Last Friday, January 14th, the Anglican Church in North America announced the engagement of Husch Blackwell LLP to complete the impartial, trauma-informed, and independent investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct and of the mishandling of such allegations in the Diocese of the Upper Midwest. We look forward to Husch Blackwell’s investigation beginning soon.
Following the announcement of the third-party investigative firm, three members of the Provincial Response Team (PRT) resigned. While we are deeply saddened and surprised by their resignation and public comments, we appreciated their involvement as members of the PRT, which led to achieving our mandate of hiring a firm to undertake this investigation. All three joined the rest of the members of the PRT in voting unanimously for Husch Blackwell, along with the majority of the alleged survivors who voted.
We disagree with assertions in their resignation letter and wish they had discussed those with us before stepping down, but it would not serve the survivors or the investigative process to debate them at this time. We believe it is in the best interest of all for the Husch Blackwell investigation to proceed to its conclusion, and we remain committed to the care of survivors.
Please join us in praying for all involved.
The Provincial Response Team
Jeff Garrety
Alan Hawkins
Eric Menees
Rachel Thebeau
Albert Thompson
