Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastWhen a married pastor going through a period of “deep anguish and despair” told a fellow clergyman he needed to confess a sin, he twice asked for, and says he received, an iron-clad guarantee of absolute confidence.But after Rev. Anthony H.T. Stephens admitted to having had an inappropriate relationship with a former congregant, the revelation promptly made its way to the presiding bishop, who contacted Stephens’ wife (also a Lutheran minister) a
When a potentially ruinous secret was divulged to his wife, it “was like the sacraments turning poison,” Rev. Anthony H.T. Stephens told The Daily Beast.
Defrocked Lutheran pastor Rev. Anthony H Stephens is suing the church for $1.5 million after he lost his job when he confided in a colleague about an affair with a congregant who then told his wife.
Since their former Pastor Darren Paulson resigned last September as the COVID-19 pandemic raged into its second year, congregants of Atonement Lutheran Church in Billing Heights, Montana, have been waiting patiently for their local synod to replace him.