The former rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, who was deposed in March, had been disciplined twice before a third complaint was investigated this year, according to a letter sent to the entire East Tennessee Diocese of the Episcopal Church on Monday.
In 2019, an adult member of St. Paul’s made a complaint that Brad Whitaker, then leader of the downtown church, had engaged in inappropriate digital communication with the person, according to the letter obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
“We placed Mr. Whitaker under a pastoral directive, which placed restrictions on certain aspects of his ministry,” Bishop Brian Cole said in the letter.
Cole also said that, before Whitaker became a priest in the East Tennessee diocese, he was disciplined in another diocese for other misconduct, which resulted in his ministry being suspended for three years.
“Our predecessor, Bishop Young, was aware of that discipline, and made the lay leadership of St. Paul’s Church aware of it before allowing Mr. Whitaker to be called as Rector,” Cole said in the letter. “That information was available to us at the time of the 2019 complaint. However, the elected and appointed members of our disciplinary process believed that a pastoral directive was a sufficient response.”