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The charge relates to the sexual abuse of a member of Dyck's youth group between 1975 and 1981, when the girl was between 16 and 21 years old. Dyck, now 52, was a gifted and dynamic youth worker who had built the Scott Street youth group into one of the largest and most vibrant MB youth groups in the country, having a positive impact on many young people beyond the Scott Street congregation. He had led his teenaged victim to faith in Christ, became her trusted counsellor and friend and then sexually abused her.
Apparently, no one else at the time knew of the sexual relationship, not even Dyck's wife. Some church leaders had questioned Dyck about the amount of time he was spending with the teen, but he apparently convinced them that she needed the extra spiritual counsel.
The abuse only became known over the last couple of years. Dyck had transferred to Westview Christian Fellowship shortly after that church was planted in 1988. There he served as elder, care group leader and occasional lay preacher. However, for the last year or so, he has been removed from all church positions and has been under church discipline for a variety of unrelated matters. In the course of the church working with him, he admitted that years earlier he had had "an affair", but did not mention that the "affair" had been with a member of the youth group for whom he was responsible.
The victim meanwhile had married in 1982 and was still a member of Scott Street, although she seemed to have become inactive for reasons the Scott Street leadership could not determine. She had only recently begun to seek help. After she had been in counselling for several months, she learned of Dyck's admission to his own church. Consequently, she went to the Scott Street leadership in December, 1994 and told them she had been raped and abused. At her request, they shared a statement describing the abuse with the Scott Street congregation in February, 1995; both the victim and Dyck had approved the statement ahead of time. The leadership of the Scott Street and Westview churches also called in the Ontario MB Conference's Sexual Abuse Response Team, which gave valuable counsel.
When the Scott Street leadership informed the Westview leadership of the woman's identity and age, raising the issue of pastoral sexual abuse, the Westview leadership contacted police to seek advice and to discover its legal obligations. They were told that since the teen had not been a minor at the time, the church had no legal obligation to report the matter; it was up to the victim to do so. Eventually she decided to press charges. In September, 1995, Dyck was charged with rape, rape with consent obtained by fraudulent means and sexual assault.
The sexual assault refers to touching and fondling that began after a youth retreat in August, 1975. The rape charges refer to various incidents of sexual exploitation, the first of which occurred in October, 1975 in a parking lot at McFarland Park. "Fraudulent means" means that Dyck used his power as her youth sponsor and spiritual mentor to manipulate the teen. When she questioned what he was doing, he assured her that it was all right and that this was "Christ's love He has given me for you". The teen says she was naive and didn't even know what intercourse was until the first rape occurred. When she said that she would tell what was going on, she was told in a threatening voice not to tell anyone.
Dyck insists that the teen had agreed to have sex, and the case would have been difficult to prove. The Westview leadership convinced Dyck that he had abused his position as youth sponsor to take advantage of the young woman. He agreed to plead guilty to the charge of sexual assault, and the prosecutor dropped the other two charges.
On April 2, 1996, Dyck was sentenced to 60 days in jail, was placed on probation for three years and was ordered to have no contact with the victim. Dyck had been a long-time elementary school teacher. When the charges were laid last fall, he was assigned to non-classroom duties. He has now been given a two-year leave of absence without pay and will be given early retirement when he turns 55.
Dyck is still a member of Westview, though under church discipline, and so far he has cooperated with the counselling and disciplining process, which is expected to last indefinitely. He has also been in professional therapy. Still to come is direct processing of the matter between Dyck and Scott Street. Dyck has already confessed once to the Westview congregation, but further processing is planned.
The Scott Street Church set up a support group to seek and counsel other victims, but none have come forward. Nevertheless, the group operated for several months, assisting people who had been deeply touched by Dyck's ministry and had been "blown away" by the revelations.
Scott Street has provided some financial assistance for the victim's counselling, and some friends from the church are providing strong emotional support. She has expressed her gratitude for the church's handling of the situation, but is still in the long process of healing.
Dyck had been a member of the planning committee for several Canadian MB Conference triennial youth conventions in Banff. However, he quickly resigned from the planning committee for the most recent Banff when the abuse became known in January, 1995. Dyck was also an occasional preacher in churches other than his home congregation.
The leadership of the Scott Street and Westview congregations have been in frequent contact and have cooperated well in handling this matter. However, the situation has caused some tension between the two congregations, with some people in Scott Street feeling that Westview could have dealt more severely with Dyck.
Looking back, in many ways this seems a typical case of abuse. There is a victim who was vulnerable and who feared, perhaps rightly, that she would not have been believed or would have been blamed if she had raised the issue earlier. There was also an abuser, whom no one suspected of sexual abuse but who was seen to have a tendency to be controlling; he was apparently able to fool other church leaders with the same skill with which he misled the victim.
While no church leaders could be accused of covering up this case of abuse, both Vic Loewen, Scott Street associate pastor, and Thom Braun, Westview senior pastor, say that church leaders need to be more discerning. "We need to be far more thorough in asking specific questions," Loewen says.
Loewen adds, "One of the things we have not grappled with is the difference between male and female personality": Men can compartmentalize (as Dyck put his church work in one category and his sexual sin in another), whereas women try to integrate things even when they are incompatible. Hence the recovery for the victim has been very traumatic, whereas Dyck reports personal forgiveness and a renewed relationship with God. Men also have trouble understanding why a woman would remain in a relationship in which she is being abused and why a woman can't just deal with the situation and get on with life. Loewen suggests that male church leaders would have benefitted greatly from the advice of women leaders in this case.
Loewen also suggests that Dyck was probably not a deliberate hypocrite from the beginning. "Ed's motives may have been sincere when he started, but he was seduced by his own power."
Braun observes, "Something was not right, but we couldn't nail it down. God in His mercy did not let Ed continue that way. He exposed Ed's sin so it could be dealt with." Braun confesses that the Westview leadership does not have all the answers. Ironically, the Westview congregation, which in this case is dealing with the abuser, has also had a strong ministry to victims of sexual abuse. Braun points out that there are several former victims in his congregation who have been healed of the pain and are living happy and healthy lives: "Christ can forgive and heal all sins."
JC
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