A retired minister convicted this week in multiple cases of sexual assault has lost his position with the Anglican Church of Canada.
In an email to CTV News, Rev. T. Keith Nethery says George Ferris has been deposed from office by the Right Rev. Robert Bennett, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Huron.
“Ordained ministry is a privilege granted by Christ’s church to care for God’s people,” Bennett said in a statement.
“When that privilege is abused, it is my responsibility … to take action.”
Ferris, who ministered at churches in Cambridge, Paris, Six Nations, Walkerton and Waterloo over a lengthy career, was sentenced this week to a total of 5.5 years in prison for sexual assaults that occurred in the 1980s, when he was in Paris.
One of the cases involved Christopher Morris, then a teenager.
Morris was sexually assaulted by Ferris multiple times over a six-year period, and told by the minister to stay silent about the events.
The names of the victims in the second case are covered by a publication ban, but both were young men at the time of the incidents.
