Members of the select vestry at Clane Church of Ireland parish in Co Kildare yesterday told a diocesan court that the rector Rev David Frazer had referred to another member as "a f***ing bastard".
Mr Lyndon Wiltshire McCann, counsel for 14 petitioners who initiated six charges against the Rev Frazer alleging "conduct unbecoming to the sacred office of a clergyman", said he would not repeat the terminology used, when he asked witnesses about the incident on March 4th last.
Mrs Susan Galbraith told the court, which sat at Moyglare Church, Maynooth, Co Kildare yesterday, she was in "no doubt" Rev Frazer had used the words to Mr Mervyn Black, a select vestry member. Mr Black told the court he had "no doubt whatsoever" Rev Frazer had used the phrase. He had heard Rev Frazer use such language on other occasions too. Mr Allan Nielsen confirmed he too heard Rev Frazer use the phrase on that occasion.
The court has powers to reprimand or suspend Rev Frazer, if he is found guilty. It could also refer the case to a Court of the General Synod.
In his evidence Rev Frazer said he had not uttered the phrase. "So each one of the witnesses is not telling the truth?", suggested Mr Wiltshire McCann.
"The witnesses said what they said," Rev Frazer replied. It was "not unknown" for Mr Black himself to use such language.
"He is not an ordained Minister," said Mr Wiltshire McCann.
"He is an officer of the church, and [he used it\] in a church building."
Rev Frazer agreed with Mr Wiltshire McCann such language was "inappropriate" and "wholly inappropriate for an ordained Minister of the Church of Ireland". Giving evidence on Rev Frazer's behalf, Mr William Price said he had never heard the clergyman use obscene language, "never to anybody at any time. The worst word he used was 'damn'. I use it myself quite often".
The issue of whether Rev Frazer used the phrase was the only substantial issue of fact disputed outright by both sides in the case against the clergyman being heard by the diocesan court of Meath and Kildare. It sat twice in October and again yesterday, before the diocesan chancellor Mr Peter Prentice, Dean Robert Townley of Kildare, and layman Mr Stephen Strong.
It is alleged Rev Frazer "wrongfully usurped the lawful authority" of the local select vestry by resisting its decision to erect a barrier near a church and by wrongfully refusing to allow a discussion of items at vestry meetings. It was also alleged he unnecessarily absented himself from a meeting which it was claimed he refused to validate later. It was claimed he removed a main fuse at one of the parish churches "without lawful authority . . . thereby depriving the said church of electricity" and was "guilty of conduct unbecoming to the sacred calling of a clergyman".
In this latter context it was alleged he had subjected a petitioner to "unprovoked, unwarranted, aggressive and inappropriate verbal abuse"; that he described others as "bullies" and "people with ego problems" who were "sometimes mad, sometimes bad and anything but Christian".
He had written that Bishop Richard Clarke (of Meath and Kildare) had "shown himself unwilling or unable to assist any of us in a practical, even-handed and truly caring way".
Bishop Clarke gave evidence to the trial also yesterday. (He was not subpoenaed, as reported in The Irish Times yesterday.) His exchanges with Mr Joe Revington SC, for Rev Frazer, were straitened at times.
Bishop Clarke felt Rev Frazer's criticisms of him were "hardly brave" (in that they were written to a third party). He thought them "extremely unfair". When asked about the "words" allegedly used by Rev Frazer to Mr Black he said "assuming he said them, if used in any walk of life, in school etc, he would be suspended". He found them "more distasteful than the comments about me".
He recalled the numerous meetings he had called in an attempt to solve the problems at Clane pastorally and how Rev Frazer eventually threatened him with legal action. Rev Frazer refused to meet him on the matter "again and again, as recently as last week". Both counsel presented submissions at the end of proceedings last night. Mr Prentice said the court was reserving judgment and hoped to present it within a month.
