The pastor of one of Canada’s largest churches was forced to resign after an independent investigation found evidence of his sexual misconduct.
Bruxy Cavey, who grew The Meeting House into a megachurch with some 5,000 people attending 19 campuses in the larger Toronto metropolitan area, was accused of sexual misconduct by a woman who reported it to the church’s Overseers Board, or board of directors, in December.
“Having carefully reviewed the investigator’s report, our Board unanimously decided to ask Bruxy to resign from his role at The Meeting House effective immediately,” Maggie John, chair of the Overseers Board, wrote in an email to church members on Monday. “Bruxy then submitted his resignation on March 3rd which the Overseers accepted.”
Bruxy Cavey in a 2021 video. PICTURE: Video screen grab
Also on Monday, a teaching pastor at the church, Danielle Strickland, tweeted that she was resigning “in solidarity with the victim of abuse.”
The church plans to hold a town hall meeting at 7pm on Tuesday and will provide members more information on the investigation and its results. Spokesperson Katie Double said a public statement would follow.
“It’s important for us to communicate with our church family first,” she said.
With his long hair and tattoos, Cavey is one of Canada’s most recognisable church leaders. He became the senior pastor of Upper Oaks Community Church in 1997, later changing its name to The Meeting House. The church grew exponentially as it sought to appeal to people alienated from Christianity and church traditions.
Cavey has taught widely at US seminaries and universities, including Messiah University and Fresno Pacific University Biblical Seminary. He is the author of a popular book, The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus.
In 2019, he became the subject of a book, The Subversive Evangelical: The Ironic Charisma of an Irreligious Megachurch by Peter J Schuurman.
In the book, Schuurman writes that Cavey cultivates an identity as leading an “irreligious” megachurch and provides followers with “a more culturally acceptable way to practice their faith in a secular age.”
The church affiliates with Be In Christ, a small Anabaptist denomination, formerly known as Brethren in Christ Canada, which is committed to peace and nonviolence. The denomination is evangelical in its teachings.
