Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Belleville minister: Former church wants to 'destroy' him

BELLEVILLE -- The Rev. Dale Coleman, who has quietly led St. George's Episcopal Church in Belleville for two years, believes there are people at his former church in New Mexico "who want to destroy me."

He said that a vendetta has followed him to Belleville that started over ideological differences involving homosexuals in the church but escalated into a series of personal attacks that he still faces in court, including that the married minister improperly spent church money on a girlfriend.

Coleman opened himself up to scrutiny by his former church by filing a lawsuit to force the church to pay $40,000 left unpaid on a $115,000 severance agreement.

Last month, lawyers for the Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, N.M., accused Coleman of financial misconduct, immorality and adultery in legal documents, stating Coleman misled the church's governing body and wasn't entitled to the remaining part of the severance agreement Coleman reached with the church. Coleman filed suit against Holy Faith in August for breach of contact for failing to pay the full severance.

Coleman denied any wrongdoing at his previous job and stated that the employee was a close friend but was never his lover.

Coleman, in an interview with the News-Democrat, said he became a target because of his position that the church did not have the authority to sanction gay marriage and ordination, but he said, "I had a reputation as being very welcoming. They are God's children."

That position, he said, was an underlying issue that helped drive him out of Holy Faith, the oldest Episcopal church in New Mexico. He called the pressure his opponents used to get him to leave the church "psychological warfare."

The church answered the lawsuit by accusing Coleman of misappropriation of church funds and getting $60,000 from a church parishioner under false pretenses. It also specifically accuses Coleman of using a church American Express Card to charge $1,000 a month on lunches, including many with a church employee they say was his girlfriend, and other personal expenses, such as prescription medicine and books.

An attorney for Holy Faith declined comment for this story.

Several audits of his expenses were conducted at the request of Holy Faith officials, Coleman said.

"They went through every scrap of paper. I was exonerated," he said.

Bishop Peter Beckwith -- who leads the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield, which covers 60 Southern Illinois counties, including the metro-east -- said a selection committee at St. George's investigated the accusations and found no basis for them. And the fact that the former Sante Fe church administrator whom Coleman was accused of having an affair with divorced her husband and moved to Belleville is not evidence of a romantic relationship, Beckwith said.

"He has my support. Absolutely," Beckwith said. "There was no evidence. For me, the information that I have seen, there were a lot of rumors but there was nothing to substantiate anything."

Beckwith gave his support to a position in Belleville for the embattled minister after a St. George's selection committee asked that he head its congregation of about 350 parishioners. Coleman resigned from Holy Faith in May 2007.

Months before he left Holy Faith, Coleman, 55, divorced his wife of 29 years. His ex-wife still resides in New Mexico and remains a Holy Faith member, Coleman said. The former church administrator who followed him to Belleville does not work at St. George's but rather works as an administrator in another denomination's regional office.

Holy Faith should not have cut off his former wife's share -- 54 percent -- of the overall $115,000 severance payment, Coleman said.

"They should have paid her. I think that what angers me the most," he said.

Coleman said he did accept $60,000 from the parishioner, whom he described as a good friend to whom he went for financial advice regarding credit card debts and federal tax obligations. He said the friend instead offered the cash.

Holy Faith's lawyers contend in court documents that when the parishioner asked Coleman whether he was having trouble with his marriage, he answered "no." The complaint contends that wasn't truthful because of the alleged affair with the church administrator.

But Coleman insists neither was true. "The subject of marriage never came up," he said.

While Coleman initially declined to answer questions for reporters about whether he has repaid the $60,000, he eventually said that he repaid $1,500. But, during a second interview, he said the wealthy parishioner would not accept any repayment. Coleman said that the money was a gift and that no federal taxes were due on it.

Coleman said he had done nothing wrong, and the rumor of wrongdoing has continued because of jealous former colleagues in New Mexico. He spent Tuesday poring over documents that cluttered his desk, including bills, diaries and computer records, which he must produce to Holy Faith under the rules of discovery in the lawsuit he filed.

"They don't really have anything, so they say, 'We'll ask for everything.' It's just a fishing expedition," Coleman said.

"If they had anything, I wouldn't be wearing this," he said, pointing to his clerical collar. "I'd be behind bars."