Anthony Stephens, a married former pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Croton-on-Hudson who is also a licensed mental health counselor and attorney, has filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after he was defrocked following what he argues is a protected confession of infidelity to a colleague minister.
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.