A female priest who has devoted 14 years of her life to the Anglican Church is suing her Bishop for loss of income, after he allegedly sent a letter to her new employer in Australia, labelling her a troublemaker.
Reverend June Major, 47, has been on hunger strike since Tuesday because she wants her former employer, Bishop Garth Counsell, to explain why he sold her down the river.
According to Rev June, she went to Counsell and confided the difficulties she was facing in the “male-dominated” church.
“There are things that happened in the 14 years that prove this. A priest has tried to rape me, another to assault me and yet another has knocked over my son. None of these are my reason for striking,” she claims.
“I want him to tell me why[ he wrote that letter].”
The divorced mom of one says after a brief sabbatical last year, she found a post in Australia in December.
All she needed was a letter of commendation, which she says the Bishop promised her.
“He instead sent a letter telling the Australian Bishop that I was a troublemaker. He later denied this, but I believe he is simply trying to cover up what he did,” she says.
Based on this alleged letter, her new employers said they could no longer employ her.
June says after months of trying to contact Counsell, she went to confront him at his office, located at the Zonnebloem Primary School, on Tuesday.
When he refused to see her, she declared a hunger strike, and has since been sitting in front of the school in the freezing cold.
June sleeps in a sleeping bag under the stars at night, with cops keeping an eye over her.
“He has stripped me of an income, I have no home. All I want is for him to tell me why he has done this,” she says.
Counsell referred the Daily Voice to his attorneys, who did not respond to queries yesterday.