never retracted his clearly abusive “insulting and defamatory” words that I reported to the church Board, the ‘Disruptive Behavior Committee’, and other church members in my previous letters of grievance, nor has he ever acknowledged their “injurious and untrue” nature. My own highly justified picket sign slogans have been described as “injurious and untrue” by Rev. Charles Eddis, and I have been similarly accused of using “insulting and defamatory language” by Board President John Pike.

Why is it that I have yet to hear Rev. Charles Eddis, President John Pike or any other leader of the Unitarian Church of Montreal responsibly acknowledge the quite evidently “injurious and untrue” and “insulting and defamatory” nature of the offensive and damaging language that Rev. Ray Drennan, Frank Greene, John Inder, Keith Robinson and other members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal have falsely and abusively, to say nothing of outright maliciously, used to label me personally and/or my religious beliefs and practices such a Creation Day?

For close to a decade the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal have willfully ignored or unjustly dismissed my serious grievances. Above and beyond this evidently unjust, inequitable, and uncompassionate treatment the Unitarian Church of Montreal has subjected me to repeated, and ultimately permanent, expulsion from the church. The initial six month expulsion was a cynical attempt to censor and suppress the expression of my legitimate complaints in letters of grievance. Later expulsions were unjust and inequitable punitive responses to my subsequent public protest. My ongoing public protest would never have begun if the Board of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, and its so-called Disruptive Behavior Committee, had acted to responsibly redress my legitimate grievances in a just, equitable, and compassionate manner when I filed formal complaints about Rev. Ray Drennan’s evidently insulting and injurious “disruptive behavior” towards me and my religious beliefs and practices.

I hereby demand that Rev. Ray Drennan must face full accountability, including appropriate disciplinary action, for his abusive clergy misconduct prior to leaving the Unitarian Church of Montreal. This disciplinary action must be entirely commensurate with the seriousness of Rev. Drennan’s demeaning and abusive behavior towards me as it is described in my previous letters of grievance. Rev. Drennan should also be subjected to disciplinary action for the obvious harm that his ongoing refusal to accept any personal responsibility for his clearly “insulting and defamatory language” has clearly caused the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Rev. Ray Drennan, and several other leading members of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, bear personal responsibility for most of any “image tarnishing” that the Unitarian Church suffers as a result of my ongoing legitimate public protest.

I expect the Unitarian Church of Montreal to act quickly and responsibly in its response to this demand for genuinely just and equitable redress of my serious grievances. I expect the church Board to initiate responsible conflict resolution procedures very soon. The upcoming special congregational meeting in April presents an opportunity to responsibly address this conflict and I expect to be provided an opportunity to clearly explain to the congregation as a whole why I am protesting and what the Unitarian Church must do to responsibly redress my legitimate grievances. This ongoing conflict could have ended several years ago if the church Board and the ‘Disruptive Behavior Committee’ had not responded in a negligent, effectively complicit, and unjustly punitive manner to my previous letters of grievance. If I do not receive genuinely just and equitable redress for my legitimate grievances before Rev. Ray Drennan leaves the church I will hold President John Pike and this Board responsible for negligence that effectively condones Rev. Drennan’s abusive clergy misconduct. My protest will continue and the next minister of the Unitarian Church of Montreal will inherit this conflict.

Sincerely,


Robin Edgar

Comments

Robin Edgar said…
Obviously this email should have been dated Saturday September 22, 2007 rather than Saturday September 22, 2001. At least I got the Jewish calendar date right. . .

While I am correcting my own minor "missing the mark" here I will add that I am quite aware that I misspelled "sins of omission and sins of commission". I would much rather have misspelled these words then have committed the "sins of omission and sins of commission" that Rev. Diane Rollert and other U*Us have committed in this matter.