A married woman who was employed by Christchurch Durham (CCD) has alleged its former pastor Tony Jones told her to take maternity leave and then resign from her church role when she became pregnant, and described his influence as ‘cult-like’.
Jones, now a minister in the US, continues to face numerous accusations in relation to his leadership and the culture over which he presided during his 17 years in office, which ended in December last year. In the March issue of en, it was reported that a number of whistle-blowers wrote in May 2021 to CCD trustees expressing ‘long-held concerns’ at Jones’ ‘use of power’, alleged domineering leadership and coercion and control.
The female employee (V), who wishes to remain anonymous, was a church member for ten years and claims that, despite having a formal contract of employment, Jones allegedly told her to resign because it wasn’t appropriate for a married woman with a baby to be in ministry. Under UK law, it is unfair dismissal and unlawful discrimination to dismiss a female employee because of pregnancy.
V, whose husband was at the time another staff member, said: ‘I felt I had no option and resigned at the end of the maternity leave.’ She described how this left a significant impact on her mental health.
V also recounted: ‘My husband frequently worked all night in order to meet deadlines set by Tony.’
When en asked if they challenged Jones, V responded: ‘No, we didn’t challenge him, he was too scary and influential. He created this weird power system where you knew he would discredit you if you spoke against him, because he would discredit other people to us.’ She added that when her husband repeatedly emailed him asking for help, he never replied; nor did he agree to meet.
V described Jones’ influence as ‘very cult-like’. She alleged: ‘He was very influential and could persuade people to give large sums of money, and he had a lot of influence over who you chose to marry or what job you did.’ V said she knows of people who remortgaged their homes to support the work.
V said even her own husband was ‘given a list of suitable women in the church who he might want to choose from’, adding: ‘Tony strongly encouraged two people we knew well to marry each other, and the same is true of some other couples.’
Teaching about marriage
‘At a student conference,’ she recalls, ‘he did a talk about marriage, and at the end he said he could line up all the men and all the women, and pair them up with each other, and if they were godly then the marriage would work. He also taught some really weird things, like a wife should never say no sexually to her husband.’
The couple finally left CCD, but while she acknowledged that there were many ‘really great people’ at Christchurch, she alleged that ‘a lot of them were treated really badly by Tony’.
‘I think it’s also how a cult works’, she commented. ‘Making you fear the outside world and telling you that you’re safe inside the circle.’
Jones was curate at St Ebbes Church, Oxford from 1999 to 2003 – moving to CCD the following year.
CCD has, until now, resisted calls to commission an independent report into leadership and governance during Jones’ interim tenure. However, en understands minister the Revd Richard Rendall, a retired CoE vicar, is taking steps towards an independent review. CCD did not respond to a request for confirmation as to whether or not an independent review has yet been commissioned.
Tony Jones was approached for comment but did not respond.
