ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses sexual abuse from a Presbyterian viewpoint and examines their tradition's approach to clergy sexual misconduct. Most public conversation about sexually abusive clergy has focused on Roman Catholic Church. In order to investigate, and potentially remove a pastor, a congregation must be informed that an allegation has been received. The Indigo Girls have a song that begins, 'It's one perfect world if you learn to look other way'. In congregation's unconscious, the pastor was operating as one who spoke for God, who held grace and forgiveness, knowledge and power, and who was the conduit for salvation. Immersion in clergy sexual abuse is a painful way to grow up, and it is happening on the backs of the most vulnerable, those who have been most hurt by clergy abuse. The work Catholics are doing, messy and difficult as it is, has issued a call, a command, to other denominations and faiths to join in the work for restorative justice.
