It is easy for us to talk and think as though God is not part of the equation and won’t show up for us or be near us. But he is always with us and always ready to enter into our pain, confusion, frustration, fear, loneliness, anger, shame, uncertainty, etc. Talk with each other like God is in the room too.

Before coming to church or community group, prayer meeting, bible studies, etc. consider taking 5 minutes to pray and prepare your heart, asking God to make you sensitive to how he would lead and careful with your words and actions. This helps us keep God in view when we spend time together.

Don’t assume someone is ready or willing to talk about the topic. It can be very helpful to just ask, before speaking about the situation, if someone is open to talking about it. Maybe they will be, maybe they won’t. Maybe they can listen to you share, but will not be ready to share themselves. Asking permission helps create space for each other when we need it.

We will all make mistakes in how we talk about this with each other. We will inevitably hurt or offend someone (intentionally or unintentionally). Let’s expect that we will make mistakes and do our best to be quick to ask forgiveness and quick to offer it. If we can expect that 5-10% of the time we will make mistakes or offend, those mistakes and offenses can become less of a thing we feel like condemns us or means we’ve failed and more like something that, by grace, we can come back from.

It is easy for us to prioritize having the exact right ‘view’ on how to process or respond to this. We can focus on being ‘right’ rather than on loving the person standing in front of us – who is equally made in the image of God, equally loved by God and equally redeemed and promised grace. Instead, let’s prioritize love and our relationship to each other as we walk in the uncertainty.

Have a curiosity for understanding what someone is communicating, rather than moving towards evaluating what they say first if you don’t think you agree. The more we can try to genuinely listen to and understand the other person, the better able we’ll be to prioritize relationship.

We would encourage everyone not to speculate on what they think may or may not have happened as well as to not speculate about the identity of the victim or victim’s family and to refrain from discussing that with others. While it is hard not to be curious, it is right and good to let our minds be quiet before the Lord and entrust him with the knowledge we do not have.

• Congregants who would like to ask questions or express concerns should contact Pastor Drake or our Children’s Ministry Director Dana Russell.

• If you believe that you have information pertinent to this case, you should contact the Cambridge Police Department and the third party firm or Pastor Drake. It is important to do both as we will be conducting our own investigation to pursue justice in the church sphere. Once we get information on a third party investigator, we will share that with you.

• If you are a victim of abuse and are ready to speak with someone, please contact either Pastor Drake or Dana Russell, and we will get you in touch with a victim advocate who can speak with you, and walk with you at your comfort level.

  • We strongly encourage you or your caregiver to also contact the Cambridge Police.

  • If we receive a report of the abuse of a minor, we are mandated by Massachusetts law to report to DCF and the Police.

• Members of the media should contact Pastor Travis Drake.

This is the Christ the King Child Protection Policy currently in place to promote the safety of the children of the church.

As shared with the congregation, we deferred to the request of the Cambridge Police at the outset of the case not to make public statements to avoid jeopardizing the early stages of their investigation. When it became clear from their communication with us that a public statement would no longer jeopardize the police investigation, we disclosed as soon as possible, as we felt a responsibility and conviction to be honest, open, and transparent about what has been reported to us. Disclosing as soon as possible is a recommended best practice in such situations.

To conduct a reasonable investigation, it is important to seek information from those who might have relevant information to share regarding the case which might otherwise go unheard. We welcome testimony and evidence whether it supports either party involved and are committed to pursuing justice based on where this evidence leads. If we did not provide enough details, it becomes significantly more challenging for people to narrow the scope of their memory and to provide relevant information. Additionally, we couldn’t limit this disclosure to only the current community at CTK Cambridge since the alleged activities happened nine to eleven years ago. Many people have moved on from CTK since that time. We did not want to close off a large body of people who may have information that would help bring clarity to the church’s investigation.

We are committed to doing an appropriate, thorough investigation. To the best of our understanding, that requires making this disclosure broadly available to our current and past church community. We understand this to be a regular, best practice in church responses to an allegation of this nature. It is our policy to evaluate all allegations of abuse, to investigate, and when appropriate to disclose a credible allegation of abuse as we conduct the investigation.

Based on the guidance we have received from experts in these types of cases, it is important to include specific details in our disclosure, both to the congregation and in a place where those who have moved on from our congregation can find those details and go back through their own memory to help provide information that will help us bring this case to a conclusion. Specificity, including both the name of the accused, the age range of the child, and timeline of the events, gives those who may have important information the ability to identify relevant information they might know related to those people and events.

We used a careful process of review and collaboration with experts that have experience in these types of cases, the reporting victim and family, and the CTK Cambridge Session. We used the wisdom of our expert team to help discern what language was important, helpful, sensitive and wise to include. We understand that some of the language used in our statement may not be familiar to you (e.g. see credible definition in the next question), or may be read differently from what it was intended to communicate (e.g., that the Session has already come to a conclusion on the case, which we have not). We would be glad to help provide clarity wherever we can. To that end, we recommend our denomination’s report on domestic and sexual abuse (section five) and the book, Becoming A Church that Cares Well for the Abused, as helpful context.

Massachusetts law mandates church leadership to report allegations of child abuse when there is reason to suspect abuse may have occurred. Reason to suspect requires some basis that the allegation may be credible. Credibility here means that the allegation is not fanciful, not known to be false, but there is some quality that renders the allegation worthy of belief justifying further consideration. A report is credible when the source, nature and information provided point toward a basis to suspect the truth of the allegation and that it is not demonstrably false. A credible report in this respect warrants further investigation.

In our form of church government, there is a clear distinction and separation between the authority, responsibilities, and standards of the civil authority (i.e. the police and court system) and those of the church. The Book of Church Order (“BCO”) is the document that all PCA churches use as a standard for practice. Chapter 11 of the BCO describes in detail the “Jurisdiction of Church Courts” and distinctions with the civil authorities (11-1). The church’s courts are “altogether distinct from the civil magistracy, and have no jurisdiction in political or civil affairs. They have no power to inflict temporal pains and penalties, but their authority is in all respects moral or spiritual.” This simply means that the investigations by the church and by the police are being done for different reasons. The church is bound to moral and spiritual standards while the police are bound by civil legal standards.

In its exercise of care for the church, the church Session has the duty to look into questions concerning the Christian character of the person accused of abuse and to determine whether there is a “strong presumption of guilt” to those allegations (BCO 31-2). If there is, the church is required to institute its own judicial process.

At times the civil and church investigations may run in parallel, overlap or diverge. Both of these investigations are necessary. The Church has the duty to render judgment on spiritual and moral matters even when the state does not proceed with a criminal charge.

The church must follow a process defined in our denomination’s procedural rules. As noted above, chapter 31 of the BCO establishes this process. BCO 31-2 requires the church Session to investigate any report involving the Christian character of one of our church members. To that end, the Session has established a committee to lead the investigation. To assist with the investigation, the church has established a relationship with a qualified third-party investigator, Guidepost Solutions, to provide a safe, trauma-informed place for witnesses, potential victims, and any relevant information to be brought. If you have information to share with them, you can contact them at CTK@Guidepostsolutions.com.

The Session placed Amanda on paid, indefinite, administrative leave from her staff position for two primary reasons: 1) a concern of fairness to her, since the public nature of the investigation and her relationship to the accused would make her normal Sunday activities especially difficult and burdensome; and 2) a concern that given her relationship as the wife of the accused, Amanda’s role leading worship on stage on Sundays will present difficulties for the congregation in worship. This was in no way a punitive action. We are very grateful for Amanda’s gifts and long standing service with the church. We genuinely grieve this necessity, but acknowledge it is what we need to do for the duration of our initial investigation.