A year after this ordeal began, we still had no church board to make decisions or provide leadership in the church. Emily Freeman Penfield was working to put together the board, which had to be approved by the cabinet. She was told that none of the people who signed the letter of complaint against the bishop would be considered. That meant that no long-time members of the church would be appointed to the board. It meant that none of the previous leadership would be appointed to the board. It meant that the people who ran our housing ministry, clothes closet, and kitchen would not be appointed to the board. It meant that the nurses who started our health clinic and worked in it every Sunday would not be appointed to the board. It meant that the founding members who had passionately built this ministry for 18 years would not be appointed to the board. Many of us had been asked to serve on the board by a previous pastor. Clearly the decision not to allow us to serve was retaliation for filing a complaint against Bishop Willimon. This was just another effort to silence us.

In the middle of the month, Emily announced that she was unable to continue as our pastor. We were told Matt Lacey would become our senior pastor. Once again, there was no consultation with the church about these changes. We were merely notified.

We filed our complaint about the disenfranchisement of our church in October. Four months later,  Bishop Gwinn dismissed our complaint against Bishop Willimon. There had been no investigation. Although Bishop Willimon was permitted to answer our complaints, we were not provided a copy of that response until we requested it following the dismissal. Not one person who signed our letter of complaint was interviewed. We did not have an opportunity to respond to Bishop Willimon’s statement. As had been the case throughout this entire ordeal, we were not heard. The Discipline was not followed. Justice was still denied.