Tony Jones, the former pastor of Christchurch Durham (CCD) and his fellow trustees are still refusing to respond fully to alleged abuses of power, despite new accusations – including around financial pressure.
A former trustee and elder (‘E’), who wished to remain anonymous, told en he felt ‘coerced’ by Jones into remortgaging his house to contribute more financially to CCD.
He said: ‘His teaching on giving was very forceful.’ E explained that Jones – who left CCD in December to pastor a church in the US – told him and his fellow elders that ‘they had an additional responsibility to give greater than others in the congregation, and that if necessary we should mortgage our homes to do so – which I did’.
He said he felt ‘obligated’ to do so. ‘I felt coerced’, he added. And when he later lost his secular job, he ended up in large financial difficulties as a result. ‘This,’ said E, ‘was one of my personal breaking points.’
The charges come in the wake of numerous accusations of abusive leadership and a culture of fear at the independent Anglican church, which has led to a raft of leadership resignations.
E was a trustee at CCD for almost a decade. He formally raised concerns about abusive leadership and financial coercion in May last year in a letter written jointly with other former trustees and elders to the then chair of the Council of Reference, the late Melvin Tinker
They were prompted after recognising ‘strong parallels’ with the abusive cultures set out in the thirtyone:eight reports into Jonathan Fletcher (an Oxford connection of Jones) and the Crowded House, Sheffield.
Both E and one of the other letter authors ‘P’ (who also wishes to remain anonymous), were elders at the time Jones became pastor in 2004. E admitted to being personally grieved because ‘we were quite naïve as elders. We didn’t put the checks and balances in that we should have done’.
A former CCD student told E of ‘secret meetings with male students who, more often than not, came exclusively from wealthy privately educated families’.
This student also purportedly told E that ‘the same favouritism was shown in the students chosen by Tony for the ministry training scheme – shuffling those who did not fit his mould to other working-class churches’.
The student also said Jones preached that if your parents were wealthy and Christian they had an obligation to give generously to CCD. He also allegedly taught that students receiving generous financial support from their parents should be handing significant proportions of it to CCD; and if their parents had an issue with this, they could no longer accept further financial support from them.
E said the student left the church partly because of their financial concerns and the lack of transparency.
He also spoke of a culture of a ‘very strong male dominance’ and of heavy shepherding. What he described as ‘very good ministry’ in the early days ‘become graceless’ and ‘depressing’, but he acknowledged there has been ‘tremendous blessing’ with many students coming to Christ.
In their letter, the authors cited ‘long-running issues’ ranging from a culture of control and coercion; lack of truthfulness and transparency; manipulation; partiality; poor treatment of staff; and harsh teaching.
E also told en about his concerns of a potential financial conflict of interests, alleging that Jones and his parents had bought a number of properties in Durham and rented them out to church workers and associates – personally receiving the rental income. When he raised the issue with the treasurer, he was told it was all ok in terms of charity law.
However, other CCD members were allegedly not allowed to advertise their own rental properties to students in the church or to rent them to church employees.
P, a trustee at CCD from 2003 to 2016, said that despite CCD seeing numerical growth, she had seen the leadership ‘become increasingly controlling and domineering’. She raised concerns directly with Jones, yet ‘saw little change’.
E described Jones’ reaction to being challenged: ‘He was always ever so polite. But if you didn’t agree with him [the issue] was absolutely blanked. ‘
Things came to a head when he challenged Jones over a doctrinal issue. At an elders’ meeting, Jones reportedly said: ‘I do not see you as people I’m accountable to. I’m only accountable to God. You are only older men I seek advice from.’ He said at that point he realised his role at CCD was ‘not as a true Biblical elder’ and resigned.
He finally resigned as a trustee when Jones placed him on a list of people intending to join a church plant – without being consulted. After E expressed ‘grave concerns about Tony’s leadership style’, Jones met with him and accused him of showing a ‘lack of loyalty’ and that he could not be trusted to remain as a trustee.
He was asked to resign as a trustee with immediate effect. E told en of the personal impact: ‘My Christian life suffered terribly; Tony rarely spoke to me for the remaining three years until we left in 2016 and joined another church plant.’
His view is that the trustees’ actions since they received the letters from 15 complainants is ‘truly appalling. We’ve not been listened to [by them]’.
‘All we want is an independent inquiry’, he said.
Martin Morrison, the bishop with oversight of CCD who resigned when the trustees rejected his advice to commission an independent inquiry, told en: ‘[Melvin Tinker and I] were informed by Tony and the trustees that most of the complainants had an unfortunate and complex history with [them]… This history was explained by Tony in such a way as to largely discredit the complaint, and the complainant.’
He added that ‘the cumulative weight of the allegations made it quite clear to me that an independent review was needed to hear both sides of the story and thus be able to objectively assess the situation’.
The trustees have continued to resist calls for an independent review.
When they got wind of an online petition demanding an independent review (this was signed by 167 people and sent to the trustees in November 2021), the trustees told the church congregation that ‘independent mediation’ had been offered. However, complainants requested clarification as to whom the trustees' proposed mediation would be with. We understand they have not yet been told and that complainants rejected mediation as it was considered inappropriate.
The trustees also said they have ‘engaged external scrutiny of our governance structures’ through an independent charity practitioner, whose identity has allegedly not been disclosed.
They added that the church council would carry out a ‘cultural review seeking external input as required’ – suggesting that such a review would not be fully independent.
The online petition was created by Daniel and Sarah Roe, former CCD members. Daniel Roe told en: ‘There’s a narrative that’s quite powerful… Tony has said before that CCD is the only faithful church in the North East.’
Following our initial story published in the March issue of en, the trustees contacted church members and inferred that ‘discussions as a church’ were ongoing.
Neither Jones nor the remaining trustees who worked alongside Jones have responded to en’s repeated requests for comment.
