A priest from Queens, New York finds himself in a lawsuit after gravely criticizing a former church member, calling her "disgusting" and "stupid."
As per the New York Post, Rev. Gilberto Hinds of the Episcopalian Church of Grace and Resurrection in East Elmhurst allegedly berated Juanita Faulkner in public. Faulkner claimed in a lawsuit that Hinds called her that in front of other people. Hinds, she said, made her life very difficult when he started criticizing her heavily in 2018.
"You are the most disgusting person that I have ever met," Faulkner quoted Hinds' criticism of her.
Hinds accordingly made the comments after Faulkner allegedly tried to seduce him. Such that in one occasion Hinds expressed aversion towards Faulkner, as per statements the latter made in the lawsuit filed at the Queens Supreme Court against Hinds and the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
"I have developed an aversion towards you," the priest supposedly told Faulkner, "Whenever you and I are in the same room, I feel a desperate need to move to the other end."
The lawsuit also recalled an incident when Hinds accused Faulkner of staring at him during the Communion of a worship service. Hinds allegedly described Faulkner as looking "so stupid" for doing so. Then he told her, "Don't touch me, don't smile at me and I do not want to be hugged by your big arms."
Besides these incidents, the lawsuit also speaks of an incident when Hinds recounted Faulkner exposing herself to him while he was in his office. The incident involved Hinds refusing for the sixth time for choir members to sing at family funerals.
The lawsuit was filed two years after Faulkner was expelled from the church in February 2020. Faulkner is demanding $2 million in damages from Hinds for the embarrassment she allegedly suffered along with the financial losses and emotional distress.
According to the church's website, Hinds was assigned as an Interim Priest during the merger of the Grace Church in Corona and the Church of the Resurrection on June 1, 2015. The merger was completed a year later and the first service for the church was held on June 7, 2016 as the Episcopal Church of Grace and Resurrection. It then became under the supervision of the Diocese of Long Island.
Two of the biggest challenges Episcopalians and Episcopal leaders are confronted with involve racial injustice and diversity-inclusion based on a survey released early this month by TryTank Experimental Laboratory and FaithX Project.. The survey showed that 95% of respondents view diversity and inclusion negatively. The respondents raised that there are "some" or "many" groups in their communities that were not represented well in their congregation. Many find a big gap between the demographics and their congregation.
The survey results are part of a series of mini-surveys called "Episcopal Pulse" that involve 1,000 respondents given a question to respond to weekly. The two-minute mini-surveys aim to get the pulse of the church, which is seen to be "horrendously handicapped by its traditionalist point of view about things" by its congregants.
In similar news, the former editor and advertising director of Christianity Today faced sexual harassment charges after several women surfaced on it last week. The publication admitted for failing to hold accountable its former leaders in line with the complaints filed by former women employees to their human resource manager over the years.
