Important post - The outcome of the case

We came home from my son's wonderful wedding (see previous post) to find the letter from the Archbishops council had arrived. I had known about it all day but had not opened it or told my wife; I wanted her to enjoy the wedding undistracted.

The letter was the most devastating news we could have. The council has decided that our vicar, who has utterly destroyed my wife's life with the effect that our family has also been blown apart, apparently has 'no case to answer'. They feel it is just 'a breakdown of the pastoral relationship'.

So my wife now feels much the same as those women who have been raped but see the perpetrator go un-prosecuted because the police do not believe her.

It really could not be worse. I think that even f someone had died it would feel better - grief yes but a knowledge that people die. This since of injustice and of being walked on and of having the powers of the church protect each other - as they used to in the paedophile priests cases - it is utterly devastating. I had not known how deeply one can feel hurt. And that is just me; my wife feels far worse than I do as it is her that is being rejected.

And it hurts to know that he will gloat over us, and over those of our children who still go to the church, and over my troubled teen daughter who takes his side, and over my other son who will announce his engagement n the church this morning. How deeply that will hurt!

The natural instinct is to think of all the things we can do to express our pain. I have visualised myself scratching obscenities into the paint of his car, which is his real god. I have imagined burning his house down. I have imagined the letters to the press, the letter to the Archbishop himself, the letter to the PCC ..... but all these things are limited human vengeance and ultimately counter productive.

We know from our recent string of miracles in connection with the house sale and the move to the new town that God is with us, and that he has been planning the move for us, and that he saw this outcome before we did, and even Calvinistically planned it for us. And so we still have faith that we must leave it in his hands. "'Vengeance is mine', says the Lord". And I think that his vengeance will be far more effective than any we could impose. Our God is not all nice and fluffy, he also has anger (just read the psalms!). And he also sees every thought that passes through the dark secret places of our hearts. So I would not really like to be in our Vicar's shoes when the Lord starts to implement his justice.