The Peacock 57

 "Dad wasn't quite so proud of me as I would have hoped. We sat at the kitchen table, the five twenties a centrepiece between us.  He said that as much as he appreciated my initiative, that we must never stoop to extortion.  So, he phoned Griffin.  And he invited him over for afternoon tea, emphasizing that there was something he was wanting to return to him.  Now, keep in mind here, that Father Griffin still did not know that my father was not only a priest, but one of his diocesan colleagues in the deanery.  Griffin of course wanted to know just what this was all about.  My father simply replied that this was a very urgent matter, and he would find out soon enough.

"Father Griffin arrived in just twenty minutes.  He must have been driving very fast.  I stayed in the kitchen while they exchanged niceties in the entrance hall.  Oh, the look on his face when he saw me sitting at the kitchen table.  But then he covered it.  But it was too late.  He knew he was busted.  So, Robert, my father was saying to him as they sat at the table with me, here is the money that my son received from you.  You can have it all back.  Father Griffin said nothing. He simply picked up the bills and restored them to his wallet.  You will of course want to stay for tea, my father asked.  He mumbled something about having another engagement, forced a smile at me, then saw his way to the door."

"What happened next", Carl asks, leaning forward, both his hands resting palms down on his knees.

"Father Stephen knew better than go to the rector, who was determined to die being Father Griffin's protector before handing him over for diocesan discipline.  So he took our concerns to the archbishop, who gave them a good and careful hearing.  But he didn't do anything.  He didn't say why, but we already knew why. Just then, the Anglican Church was grappling with the theme of full acceptance and inclusion for gays and lesbians in the church, including sanctioning marriage equality.  There couldn't be a worse or less opportune time for censuring a homosexual priest, even if he was sexually preying on teenage boys and trading in the services of male prostitutes.  

"Not that my father was much help either.  He was, as I mentioned, a conservative evangelical.  My father did not believe in gay marriage.  He believed homosexuality to be, if not a sin, then something inherently disordered and anti-biblical.  Indeed that was also the tone of his parish church. And so began but the very beginning of sorrows..."

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